I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

About 10 minutes in and a woman fed me with her mouth like I was a baby bird, I then made monkey noises in an attempt to eat this woman. I am familiar with the story, which to say it's one of the darkest, bleakest things I have ever read. The game seems to give a similarly uncomfortable experience. I'm knocking one star off because honestly the backgrounds are blurry to the point where you will be scanning with your mouse for interactable objects and paths.

IHNMAIMS is a classic point and click game from the mind of Harlan Ellison, the man who wrote the short story the game is based on, which is included with the game (I very much recommend reading the story, as its very well written). Graphics: Can run on a Speak-N-Spell (its a 90s point and click, for goodness sake). Nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done. Story: Probably the best part of the game. Learning about the backstories of the 5 trapped humans was very interesting. You dont have to read the story to know whats going on. Gameplay: classic 8-option control scheme for a point and click game. Each character is given whats essentially a hintbook, but if you use it too much, bad things start happening, and it could prevent you from getting the best ending. IMO, its a bad mechanic, but as Ellison wanted the game to be hard as possible, I guess I cannot complain. Scenarios vary from pretty simple (Ellen, Benny), to pretty annoying if you dont know what youre doing. What youre supposed to do next could either be intuitively obvious or stupidly vague. Sometimes both (or maybe Im just bad at Point and Clicks...) Id recommend a walkthrough, but if you wanna go in completely unaware, I wont stop.

Wait, what do I mean "tired"? Am I implying something insidious about how this game aged? Sure I do. There's too much pixelhunting for pixelhunting's sake.

This is really a gem as far as adult or weird point-and-click adventures go. The graphics or puzzles weren't groundbreaking for its time but its subject matter makes up for all that. This game brilliantly expands on the original short story with the direct involvement of the author to create something truly unique. A great must-have for adventure enthusiasts (or the Germans amongst us who didn't get to play it properly first time around).

After playing abit too much adventure games you start to expect warious "combine dog with a coffee pot" puzzles and plots existing just to make some reason for you to move between the screens. Not in this one. The story is a dark, sci-fi nightmare for pretty much everyone in it. Mad supercomputer made to wage war against humanity, the machine is trapped in it's original purpose. Unable to break free from it's own curse, it constructs personal hell for five last humans on Earth. In order to beat this mad god, you have to face your fears and show it, that unlike a machine, you can overcome and atone the evils in your past. Or not. What makes this game special is an interesting form of non-linearity. It's short, but gives you just enough variation to keep you interested if you decide to replay it and try something new. For a 1995 game the controls are fine and most of the bugs i've seen were with the animations, but no game breaking ones. Puzzles are mostly logical and theres a pretty helpful tool available for all characters to guide them with riddles. The atmosphere, visuals and dialogues bring a truly unique experience.