I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is a definitive must for any point 'n click or horror fan. It tells a very dark and adult story about humanity - how you can always find a fragment of light even in the dire times in the darkest corners corners of the earth.

I never played I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream in its original release, but the game was frequently recommended to me by people who share my love for science fiction and horror. The game is a point-and-click adventure title, loosely adapted from the eponymous short story by Harlan Ellison (one of two Ellison works that "inspired" James Cameron to create the Terminator series). The writing and voice acting are excellent, in part because Ellison himself helped design the game and provides the voice of AM with twisted, hateful gusto. Visually, the game is very nice, full of lovely pre-rendered art and excellent spritework. The music is nothing to write home about, but it is nicely atmospheric and gets the job done. The gameplay is much like other point-and-clicks of the time, with a series of command buttons to alter the use of the cursor and an inventory of items used to solve puzzles. Much like similar games of the time, the puzzles can be illogical and even seem unfair at times; some of the games challenges simply have to be worked through via trial and error. This can be a problem, though, since IHNMAIMS is one of the only point-and-clicks I've played where it's possible to die by making the wrong choice...in fact, there are a LOT of incorrect choices that can kill you. Death is just an inconvenience, though, as AM wants to keep his players alive to torment further; dying just means you have to start that character's story over, which is itself kind of a pain, so save early and often! On balance, though, in spite of the occasional moon-logic puzzle or cheap death, this is an excellent game, for its writing and presentation if nothing else. It's a great adaptation of a classic sci-fi story, and a worthy addition to any adventure gamer's library.

Interesting game that has too many annoyances to be really good. You will need to save/load quiet a lot and probably consult a guide. Good: - Interesting story - Characters - Fully voiced Bad: - Bugs - Blind ends - Pointless actions/paths

I have a terrible habit of starting game after game and then not finishing them (or finishing many, many years after I start), this was not the case with I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. I played through the whole thing in one sitting several years ago. More recently I played it again, also in one sitting. It gets its hooks into you and doesn't let go. It's also a game that I tend to recommend to people provided it fits their particular tastes. It is wonderfully told and the beginning speech is one of my favourite pieces of exposition. It touches on subjects that can turn out very poorly if not handled with tact and care, but even for me who can be rather sensitive to certain subjects, it was handled well enough that I still thoroughly enjoyed it, even if that one scenario did make me squirm rather a lot past a certain point. I never liked yellow anyway (vague point is vague). I don't like games being too hard and this one hits the sweet spot in that sense, it's not easy and I certainly had to look things up once or twice but not once was the atmosphere or immersion disrupted. I'm a person who plays for feel, story and atmosphere, not challenge. My partner played and he likes more of a challenge than I do and he also thoroughly enjoyed it. Be prepared for a dark, bleak story that is wonderfully executed with atmosphere to spare.

There's definitely a lot of interesting story ideas going on with this game. As someone who never played it back when it came out, I have no nostalgia helping me to forgive its many flaws. I cut my teeth on the old Sierra adventure games in the 1980s, so I know how difficult adventure games could be. But even those games (with a few exceptions) wouldn't put you into unwwinable states. With this game, getting stuck in unwinnable states is the majority of the experience. And you'd never know you were in an unwinnable state, as opposed to just missing something, without outside information. The game itself will never let you know you've cut yourself off from progress. I found myself in impossible situations multiple times, and as I got closer to the end I used a guide just to make sure I wasn't doing something out of order so I wouldn't have to repeat sections of the game from old saves. And even doing that, I still got all screwed up a couple times, such that I had to go back to old saves. You can't even backtrack; once a piece of story has advanced, old sections and characters get closed off. Like I said, elements of the story are good, but the gameplay is so terrible that it sucks the enjoyment out of the experience. Only play this game with a walkthrough close at hand, unless you are interested in wasting hours of your life replaying the same parts over and over.