2019-05-01+PC+Gamer

Inthegame’salternate1999,people

climb into bed at night, snap on a

high-tech headband, and drift into

Hypnospace. This garish low-res

internet, inspired by the digital

shanty towns of GeoCities, is fully

realised. There are

hundreds of pages to

click around, split into

zones that reflect the

personalities of their

eccentric creators. In

Teentopia you’ll find

edgy teenagers, nu

metal, and drama. In

Open Eyed, new age

spiritualists and conspiracy theorists.

It’s a brilliantly observed snapshot of

the primordial web.

You are an Enforcer hired by the

creator of Hypnospace, Merchantsoft,

to locate and destroy objectionable

content. This could be copyright

infringement, harassment, or

malicious software. And when you

find something that breaks the rules

you click on the gavel at the top of

your browser, then on the offending

article, and watch as it’s scrubbed

from the internet. In return you

receiveabountyofHypnoCoins–a

currency used to buy software,

desktop wallpapers, virtual pets,

screensavers, and other frippery to

personalise your OS.

But it becomes clear after a few

cases that you are not a

force for good, and

have been weaponised

by Merchantsoft to

ruthlessly censor and

control the web. An

early case sees you

removing cute kids’

drawings from a

teacher’s website

because they contain a copyrighted

image of a cartoon character.

Bringing the gavel down on these

harmless doodles was genuinely

difficult, and the sound of

HypnoCoins tinkling into my virtual

wallet, my 30 pieces of silver, only

made me feel worse.

Later cases are much more

involved, and Hypnospace Outlaw

reveals itself to be a surprisingly

challenging puzzle game. Tasks

include busting an illegal file-sharing

ring and infiltrating a hacker

collective,anddoing so requires some

genuinedetective work. You use a

searchengineto trawl the web for

unlistedpages, secret communities,

andpasswords, and I had to have a

notebookonhand to keep track of

importantnames and keywords.

WhenIcracked a case using my own

imaginationand ingenuity, it felt

massively rewarding because I knew

I’d done all the legwork myself. Even

so, the guilt of working for The Man

is hard to shake.

Computer Love

The HypnOS interface holds

everything together well, being a fully

functional operating system in its

own right. You can drag icons around

the desktop, download and open

documents, listen to audio files in a

WinAmp-style media player, and

even change your screensaver. It’s

also possible to contract viruses.

It all feels nicely clicky and tactile,

although it can get a little confusing

when you have a lot of windows open

simultaneously. I also found the slow

loading times, as authentic as they

are, a little frustrating when trying to

navigate quickly between pages. You

can waggle the mouse cursor to make

the page furniture pop in more

quickly, which is a cute idea, but the

novelty wore off pretty quickly.

Those criticisms aside,

Hypnospace Outlaw is, rather

unexpectedly, one of the best

detective games on PC. Its puzzles

are layered and complex, but never

unfair.Itrespectsyouenoughtolet

youfigurethingsoutatyourown

pace,andwithalmostnohand-

holding.Butifyoudohitawall

there’sawell-designedhintsystem.

Itsinternetisajoyousexplosionof

art,music,creativity,andweirdness,

andapleasuretoexplore.

NeedtoKNow

Whatisit?

Anostalgic

internetadventure

EXPECttOPaY

£15

DEvElOPEr

Tendershoot

PublishEr

NoMoreRobots

rEviEWEDOn

GTX 1080, Intel

i5-6600K,16GBRAM

MultiPlaYEr

None

link

hypnospace.net

81

Asatisfyingdetective

adventurebased

aroundaweirdand

wonderfullyimaginative

retrointernet.

vErDiCt

It’s a brilliantly

observed

snapshot

of the

primordial web

O

nce upon a time the internet was something you went on

rather than something that was always there. It was a thing

you’d occasionally enjoy, usually in the evenings when it was

cheaper; not a fibre optic thread running through every

facet of your existence. And Hypnospace Outlaw, a

cyber-detective adventure set within a fictional computer operating

system, is a nostalgic return to this Old Internet.

MODEM LOVERS

Policetheinternetofthepastin

HypNospaceoutlaw. By Andy Kelly

ZoNed out Places to call home in Hypnospace

Goodtime Valley

Do you miss the good old

days, when everything was

fields and you could leave

your doors unlocked?

Welcome home.

teeNtopia

A hangout for sulky teens.

If you’re into emo music

and unnecessary drama,

this is the Hypnospace

zone for you.

coolpuNK

paradise

A trendy subculture

that may or may not have

been manufactured by a

soda company.

Disclaimer:

PC Gamer columnist Xalavier Nelson Jr. is a writer on

Hypnospace Outlaw

.

opeNeyed

A zone for all the truth

seekers. UFOs, conspiracy

theories, new age

weirdness, and a generous

helping of paranoia.

Hypnospace Outlaw

rEviEW