o fato de que eu tive que procurar no google como desinstalar essa desgraça desse professor helper (e arrumar urgente um antivírus) do mesmo jeito que eu tive que pesquisar desesperado como desinstalar o hao123 e essas coisas porque tava ENCHENDO de anúncio porn* no meu navegador aos 8 anos me vendeu MUITO isso aqui.

e essa parte final toda melancólica também é muito foda???? replicaram perfeitamente essa vibe de tentar voltar pra lugares da internet que sentimos falta e gostaríamos de voltar quando bate a nostalgia.

acho que eram tempos melhores mesmo...

Seriously, what's with your obsession with messing with people's fun in Hypnospace Outlaw? You're like the ultimate troll, lurking in the digital shadows with nothing better to do than ruin someone's good time. And your choice of character? It's like you're trying to be the epitome of cringe. Can't you take a hint from Cakey and me? We may not always see eye to eye, but at least we're not trying to be the embodiment of every negative stereotype out there. Seriously, rethink your life choices, buddy

Score: 8/10

This is one of those games that are more of an "experience" than a "game". Though unlike its contemporaries in the "experiences" genre, this game doesn't feel the need to be pretentious with its artistry. It just is. It is a love letter, expose, and a walk down memory lane of a time lost to us; the Wild West of the internet. It presents you with a nonsensical peripheral, nonsensical OS, nonsensical applications, web-pages, and a non-sensical moderator job. Just... if a stone was un-turned, a blade of grass un-stepped, or fly un-killed in our current timeline, there is an uncanniness to how probable, how sensible, that any of what Hypnospace Outlaw presents could've been real. It's like staring at your reflection in a funhouse mirror. It's a satire of you, but it holds the entire reality of what you are (or were in the case of this game) within that reflection.

tldr; God I miss GeoCities.

Going into this, I assumed Hypnospace Outlaw would more or less be a quirky 90s internet simulator, and it is that—but it's also much more. At the risk of sounding really pretentious, it's kind of a tribute to the internet, regardless of the time period, in all its best and worst forms. For every troll or hacker dweeb with a holier-than-thou attitude, there are just regular, passionate folks that are sharing their hobbies online. For all the games and media in general that try, and sometimes fail, to appropriately capture internet culture or modern culture in general, Hypnospace Outlaw doesn't feel out of touch at all, presumably since it harkens back to a simpler time when the web was this hot new thing with a relatively miniscule install base (at least compared to today).

Now, of course, you could be cynical about Hypnospace and claim that its just capitalizing on nostalgia and has no substance or value for people who weren't on the ground floor of the pre-Y2K fervour it depicts. That said, as someone born in 1997, I could fully get on board with the cosy, charming, and somewhat naïve world wide web that Hypnospace is recapturing. I suppose since the game takes place in a fictional version of the early internet and you play as a newcomer to it, that does help bridge that gap for people like myself. However, the point is that I had no qualms getting on board with the version of the web that Hypnospace Outlaw is selling.

The writing across the board is great, balancing heaps of silly with the occasional serious tones (depending on what sites you're visiting) without it coming across as jarring at all. As you explore the web and act as a firm but fair administrator for its users (and more so for the corporation running it), a mystery narrative also starts to develop that becomes really engaging and kind of takes it beyond the fun, quirky game that it seems from the outset.

The culmination of this mystery is decent enough but perhaps not as dramatic as some may be expecting, although, given the jovial, wacky writing and presentation of the rest of the game, perhaps making it too dramatic and dire would have betrayed the overall feel that Hypnospace Outlaw goes for as a playful examination and time capsule of early internet culture.

Really, my only big complaint is that some of the cases you're handed down by your bosses can have really abstract solutions and unless you've really been paying attention to every detail of every site you visit, you may need to consult a guide once or twice. However, of course, your mileage may vary there.

Even with those quibbles, Hypnospace Outlaw is such a spectacular treat in every way a video game or piece of media can be, whether you're intimately familiar with the pre-Y2K internet or not and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

10/10