Hypnospace Outlaw Review

Hypnospace Outlaw is the work of designer Jay Tholen and developer Tendershoot. Released in March 2019 for PC and Mac, it won several indie game awards. This adventure title is best known for its unusual satirical subject matter.

The premise of Hypnospace Outlaw is that a fictitious company has created a version of the internet you can use in your sleep. This isn’t the modern-day web either. Instead, players will be familiar with it if they were browsing back in the late ’90s and early ’00s. It is a parody of the internet when the social media service of choice was MySpace.

Many games have attempted to poke fun at internet culture, especially in recent times. Yet, far too many miss the humor mark and fall flat despite good gameplay. Does Hypnospace Outlaw live up to the hype and make you laugh?

Is It Funny?

In this alternate 1999 timeline, you take on the role of an Enforcer for the Merchantsoft corporation. This group is responsible for creating Hypnospace, which users strap on at night when they go to bed. As an Enforcer, players are tasked with erasing all objectionable content from this bizarre GeoCities-inspired internet. Such content can include viruses, copyright infringements, or even harassment.

Browsing the internet as a game might not seem like an exciting thing to do. Nevertheless, Hypnospace Outlaw makes the experience worthwhile thanks to the bizarre 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 hit a little close to home, reminding you of what the internet genuinely was like in the late ’90s.

Traveling around the Hypnospace reveals how much work went into creating each and every single page you visit. Not only are they interesting, but they are also genuinely funny. I laughed out loud several times while making my way around this version of the internet. It is unique in terms of the games I have played in that the parody and humor land consistently. That pushes you to want to discover more and fall further down the rabbit hole.