I Have No Mouth, and I Must Review This Game.
+ There's alot of interesting puzzles on your hands.
+ Innovative loot-n-use mechanics.
+ Adjunctive descriptions for viewing scenes keeps things from becoming stale.
+ A story that's immtitating...and quite lengthy.
- The graphics have aged like milk.
- The entire structure of the game can easily be generated by free adventure making programs found and downloaded from the internet.
- Some puzzles seem a little goofy.
- The game is not as scary as the title.
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"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"? Wow, what a lovely name. Adapted from Ellison's famous novel book of the same name, Its true, and it fits the game, especially the brillant storyline implemented in the game. But that isn't a fraction of it. This one is mechanically an addictive accomplishment, and there is alot of things to see and do in the post-apcolypse universe ruled by cyborg abominations. As far as I'm concern, IHNMAIMS is one of the best adventure horror (even though its not that scary) games made; I have no mouth either, and I must tell you to buy it.
This game's story takes place almost 100 years after the supposed extiction of the entire human race. The seemingly "Cold War" recently just worsened into a world war, competed between China, Russia, and the United States. As our technologly increased (the game takes place in the future), war machines called 'AM's were built to turn the tide of the war and make it easier to win. Unfourtetly, one of those machines somehow generated a free will, and decided that humanity is its burden to true freedom, killing everybody but 5 people. You are one of those 5 people, stranded in the AM's underground complex that effectly makes you virtually immortal under the power Cybercratic Singularity that is cuffing them. AM is depicted as all sorts of derranged monsters throughout the horrid caves and underground complex, and the rest of those around you are mere 'prototyped' slaves and nano-enhanced soliders who sneer at anyone who passes. You can choose any of the 5 characters, each with their different storyline and gameplay path to follow. Whichever you choose, you're guided through the game, hellbent on breaking free from the AM computer that has the ability to torture you eternally but not kill you, and the brilliant ending to the game adds the name "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream". It loses the scare after a couple hours into the game, but the atomesphere still fills its promise, and you just got to like it for that. There's no point in spoiling anything else for you, but know that IHNMAIMS has one of the best storylines ever generated for a game.
IHNMAIMS is a point-and-click adventure game prim and proper. You're set into third-person perspective and you can move your character around by clicking anywhere in the current room with a helpful crosshair mouse. You can interract with any piece of the enviorment; flip on a light switch, go through a door, observe eye-catching scenery, pick up items (like helpful keys), and that sort of stuff. If you arrive at the right time, you can also talk with npcs and, depending on the character you've choosen to play with, will have different dialouge options that are somewhat hilarious. You may talk to them, shout to them, push them, shuve them, hit them, or stare at them to your heart's content with the HUD options provided. And needless to say, the interference is interresting with weird actions you can make yourself do. Its almost like playing Emoter.com in a much more morhbid sense.
Besides clicking on the screen to move from place to place, anything you need to worry about is, in first place, finding the AM machine that is haunting you and destroy it. And to do that, you need to overcome the "obstecles" that it has littered all over the complex solely to agervate you as much as possible. For instance, if you come walking past a locked door, its just hinting that you need to open it somehow. And how? By either clicking all over the screen, and other screens, looking for the key or the lever to open it. Sometimes, you might need to "examine" it first to get a clue, or maybe a firm "PUSH" will open it in a certain place? And there isn't a whole lot of combat invovled in the game, but when you come across a bad apple, immortal or not, it's time to stab them bloody with a knife or blast them with a double-barrel shotgun.
For graphics, IHNMAIMS hops onto an old, classic chinese anime book. The characters and monsters look decently colorful, and the scarred face of a character named Nimund dreads the entire atomesphere by one huge leap. The sound, strangely, did not play on my machine, so I cannot rate that half.
The only thing that trips the game from treading on the toes of a perfect 10 is that the entire game can be created in just a week by some Adventure Making software that's free to download from the web. In fact, despite of the innovative storyline and lengthy flow, it is hinted at the Wikipedia that the story was written in less than a day, making no changes from the first and final draft. So its very possible to just download a free software like Adventure Maker and recreate this entire game for free in your own image. Even so, IHNMAIMS maybe be the sentinent of a masterpiece that you might make, and if you aren't one of those types, its a whole lot of fun for a casual adventurer. Just don't expect it to be that scary. In conclusion, walk towards if you like point-and-clicker. Walk away if you dislike the genre.