Backseat-gamed for this one while a friend took main controls. It was interesting to see a weird adaptation of my favorite short story play out in the regular semi-obtuse mid 90s adventure game format. There's some obvious aging to the whole ordeal, primarily in the control and certain puzzles being increasingly confusing and have strange steps needed to take to get to the end of it all. Fun, enlightening, and still disturbing to this day, the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream video game is a fun experience despite its glaring flaws when viewing it with modern sensibilities.
This review contains spoilers
this was such a morbid yet rather fascinating point and click, i found it intriguing how all the characters have endured trauma and have committed grave mistakes in their lives. yet despite this, they are encouraged to take the path to repentance (even if this person was a nazi who experimented on innocent jewish people for example). however, with this route to repentance they have to do things almost just as gruesome at times.
overall, the game is rather grimdark, and by the looks of it, there's not a proper happy ending. i loved this so much, especially since i'm weak for dystopias and psychology. the only downside is that sometimes you really have to exhaust options in order to progress with the game without screwing yourself over and sometimes things can be very vague. it took me awhile of searching around to figure out that you have to get one of the other characters to turn on the projector in the end game so benny can give his wife the totem of love. but at the same time, i guess this is also something that adds to the charm?
this game is also based off a short story and now after beating this game i just might read it and compare similarities and differences.
overall, the game is rather grimdark, and by the looks of it, there's not a proper happy ending. i loved this so much, especially since i'm weak for dystopias and psychology. the only downside is that sometimes you really have to exhaust options in order to progress with the game without screwing yourself over and sometimes things can be very vague. it took me awhile of searching around to figure out that you have to get one of the other characters to turn on the projector in the end game so benny can give his wife the totem of love. but at the same time, i guess this is also something that adds to the charm?
this game is also based off a short story and now after beating this game i just might read it and compare similarities and differences.
Harlan Ellison might be a piece of shit person but I will give him this, He found a way to make point and click games more annoying and offputting than normal by making the player take moral and ethical considerations into.........well pretty much everything in the game, so much so in order to get the best ending you need to understand the complexities of the human psyche and how to manipulate the Id, Ego, and Superego inside of the mind of a hateful machine.
Okay I love IHNMAIMS. The story was great, the scenarios had a wide rage of challenge to them, and over all the different scenery was great. I do have a few criticisms of the game although...
The Save Game Glitch: When I was on my second scenario (I went Ellen then Gorrister) I kept one saved game because I didn't think I'd need another. The problem with that was I had to quit the game for a minute. When I went back to my saved game, Gorrister wasn't on screen. I could not advance through the story and I had to restart my game. The solution? Keep like a butt load of saved games on you I mean really save save save!!
Nimdok's Scenario: The story was fantastic but...it is EASY to advance through this scenario to the point of no return without specific items you will need. You have to do it a SPECIFIC way to advance in the story. The solution for this one is to read up on his story before hand or you definitely won't know what you're doing. I mean unless you are hardcore willing to go through the scenario a billion times I will reccomend you do this.
Endgame Strobe: During the endgame portion (no spoilers) at points the screen will start to flicker, possibly due to the graphics. This is easily remedied by going to another screen.
Otherwise the game is very playable, it's fun, and it's easy to get invested into the story. Just make sure to read up if you experience problems, there are others out there who have the solutions
The Save Game Glitch: When I was on my second scenario (I went Ellen then Gorrister) I kept one saved game because I didn't think I'd need another. The problem with that was I had to quit the game for a minute. When I went back to my saved game, Gorrister wasn't on screen. I could not advance through the story and I had to restart my game. The solution? Keep like a butt load of saved games on you I mean really save save save!!
Nimdok's Scenario: The story was fantastic but...it is EASY to advance through this scenario to the point of no return without specific items you will need. You have to do it a SPECIFIC way to advance in the story. The solution for this one is to read up on his story before hand or you definitely won't know what you're doing. I mean unless you are hardcore willing to go through the scenario a billion times I will reccomend you do this.
Endgame Strobe: During the endgame portion (no spoilers) at points the screen will start to flicker, possibly due to the graphics. This is easily remedied by going to another screen.
Otherwise the game is very playable, it's fun, and it's easy to get invested into the story. Just make sure to read up if you experience problems, there are others out there who have the solutions
I can't think of any other genre of game that would work better as an adaptation of the short story as a 90s point-and-click adventure game.
during the very last section of the game, a character just got stuck on a ledge, and had to redo the entirety of my most hated scenario all over again, and I think that's the closest a video game can ever get to making me feel like I just was transformed into a great soft jelly thing.
That sounds like a sarcastic joke and that I'm just calling the game bad, and while that was obviously a glitch and not an intended part of the game design, I do think that the occasional bullshittery that comes with these games does genuinely add to the game's tone.
