Mediterranea Inferno

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

.

Review:

Mediterranea Inferno is a Visual Novel with some Graphic Adventure elements released on PC in 2023 and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2024. This game follows the story of Claudio, Andrea, and Mida, three young men meeting for a vacation in Southern Italy after not seeing each other for two years due to the covid lockdowns, with the game’s story exploring their pasts, their desires, and how the years of isolation have affected each of them.

Unfortunately, I just could not get into this game’s story or characters. It doesn’t help that all three seem aloof, self-absorbed, and generally unlikeable. It doesn’t help that all three men look extremely effeminate and are referred to with alternating male and female pronouns, being both highly sexualized while also vague about their actual sexuality, making it difficult for me to pin down if this game was aiming to be in some way about the gay or trans experience. It doesn’t help that the game uses some stark religious imagery, even though these characters seem far from anything religious. And it doesn’t help that much of the game is viewed through the lens of what seems to be a psychedelic drug trip caused by consuming a fruit the game refers to as a “mirage”.

Maybe I’m just thick-headed, maybe I’m too stupid to play this game. It is clearly steeped in thick symbolism and meaning, but I just do not know what it is trying to say, other than to confirm repeatedly that the game’s three central characters are miserable, lonely, tortured souls searching for meaning and connection in an uncaring world. And hey, aren’t we all? But that doesn’t make this feel like a great story, and I couldn’t feel any connection to these three, despite that like virtually everyone else reading this, I too had to live through the height of the covid pandemic and the many forms of misery it wrought.

At the very least I can credit this game for its bizarre, imaginative, and colorful hand-drawn imagery, really driving home this game’s trippy nature. This is backed by a similarly trippy soundtrack, though I think the highlight of the presentation here may be the atmospheric sound you get in places, which more than the visuals and music really help to paint the locations the game shifts through.

Personally, I hated Mediterranea Inferno. I found the characters unlikeable, the story difficult to get into, and whatever this game was trying to actually say was lost on me. I do respect that it absolutely has an artistic vision, and there’s clearly some thought and skill that went into crafting that vision, and clearly others have found something worthwhile to take from that vision… but all I found was a perplexing and off-putting mix of elements that simply does not speak to me. Will it speak to you, reader? I can’t honestly say, but I can’t really recommend this game either.

tl;dr – Mediterranea Inferno is a Visual Novel with Graphic Adventure elements that follows three friends meeting after years of covid lockdowns. This game’s drug-fueled, sexual, religious, confusing fever dream of elements may hold a deeper meaning for some players, but I just felt put off by its unlikable characters and bewildering story. The presentation has its good qualities, but I think that whether this appeals to you is going to be highly subjective at best.

Grade: C+

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Overrated

.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}