Mandagon is a free-to-play intex built around Tibetan aesthetics.
Let’s get to it, why don’t we?

Mandagon isn’t a good game. In fact, it isn’t a game at all!
I need to take the time to explain my reasoning first. There are a lot of games that feature little to no gameplay, which market themselves as games, but place story and themes above gameplay. See, for example, Gone Home. Considering they have so little gameplay, I felt it necessary to separate them into their own category because, honestly, there isn’t a reason why this can’t be done. So, for that reason, I coined the term ‘intex’ which is short for ‘interactive experience’.^A)
Part of the reason I’m doing this is because Mandagon doesn’t care that it has little to no gameplay. Mandagon’s primary purpose is to communicate a story. So, how does Mandagon fare in this department?
Not very well.
The story isn’t well-constructed and the themes it attempts to communicate are in conflict with the (for lack of a better term) gameplay, which communicates something else entirely. In fact, this poor construction makes it difficult to figure out what that intended theme is, which is kinda funny.
It’s important to note that while it’s difficult to figure out the theme, it isn’t difficult to figure out what the story was. Actually, it’s extremely easy to figure that part out. So easy that I started wondering if that was intentional or not. I’m leaning towards not intentional following contextual clues.
Maybe I’m being needlessly vague about all this, so let’s make it all clear. However, if you are reading this and don’t mind wasting 30 minutes, you can just go and play through the whole intex before continuing, as it may provide important context for you. Now that that’s over with…
First, the theme that Mandagon wants to communicate is ‘sacrifice’ or ‘sacrifice for love’. If you are a player and you’re now wondering about that, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Second, the backstory of Mandagon has more to it than the current story. The backstory is that the player character (‘totem fella’^B)) was a father in life who sacrificed his life to heal his daughter who, presumably, had some lung-related illness. Mandagon is actually about the PC figuring out what the hell he’s doing in Tibetan purgatory.
Now, here’s one of the first big issues: sacrifice is the theme of the backstory and not Mandagon’s story. The backstory is, of course, part of the story, but it isn’t the story. If this wasn’t intentional - and I’m guessing it wasn’t, based on what one of the devs said in an article about Mandagon - then it’s a pretty big blunder.
So, now that I’ve confidently asserted that the intended theme is communicated in the backstory and not the story…what theme does Mandagon actually communicate? Memory Loss.
I’m going to make the assumption that this is also accidental, since it’s never mentioned by the devs. Although I could be wrong.
The theme of memory loss is communicated far better because:

• The player character is in an unfamiliar location and completely unaware of what led him there.
• While exploring the surroundings, the player character receives cryptic hints for his own memory. These come in the form of artwork and totems which communicate the hints in poetic form.

Interpreting it thematically, the player character is struggling to remember what led him to purgatory and, consequently, spends time and effort searching through his mind to find his memories.
Going back to the sacrifice thing…what part of Mandagon actually communicates the theme of sacrifice? This can be considered an issue of show and tell, where the intex straight-up tells the player what the theme is, instead of communicating it through the experience/gameplay. At no point is the player forced to sacrifice anything, or given the option of making a sacrifice. The player simply explores the surroundings.
In fact…not even the backstory does this. You (the player) are literally told that the main character sacrificed himself for a girl. You aren’t shown it at all. Something being told to you cryptically is still something being told to you.
I’m also going to be a bit meaner by pointing out it’s really damn easy to figure out the backstory. If the intent was to write it cryptically to make it a fun challenge to figure out…then Mandagon falls flat. You can figure out the entire backstory by simply talking to a few of the totems. You don’t have to see the massive artwork (which is actually a bit cryptic) or talk to all of them. In fact, I think I missed some of the totems on my first playthrough.
Mandagon has one advantage going for it, which is that it’s extremely simple. It’s a simple story in a simple package. You may have also noticed something. Mandagon supposedly takes inspiration from Tibetan Buddhism…but I haven’t mentioned it during the review at all. This is correct, because Tibetan Buddhism…or really anything Tibetan…doesn’t actually factor into Mandagon at all besides the aesthetic. The setting is supposedly based on a sorta purgatory from Tibetan mythology/folklore, but I wouldn’t consider that significant enough. Mandagon’s biggest troll was tricking me into researching Buddhism just to see how it factored in.^C)
I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, just that it’s a little dishonest to only take aesthetic cues from Tibet and saying that it’s deeply inspired by Tibetan themes or whatever. Further, all the devs are…not Tibetan.
The intex looks pretty, is free and very short. Those are the three upsides I see. Mandagon is still bad.
One critique that may be leveled against me is that the ‘game’ is free and really short, does it really deserve criticism like this? Yes. That doesn’t change the fact it’s bad, even if most people apparently don’t see that.

• Steam Page
• Itch.io Page
• A Steam Discussion about Mandagon and it not being a game.
  • I had read it a while ago, but I don’t remember the exact topic anymore. I might read it again just to see what people think of Mandagon.
• Fun fact. The logo that I’m using in the banner is a re-creation based on an image from the artbook. But, here’s the fun bit: the original isn’t pixel-perfect. Now that you know, I hope you can use this information for good.