I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a unique gem of a point-and-click adventure game. As an adaptation of the short story of the same name it uses the genre’s characteristic features - puzzle solving, slow paced gameplay and rich atmosphere - to tell a psychological horror story where the player must guide five characters through their own personal hell-like scenarios.

What makes it different gameplay-wise from other adventures is the fact that it was meant to be 'unwinnable'. In each character’s chapter you can fail at saving them from their mental torture, indicated by their psychological 'profile picture' on screen. Certain actions might worsen their condition, which makes the omni-present control of the antagonist that more terrifying. (You can re-try each chapter, though, and already completed ones stay that way.)

As someone who loves it when video games use the unique strengths of the medium to tell a story, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream does this in a really immersive way that connects the player with the characters to share their horror.

I was sent a free copy by the devs and they were cool!

Cookie Cutter is kinda just alright. It isn't the best metroidvania out there, but it also isn't the worst thing in the world. At first I was thrown off a bit by the moments of over the top goryness and the design of the main character, how you can see her panties whenever she moves. But besides that, the art-style of the game is nice and it's kinda similar to Hi-Fi Rush.

The gameplay is fine, I never felt like I wanted to explore every nook and cranny of each room. The combat is pretty difficult at times and the arena fights can take quite a while, but completing them feels satisfying. The different weapons all look cool and have nice animations but some are just a lot weaker than others. Nothing was really bad about the platforming and movement, but it didn't really feel that good.

The weirdest part of the game I think is the pacing. So much stuff is seemingly shoved in during the final third of the game that it makes me think the devs originally planned for the game to be longer. Abilities, NPCs, Story. It all feels really rushed and undeveloped.

Also the game ends on a really abrupt cliffhanger that's not even a cliffhanger. It's just like the story stops at a certain point unsatisfyingly.

This was a nice game to play in the background while listening to some podcasts. Not that bad but not that good either.

(9-year-old's review, typed by his dad)

It's fun but hard. I like "bwomping", and most people call the square a cube even though it's not 3D! I like the game because it has a lot of customability, and you can do funny things. And my favorite part is playing the level Blast Processing (the bwomp level) because it has the best song in the game. My favorite custom song is called Endgame by Waterflame, and Waterflame makes good songs. And when will 2.2 come out? Robtop please. Please give us 2.2. Bye!