Hypnospace Outlaw's investigative puzzles transport you back in time to the 90s internet

If time travel never becomes a reality, Hypnospace Outlaw might be the closest thing we ever get. Plenty of games lean heavily on nostalgia, evoking feelings of days gone by, yet I've never quite been as thoroughly transported as I was when booting up HypnOS for the first time. As soon as I locked eyes with the X button in the top right-hand corner of the in-game dialogue boxes (an angry-looking blocky beast rather than the slim, minimalist one we have now), I knew I was in the 90s. 

And that's partly why Hypnospace Outlaw has a stronger immersive quality than most nostalgia-inducing games. Not only does it have the look of the 90s internet, but since you physically interact with it, it feels like it too. This isn't the old web with the benefit of a modern router. It's still clunky, ugly, and slow. And while that sounds like an insult, it's mighty impressive. The cursor trails alone give me Windows 98 flashbacks.

The set-up is that you're basically the internet police, scouring forums and websites in search of ne'erdowells engaging in copyright infringement, harassment, extralegal commerce, profane activity or trying to peddle malicious software. After being sent a case, you'll trawl these websites, bringing your ban hammer down on anything that's breaking the established law. And you'll get some currency to spend on a screensaver for your troubles. Nice!

It's essentially a puzzler then, with you following clues and hunting for unlisted pages where folks try to hide their unsightly deeds. Working things out is good fun, and it's not as easy as you might imagine. However, it's not the real star of Hypnospace Outlaw. That's entirely in its personality and, specifically, the character each page is steeped in. 

Trojan horses for courses

While you won't have visited these sites specifically, if you were an internet user in the 90s, you do know them. We're talking dreadful font choices, automatically playing music (shoutout to Seepage), and GeoCities blogs from angsty teenagers who know they're the only ones who see the world as it truly is. And if it's not moody adolescents insulting one another or creating web comics, it's grifters trying to sell something utterly useless that contains malware. 

It's all immediately recognisable and superbly written. Oftentimes, fake blog posts come across as someone out of touch trying to seem relatable. Here, it's merely the developer recreating a snapshot from their own life, one that will resonate with any 90s kid or early internet adopter. And while it's mostly funny, there's an eeriness to it all, making for an absurd yet compelling atmosphere. 

As part of your job, you'll have to forcibly take down children's drawings because they're of an old cartoon character, which, aside from being downright mean, definitely has a sinister undertone: You're overstepping the mark all in the name of control. I've only played around an hour of Hypnospace Outlaw so far, but I'm eager to dive back in and see what else is lurking on the old web. I imagine it won't be pretty (aesthetically or in terms of subject matter), though some of it will definitely make me laugh.