Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 3/8/2023)

[Image from igdb.com]

Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk

Developer: Nikita Kryukov

Publisher: Missing Calm

Genre(s): Visual Novel, Horror

Platforms: PC, Switch

Release Date: August 26, 2020

Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk. The repetition of the tongue twister title sets a disorienting precedent for this unnerving experience. On paper, the game is a simple task of directing a young woman on what should be an effortless quest to procure a bag of milk from her local market. However, the execution of this task is fraught with complications due to the young woman suffering from a debilitating mental illness. We, the player, are privy to the extent of her illness by seeing her world through her warped perspective, which strongly resembles the anxiety-inducing, blood-red tone of the Giygas battle from Earthbound. The few beings she comes across on her mission are crudely designed and barely enunciate anything close to human speech. The disconnect to reality presented here signifies how severe the girl’s illness is. Then again, any setting in which one can purchase milk in a bag is inherently bizarre as is, but that’s the extent to which an unreliable narrator can pervert one’s own perceptions.

The course of the game is conducted like a visual novel. Selecting a small variety of responses progresses the girl through the task. In contrast, a chain of negative responses results in the girl’s mental status caving in on her and prematurely ending the game. The player is either the girl’s consciousness or fourth-wall-breaking guardian angel who should have the girl’s best interests in mind if they want to see the full extent of the game. Maybe this is because I’m not familiar with the visual novel genre, but I wish the game provided multiple outcomes depending on the player’s responses. Unless you’re an insensitive clod, it's obvious which responses will garner a positive reaction. My internal gamer wanted the process of choosing a response to be like a minefield, and perhaps a different outcome could’ve commenced instead of treating some responses as failures.

Milk Inside’s biggest appeal is definitely the presentation. The hauntingly surreal atmosphere and tone is an effective visual means to convey the experience of cognitive dissonance of someone afflicted with a mental disorder. Some may argue that artistic choices verge on embellishing the struggle that forsakes realism. However, in the time of Covid-19 when this game was released, is it that far-fetched to believe that the girl in Milk Inside couldn’t mirror someone from the real world? I certainly felt like conversing with people was akin to them reciting binary code to me after my forced fourteen-month asocial hibernation period. The game succeeds in one aspect, but the sparseness of the gameplay and story leave me somewhat empty. Milk Inside is a short mood piece, and at least that mood will resonate with the player.