Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Review (coolguycoolguy)
I feel like this game deserves a serious discussion amidst all these meme reviews. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the memes, but I think this game deserves to be taught in game design and game narrative classes. And while I have no power to make that happen, I do have the power to discuss it here. And so I shall.
What starts as a quaint horror experience quickly becomes a sobering portrait of mental sickness. I have never, EVER played a game that has gotten me to feel so much sympathy for a character so fast. This is also my favorite kind of horror: one that doesn't rely on gore or violence to unnerve its audience. It should be said that there are certainly moments in this game that would constitute as a jump scare, but I at least feel like its earned when it happens. But the feeling of dread you feel while you are playing this game comes from despair. The character in this game (yes, I am being intentionally vague) cannot help herself. Her mother can't help her. Her father can't help her. The strangers she meets can't help her. Only you, as the player, can help her. You can help her complete the simple task of buying a bag of milk. But by the time you complete that task by picking a few correct choices, you are then shown just how much help she truly needs. And you cannot help her in the way that you want to. THAT is where the horror in this game comes from. You have to watch as a minimally interactive bystander as someone who struggles with a myriad of very real mental illnesses (OCD, depersonalization, disassociation, hallucinations, depression, to name even just a few of the things that could possibly be going on here) painfully fights to just exist. You can't save her. You have to go on with your life knowing that she will never get the help she needs. That every day will be a losing battle for her. And by fucking god, is that heart-wrenching.
This experience is perfectly executed. The sound/music heightens the content of the narrative pitch-perfectly. The graphics are muddy, disorienting, ugly, and unpleasant. But that is only to serve the narrative and its themes. You are forced to experience a day in the life as this character. And I hated it so fucking much.
Everyone should play this game.