I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

I like the story, but the gameplay is sort of disappointing. It is not rewarding and not forgiving. Mechanics is quite bad and obscure at times. It is intentionally made difficult, but I don't see this adding any value. So, can I recommend it? Yes, but only as a walking simulator, i.e., use a walk-through. Also recommend to read the FAQ about possible glitches and some gameplay nuances.

I love the concept of the story and that’s likely why you’re considering buying the game. However be warned, it isn’t much of a ‘game’ and you would be better off watching a walkthrough instead of buying. You must complete tasks in a very specific order or you will be locked into a no-win scenario if you don't (I don’t mean a ‘bad ending’, I mean you literally cannot continue with the game and will have no way of knowing you’ve done this), I think half of them are bugs rather than deliberate ‘game over’ situations, which is unacceptable given how long this game has been around and how easy some of them would be to fix. You WILL end up looking at walkthroughs when stuck (thinking you must be stupid and can’t figure things out), only to find that you’ve done everything correctly but the game is bugged, and will end up ruining the surprises in the story. Also, I wasn’t invested in any of the characters and the ‘episodes’ for all but one of them don’t really give you much cause to care about them in my opinion. Each of the characters has a laughably short and quite boring ‘episode’ which consists of having to do and redo tasks in the exact order the game demands in order to trigger an event that ends the episode. Even if you’ve searched an object several times, you must have had a specific piece of dialogue before the character will acknowledge the item you need is in there, and even if you’ve asked a particular question or tried a particular movement, the game won’t move on unless you did previous steps exactly right. You will have a couple of usable items in each episode, and they’re pretty self-explanatory, so if you like item puzzles then you won’t be into this. Also, the use of the interaction verbs (if that’s the right way of saying it) are bizarre – it’s hard to give an example without giving spoilers, but for arguments sake, imagine having to ‘take’ a giant metal container in order for your character to see an item inside it.

I loved the original short story of the same name that served as the basis for this game ever since I first read it and I was trying to find this game for a long time. I got it a while back (and then on GOG, too) because online reviews raved about how groundbreaking and excellent a game it was. Unfortunately, it was more of a letdown. Technically, the game was OK - I haven't encountered the bugs other reviews mentioned but it's a pretty standard point-and-click adventure game: the graphics, the music / sound effects are all OK - not bad but nothing special. The characters have some pretty crazy background story that I thought didn't really fit the original short story and I found the resulting experience mostly confusing and not very engaging. The puzzles are (with some exceptions) illogical and frustrating - I have a hard time seeing how anyone could get through this game without a walkthrough or just randomly clicking everything. Getting through this felt more like a chore, not playing. I definitely recommend reading the story - it's good dark sci-fi and it's much better than the game.

Very interesting game. Tries to do an exploration of gameplay using protagonists with various neuroses, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes the characters won't do what you tell them to do because of their weaknesses, which can be an interesting problem to solve, but often makes the player wonder if the game is broken (which doesn't help, because sometimes it is). The game's construction is actually very sloppy; the character animation is terrible, the backgrounds vary between ugly painted backgrounds and ugly 90s 3D pre-renders, and it's sometimes easy to get stuck or get a bad ending without any inclination that you screwed up. All that aside, the game actually explores some dark themes, especially for a game from 1995, and I'm tempted to recommend it on its weirdness value alone. Every point-and-click adventure enthusiast needs to give it a try. It does a lot of things wrong and a lot of things right. Much more compelling than the original short story, and Harlan Ellison is killer as the voice of AM.

I am unsure how to feel about the game. It seems to be praised a lot for the story, setting and themes, but while those are certainly not run-of-the-mill, I don't think they are executed perfectly. It's interesting to learn about each of the characters, but every arc is fast, their redemption perhaps too quick. The main antagonist, the AI/super-computer AM, also feels contrived in many ways, which is a problem given how important its role is. This is also reflected in the last "chapter" of the game, which isn't themed around any of the protagonists unlike the previous ones, and results dull overall. On the other hand, the gameplay is better than what the detractors say: You can complete the game without a walkthrough. In fact, you have a built-in hint system. Sure, the hints are cryptic and with how oniric the set-pieces are, things can be confusing, however they are great to know if you missed something, since they won't change until you accomplish the alluded task. While it's possible to screw yourself over, it's actually very hard to, if you pay attention. Save often by all means, but that's all you need, especially for adventure veterans. I read a walkthrough twice: once because I wasn't sure about one interaction (I was worried since I had read you could sequence break and get stuck, but that seems actually hard to do), and the second to confirm a few things in the final portion of the game. This one is poorly done, I must admit, but it's not difficult, just tedious, as you need a specific character first, and there are a lot of completely unnecessary tasks you can chase, until you learn this fact. Some of the required interactions after are unintuitive, but you only have to worry about a handful at this point, so you can trial and error through it easily, if you want. The music is good, and so are the graphics, both building a great mood together. The game overall is probably closer to a 7/10, but it is interesting enough to warrant rounding the score up.