Based on Harlan Ellison’s short story, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream casts you as five humans imprisoned by AM, an insane master computer. The characters include Gorrister, Benny, Ellen, Nimdok, and Ted, each with a distinct troubled history. Rather than following a single hero through one continuous setting, the adventure moves among five individual characters and their unique environments, tying its structure to their personal fears and pasts.
Its central challenge is psychological: explore the characters’ hidden histories, face emotionally charged dilemmas, and try to outwit AM. That focus makes the game’s adventure format about confronting inner conflicts as well as the threat posed by the computer. The disturbing, adult-oriented themes are part of its distinctive design, while digitized speech and animation support its presentation; Harlan Ellison voices AM.
Its five perspectives and psychological conflicts define the experience described here, with the player taking on each character’s predicament in turn. That premise, more than a focus on competition or shared play, is the clearest guide to what kind of game this is.
