Harlan Ellison: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

The Good
This game was, for me at least, a truely unique experience. Although I have played games before with interesting plots or compelling narratives, this piece was like reading an excellent novel or watching an immersive movie. The story is rich and deep and the mood is dark and haunting. This is not merely based on the story I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream, this is an expansion on the horrifying world of the story that, rather than try to turn the short story itself into a game, covers the back story of each of the main characters, including the super computer.

Most refreshing is that the puzzles in the game are based on ethics and human interaction, rather than flipping switches and pushing buttons (although there's some of that as well.) Though some have said that the game's puzzles boil down to either doing something noble or doing something crummy, the game is actually far deeper than that. The scenarios are multi-layered and require the player to weigh the possible outcomes of trust and deceit, keeping in mind the back story of each character and how they are likely to behave based on the commands they are given.

Also, the contributions of writer Harlan Ellison cannot be overstated. Ellison, a veteran writer of science fiction as well as other genres, brings the kind of intelligent and well built storytelling to the game that helps it rise head and shoulders above the sci-fi cliches around which many video games are built. Bravo, encore!

The Bad
As others have stated it can be difficult to get the courser to acknowledge some of the smaller objects that must be picked up or manipulated. That's really all I can think of wrong with the game. Other than that I wish that there were more games of this caliber out there.

The Bottom Line
This is and excellent adaptation of Ellison's most well known story and a wonderful experience. Dark, violent, and disturbing, the game's story and world are truely in a league of their own.