Hypnospace Outlaw is the work of designer Jay Tholen and developer Tendershoot. Released in March 2019 for PC and Mac, it has won numerous indie gaming awards. This adventure title is best known for its unusual satirical topics.
Hypnospace Outlaw’s premise is that a fictional company has created a version of the internet that you can use in your sleep. This is not the modern web either. Instead, gamers will know it if they navigated in the late 90’s and early 00’s. It’s a parody of the internet when the favorite social media service was MySpace.
Many games have tried to make fun of Internet culture, especially in recent times. Still, too many miss the mark of humor and fall flat despite good gameplay. Does Hypnospace Outlaw live up to the hype and make you laugh?
It is funny?
In this alternate timeline from 1999, you take on the role of an Enforcer for the Merchantsoft company. This group is responsible for creating Hypnospace, which users strap on at night when they go to bed. As the Enforcer, players are tasked with erasing all questionable content from this bizarre GeoCities-inspired Internet. Such content may include viruses, copyright infringement or even harassment.
Browsing the Internet as a game may not seem like an exciting thing to do. However, Hypnospace Outlaw makes the experience worthwhile thanks to the quirky and hilarious websites you find. Online stores, communities and other pages are filled with interesting and compelling content. Much of it takes a satirical look at the type of content you can see on the web. Sometimes the sites might strike a little close to home, reminding you of what the internet really was like in the late 1990s.
Traveling in the Hypnospace reveals how much work went into creating every single page you visit. Not only are they interesting, but they’re also really fun. I laughed out loud several times as I made my way through this version of the internet. It’s unique in terms of the games I’ve played in that the parody and humor land consistently. This prompts you to want to find out more and drop further down the rabbit hole.
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