Indie Game Review: Mondo Medicals

I've seen a lot of strange games in my time. Mondo Medicals, a freeware first-person puzzler, is incredibly strange. Notably strange, even. It doesn't make any sense, and frankly, it's a little scary. I think this is why it's one of developer Jonatan "cactus" Söderström's most popular games. It's so notoriously weird that, when one is told of it, they must play it. They must know the madness.

You are volunteering at Mondo Medicals, a medical facility, to help them find the cure for cancer. Before you are admitted, you must complete a series of "dissorientations" to ascertain that your identity. The dissorientations are a series of puzzles, the answers to which usually fly straight past "out of the box" and crash somewhere in Wonderland. Only the mad are able to figure this stuff out on their own.

Because of the nature of the puzzles, the game is difficult. I was not able to complete most of them without referencing cactus' walkthrough. The answers are usually counter-intuitive, like going to opposite direction of arrows on the floor within a maze. Ironically, though, the one dissorientation with a straight-forward answer (a maze with walls that rise out of the ground as you approach them) proved to be the most difficult to complete. The controls are as simple as the gameplay is hard; you only get the directional buttons and one action key. The game doesn't have much in the way of replayability, save for wanting to watch the cut scenes.

Which I did. Many times.

As a reward for completing each puzzle, you get to watch a short clip of a much less benevolent television-headed person than the one that greets you at the start of the game. In these short monologues, this character talks madly about his studies and experiences with cancer. This is where the scary is, people. Imagine, if you will, a Catholic priest with a television for a head who, when he speaks, sounds like one of Hitler's speeches played through a voice box. Especially since, when you're within a level, there is no sound. No music, nothing. All you get is grayscale, minimalist levels of mazes or big open rooms. Then suddenly, when you beat a level, The Priest (as fans call him) is screeching about how cancer "is a little piece of death" that "takes over a body".

Overall, the game is short and simple, once you know the answers. Before then, you'll probably blow a brain cell trying to figure out what to do if you don't break down and read the walkthrough first. I think the frustration is worth it though. I mean, who doesn't want to know how to "cure a cancer"?