Mediterranea Inferno Review (A Pocketful of Stars)
+ Gorgeous visuals and audio
+ Excellent writing is a mashup of neon-soaked theatrical drama, bitingly cynical comedy and grounded, intimate human emotion
+ Every single scene has unique art, rather than static sprites talking at each other
+ Meaningful choices despite limited interactivity
+ Fantastically atmospheric
- No option to skip read text, even though you're clearly meant to replay the game?
- You have to unlock the "fast-forward" option that lets you get through scenes you're replaying, which didn't happen until after I saw the "true" ending
* Very flawed characters you may or may not end up sympathizing with, which could affect your enjoyment
* While sex and violence underlie everything, there is not actually any explicit content of either; nudity is censored, as are the sex scenes, and the worst you'll see violence-wise is blood with disturbing sound effects
* This is openly, uncompromisingly queer, and if that makes you at all uncomfortable you're going to have a bad time
Going into Mediterranea Inferno, I was expecting something shallow, but dark and stylish enough to make up for it. Gore and shameless sexuality, but in a fun way. Shock value rather than value, perhaps. And the game is filled with violence, sex and psychosexual horror, brought to life by its phenomenal sound design and visuals.
That said, I was pleasantly surprised by both how easy the overall story was to follow and by the unflinching but surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of the leads' inner turmoil. The latter, more than anything, was what made me love this game. The writing approaches its deeply flawed trio and their messy relationships with an unsparing eye, but it ultimately reaches for empathy and shared horror at the world rather than a moralistic condemnation. Yes, they're all terrible twenty-somethings who seem to be preoccupied mainly with themselves, but despite initial impressions, the script isn't interested in painting them as nothing but vapid stereotypes for you to hate, even as they increasingly view each other that way as their friendship unravels. Beneath the performance, each of them is hiding pain rooted in something complex and human.
Let's talk about the gameplay for a moment. The boys begin each day by suggesting different activities they want to do. Going along with a specific character's desires means they get the opportunity to experience a Mirage: surreal, psychological dreamscapes experienced in first-person which offer you insight into that character's insecurities, preoccupations, and the lies they're telling themselves. Seeing four Mirages lets a character reach "paradise" in the ending, supposedly, but you're warned early that there aren't enough Mirages to go around. No matter what you do, ultimately someone is going to be left out in the cold.
Despite the limited interactivity, the choices you make still matter. Depending on the mental state you've inflicted on each boy by buying or denying them Mirages, their dialogue and actions shift dramatically. Feeding their delusions via Mirages keeps each boy happy, but to get to the real person inside each of them you have to do the opposite: crush their hopes by denying them their escapist fantasies, until you can finally get to the root of their trauma, which is portrayed in a cumulative nightmare sequence at the end of each route depending on who you've failed to bring to heaven. Each ending is different, but all of the ones I found were rewarding.
I passed the height of COVID-19 in China. The characters' spiralling mental health and increasing detachment towards reality as they passed day after day in total isolation felt incredibly true to life and relatable to my experiences, in a way it might not be for others—Italy's lockdowns, like ours, were stricter than elsewhere, and brutalized people in ways that can be hard to talk about even now. Still, regardless of whether you can personally relate to the characters' experiences, I'd recommend at least trying this game out if it sounds like something you might enjoy. If nothing else, it's currently a unique experience in gaming. Not to mention one of the only pieces of media I've seen that wants to talk about what the pandemic has done to a generation of the young and hopeful.
TL;DR: Recommended if you are the kind of person who watches or would watch Italian art films about toxic queer friends, as that's essentially what this is, except with more player guilt.