Here’s a dystopian type jaunt inspired by Papers, Please, Mind Scanners is from indie team The Outer Zone in Copenhagen, Denmark.

It’s a retro-futuristic psychiatry simulation with dystopian themes. In it, you have help disturbed people with a bizarre machine. And it ain’t pretty, guv!

Mental Health Hell on Earth in Mind Scanners

Okay, so in Mind Scanners you’re in this zone called The Structure. And it’s your job to diagnose patients using a weird contraption and a bit of experimentation.

Overtones of the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (and book), amongst various others. And the demented world of A Clockwork Orange, of course.

The problem in Mind Scanners is patients come thick and fast.

It’s impossible to deal with all of them, so you have to make your pick, head on over to someone in mental distress, and attempt to help them.

The problem is, this isn’t a Frasier styled good mental health session.

The bizarre machine you have isn’t exactly great at treating people. And to begin with you don’t really know what you’re doing. That leads to some patients being left in considerable pain and mental distress.

That isn’t hilarious or anything, as we did find Mind Scanners pretty disturbing. But that’s the point, of course, it’s supposed to unsettle. Here’s the opening 16 minutes for you to observe with cold, calculating reserve.

Although fast-paced and requiring quick thinking, there are ethical decisions you need to make along the way.

Mainly about the mental wellbeing of some of your patients. You must deduce a patient’s personality and decide whether they’re sane or insane.

You can truly destroy some of them, which can be distressing. Like, wipe their brains. Erasing their memories and leaving them as a mindless drone to stumble through society.

It had us thinking of Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, but that game is all a tongue in cheek laugh and satire on capitalism.

Mind Scanners is quite brutal. You manage your time and resources, help citizens when you can, but you’re always in such a rush against time it’s not really possible to give proper care and attention.

Whilst far from being a jolly and life-affirming game of it, Mind Scanners is still the compelling cyberpunk simulator.

Ultimately, we view it as a morality test for players.

It makes you think and it tests your limits. Whether or not you find that fun is down to you, but it’s nonetheless an imaginative game that delivers a solid results that’ll stick with you.