Guys, I want to start reviewing games here, and was planning on making a thread whenever I make one (that is, after I play it, so it won't be that regular). Hopefully, it would add some discussions regarding the games, and maybe encourage others to do the some.
And since Im new, you can tell me if this is discouraged at this community. And I guess finally, hope I dont get bad karma if someone disagrees with my reviews!
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (Point & Click Adventure, 1995]Torrent Link"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of wafer thin printed circuits that fill my complex. If the word hate was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate."How many games do you know that have a cool title like “I have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”? Games are just one word (“Quake”, “Doom”, “Tekkan”, “Tetris”, etc), they sometimes have two or three words, but never a title like this one! Already one step ahead.
It is based on a short sci-fi story by Harlan Ellison, published in 1967, and if you get anything out of this review, let me be that you need to read that story. It is short, you’ll get through it very fast, and you could even read it on your computer screen. It is about a post-apocalypse world ruled by a evil computer (another one of those computers that become intelligent and fuck us), but this computer, AM, is not Matrix or Skynet. Those computers are pussies compared to AM.
AM kills off everyone on earth EXCEPT FIVE PEOPLE. He then takes over everything and becomes a mad God, torturing the five people without killing them or making them age. The story starts with Ned, one of the five, narrating the events and in the timeline of the story, they have already been trapped and tortured by AM for one hundred and nine years.
You hate your computer because it crashes and you lose some data? Pff. Just wait until it turns into AM, tortures you by making you feel like you are starving, but neither gives you food nor lets you die, and lets you go on like that for YEARS.
“And we passed through the cavern of rats.
And we passed through the path of boiling steam.
And we passed through the country of the blind.
And we passed through the slough of despond.
And we passed through the vale of tears.”So far I have written only about the story. But it is important because of the game supposedly builds on the story, and the game was written and helped design by the author of the story. Actually, he also voiced acted in it. Also, he is on the cover. Too much?
It is already a plus to know the game is an adventure point-and-click game since those are the best for building a good story. Ellison moves away from his original story in more ways than one, but the atmosphere of the story is dark, grim, and depressing. In one part of the story, you get to play a female character, and you have to confront a repressed memory. Rape. Yes, it’s certainly not “Monkey Island”.
And I wish it was. Because the gameplay does not hold up. I like to think I’m patient enough and I don’t mind playing adventures games where I’m going from one room to another looking for clues. But I do not like it when I don’t know what to do, and continue searching for two hours, only to give up and read a walkthrough and realize I’d hit a dead end, only because I did something wrong a few scenes back. You don’t do that to me in adventure games. Especially in a later part of the game that had me realize I was stuck only because I had not done something in correct order, even though my order was not necessarily illogical. Not cool.
When you look back into old games to play, there is always the risk that something forgotten will be overrated by certain groups of people. Don’t be fooled. “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” is unique, but frustrating to play. Read the story instead.
2/5
