“Hypnospace Outlaw” reminded me somewhat of “Her Story” in its principle. You carry out what is basically detective work, starting with minimal information and gradually learning more to push forward your investigation, often using tags or keywords. There are more tools available in “Hypnospace Outlaw”, and they work very well within the central theme of the game, which is the early days of the Internet. If you’re a millennial or older then there’s a good chance you will be hit by a wave of nostalgia looking at the pages, essentially personal blogs, available through HypnOS. The devs clearly put a lot of work into recreating the feel of the late 90’s Internet, where it was still kind of a Wild West, moments before the corporations and start-ups alike realized the monetary potential within the world wide web. The collection of teenage wannabe hackers, middle aged nerds with tragic pasts, forgotten rock stars attempting to relive their glory days, teenage bullies, awkward online relationships, religious zealots - Hypnospace feels like it could’ve been a real place and simply browsing through the pages gives immense joy, plus there are plenty of options for customizing your OS. And the original songs are just the icing on the cake.

The actual gameplay loop is satisfying, as - not unlike aforementioned “Her Story” - it will make you feel smart by breaking each case. One complaint I have is that towards the end of the story some of the steps required to progress are a little too obscure and spoil the fun a bit. Otherwise, for the nostalgia hit alone I’d definitely recommend the game to anyone who even vaguely remembers those days.