I love the bizarre settings and visuals: the mix of wires and huge blinking machinery and the surreal psychological elements is just great. the coloring and shading makes every single thing on the screen look like it's covered in grime and vaguely mushy. I'm a big fan.
I feel like the very... outdated, maybe? writing style occasionally undermines the incredibly dark subject matter, though.
I'd go into more detail about it but I'm kind of unsure of it myself, y'know.
AM's voice acting is really good and I think it's pretty funny that Harlan Ellison himself voiced him
Ted's scenario sucks, best is either Gorrister or Ellen's scenario
Good game I like it
during the very last section of the game, a character just got stuck on a ledge, and had to redo the entirety of my most hated scenario all over again, and I think that's the closest a video game can ever get to making me feel like I just was transformed into a great soft jelly thing.
That sounds like a sarcastic joke and that I'm just calling the game bad, and while that was obviously a glitch and not an intended part of the game design, I do think that the occasional bullshittery that comes with these games does genuinely add to the game's tone.
I love the bizarre settings and visuals: the mix of wires and huge blinking machinery and the surreal psychological elements is just great. the coloring and shading makes every single thing on the screen look like it's covered in grime and vaguely mushy. I'm a big fan.
I feel like the very... outdated, maybe? writing style occasionally undermines the incredibly dark subject matter, though.
I'd go into more detail about it but I'm kind of unsure of it myself, y'know.
AM's voice acting is really good and I think it's pretty funny that Harlan Ellison himself voiced him
Ted's scenario sucks, best is either Gorrister or Ellen's scenario
Good game I like it
This review contains spoilers
A brutalist creation from the mind of a depressed cynic. Despite the depiction of an ultimate dystopia, depraved of pure hope, the game spends most of its time offering outlets of redemption or healing for its characters. For the alleged 109 years of torture the cast had suffered, they seem quite sane and functional, barely mentioning almost any of it. Despair feels ever-present but not all-encompassing. Humanity is suspended on the brink of extinction, there is no escape, and even the best ending feels bittersweet, but none of that has to matter at this very moment. We sow seeds me may not reap, and we reap seeds we may not sow, but there is always perseverance.
I am not familiar with Ellison's work and have not read the source material. Perhaps much of what fascinates me about this game is rooted in his lack of experience in the medium. I suck at puzzle games and this is basically my first point-and-click but progression frankly is frequently and unfairly obtuse. Just finishing one of the scenarios is strenuous enough; actually "beating" each one and getting to the endgame seems borderline impossible without outside help. No doubt the game could be woven more tightly so that the morality of player actions could be highlighted instead of mundanely scanning and scavenging every area. The game's sense of morality is what really interests me about it, because it almost feels inconsistent. There are times when murder is permissible and others when it locks you out of the best ending, and there's no real understanding of the distinction. However, there is novelty in the way it champions the characteristic of nobility, instead of blanket good-or-bad options most games with a modern morality system offer you.
More fascinating is how the game feels so well-suited to the interactive medium despite being an adaptation. The control system AM feels more ingrained and supreme here because you are playing this on a computer, one that dares you hold fast to your principles and see an end to this abstracted juddering abyss. It's something that could only work to this level of effectiveness in this medium, where you can not only witness nightmarish imagery that defies description but interact with it and participate in its world, all to prove some depraved computation of the devil wrong. There's good and bad but it made for one heck of a game to start the year off with.
I am not familiar with Ellison's work and have not read the source material. Perhaps much of what fascinates me about this game is rooted in his lack of experience in the medium. I suck at puzzle games and this is basically my first point-and-click but progression frankly is frequently and unfairly obtuse. Just finishing one of the scenarios is strenuous enough; actually "beating" each one and getting to the endgame seems borderline impossible without outside help. No doubt the game could be woven more tightly so that the morality of player actions could be highlighted instead of mundanely scanning and scavenging every area. The game's sense of morality is what really interests me about it, because it almost feels inconsistent. There are times when murder is permissible and others when it locks you out of the best ending, and there's no real understanding of the distinction. However, there is novelty in the way it champions the characteristic of nobility, instead of blanket good-or-bad options most games with a modern morality system offer you.
More fascinating is how the game feels so well-suited to the interactive medium despite being an adaptation. The control system AM feels more ingrained and supreme here because you are playing this on a computer, one that dares you hold fast to your principles and see an end to this abstracted juddering abyss. It's something that could only work to this level of effectiveness in this medium, where you can not only witness nightmarish imagery that defies description but interact with it and participate in its world, all to prove some depraved computation of the devil wrong. There's good and bad but it made for one heck of a game to start the year off with.