If you’re looking for a game that gives you room to make numerous choices or keep your mind sharp by playing a variety of puzzles, you should try Mind Scanner. This epic strategy game was developed by The Outer Zone and Published by Brave at Night. It was released in May 2021 and is available on PC.

There’s a Thin Line between Right and Wrong

Have you ever found yourself in a compromising situation where you’re between choosing your moral principle or your peace of mind? That’s what it feels like when playing Mind Scanners. On the one hand, you don’t want to mentally rape your mostly innocent patients by scanning their heads and eventually turning them into a shadow of themselves. 

On the other hand, you must satisfy your employers’ requests if you ever want to see your little girl again. Sounds tough, right? No worries, You can always find a balance in the game. You can side with the bad guys to keep your daughter safe while helping out innocent citizens.

Captivating Storyline 

In Mind Scanner, you live in a dystopian city named Structure. The megacity is unique in so many ways, but most notably in its leadership style. The Structure expects all its citizens to behave in a particular manner and obey all its instructions without questions. They do not accept divergent behaviours from the citizens, and immediately diagnose and ‘cure’ such people to forcefully make them rule-abiding citizens. 

Although providing a cure for the citizens by its government I usually considered a great thing, this isn’t the case in Mind Scanners. Mind Scanners carry out the diagnosis using mindless technologies that invade the patient’s head to find out what is supposedly wrong with the person. The machines will then begin the curing process. After the cure, the patients become more like zombies, without a thought of their own, and always ready to do the Structure’s bidding. 

You may be wondering where your character comes in. while playing the game, you work for the Structure as a mind scanner. No, you do not love the job or agree with their ruling system, but you are left with no choice after the Structure kidnapped your daughter. You must cure as many patients as possible very quickly if you intend to reunite with your daughter. You must also increase your ranks in the agency, by getting promotions and rewards. While you aren’t sure if the agency will release your child when you fulfill your part of the bargain, you can’t take any chances since your daughter’s life is at risk.

Curing Divergent Citizens

First, you will be given a long list of patients’ information, who the Structure considers ‘disturbed. Once you receive the list, you will select a patient to cure. The system requires you to do a mind scan on the patient by strapping a pair of goggles to the patient’s head. Next, you will run some tests on the patients, which involves choosing the right options from a series of patterns. You must get three consecutive answers right to move on to the next phase of the ‘cure’.

The result of the scan will help you to determine if the patient is normal or mentally disturbed according to the agency’s standard. If you declare the patient insane, you must help reduce such person’s mental capacity to hinder them from expressing opinions or attitudes different from what is ‘normal’ in society. 

If you declare the patient sane, the system will reward you with some amount of money. However, if the ‘cured’ person is later seen to exhibit any divergent behavior, you will be severely punished by the system and fined. If you declare that the patient is sane on the other hand, you must invade their brains and get rid of the undesirable personalities. Consequently, you will turn the patient into a law-abiding zombie.

The Brain-sucking Machines

The machines work as mini-games that treat specific kinds of insanity. For instance, some of the machines may make you tweak the dials on a tuner to enable you to find negative phrases in a set of words and remove them. Another game involves the player listening to some bleeps and eliminating the tunes that aren’t in line with the melody. If the patient has multiple insanities, you must cure each of them by playing different mini-games. Most of the games are very interesting the first few times you play them, but you may become bored after playing them many more times. It’s exhausting when your patient has so many issues that involve playing the same or similar games. 

Trying to Find a Balance between Good and Evil    

You always have the option to treat people according to the standards of the Structure or let them go even when you diagnose them with issues that need fixing. You can also choose to delay the treatment process as an act of rebellion.  The game makes it possible for the player to use a secret device to restore the minds of some patients, thereby giving them their original personalities. If you feel like fighting the Structure’s injustice, you could work closely with the resistance group as an undercover agent trying to bring down the Structure from within. Each action has different consequences. You should also remember that the Structure has your daughter.

Always Pay Your Dues

Throughout your stay in the city, you must pay some money to the structure to avoid being thrown out of the city. If you get thrown out, you will find yourself in the Outer Zone where life is considerably more challenging and faster. 

The easiest way to survive and earn more money in the Structure is by working for the agency and ruthlessly doing their biddings. However, the weight of the moral compromise never gets easier. I felt terrible each time I had to wipe out a patient’s personality to remain in the good books of the Structure or avoid going bankrupt. 

There are some patients who have done a lot of bad things, and it’s easier to wipe out their personalities for the greater good. For instance, one of my patients constantly abused his wife and children, and it felt good to put a stop to his inexcusable and unforgivable actions.

Conclusion

If you have played and enjoyed ‘Papers, Please’ by 3909 LLC, you wouldn’t find Mind Scanners difficult or weird. You will instead find it welcoming and familiar. If you haven’t played the game, you will love Mind Scanners anyway. But you may be disturbed by the depth of social injustice and the inhumane acts of the Structure. Overall, Mind Scanners is an exciting game with an epic storyline.