I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (PlayStation 5) Review

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is one of the great existential horror games that doesn't shy away from some unbelievably dark concepts. For such an early example of its kind, it still manages to be an arresting and surprising experience that shakes the soul and makes players reel back from its visceral gut punches. The set-up revolves around a rogue A.I. designed to run the wars for the world's super powers that goes full Skynet (before Skynet was a thing) and nukes the entire world. The sentient A.I. dubs itself "AM", as in "Cogito Ergo Sum", (I think, therefore I AM), and in its rage against humanity, it preserves the last five humans in a vain attempt to give itself purpose. For over one hundred years, AM used its insane technology to extend the life of the last humans to endlessly torture and experiment on them like some kind of living hell.

The I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream video game is sort of a semi-sequel to the twenty-something-page story. Gorrister, Ellen, Benny, Ted, and Dr. Nimdok have their own scenarios, and gamers are free to choose whoever they want to play as in any order. Gorrister was a hippie who had his heart removed and is tormented by his past and AM gleefully twists the knife, forcing him to relive an abstracted version of his life. Ellen is the only female survivor and AM uses this to prey on her insecurities while constantly reminding her of her trauma.

Ted is AM's "favourite", and keeps him in a constant state of paranoia and superiority complex in a scenario that homages classic point-and-click adventure games. Benny has been deformed beyond all recognition and degenerated his faculties to that of a primate and is forced to face the horrors he committed as a soldier. Herr Nimdok (actual name unknown) was a Nazi scientist and is the only character in the game who manages to outclass AM in terms of pure evilness.

Each scenario is like a mini adventure where each character's demons are faced in creative ways. The thing is, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream operates on another level that most gamers won't be prepared for. Being an early 90s computer adventure game would already come with the baggage of being obtuse and demand leaps of logic to parse puzzles.

AM's experiments are designed with surrealist dream-logic that compound on the confusion factor. As if this wasn't tricky enough, Ellison makes good on his promise that his game sometimes is legitimately unwinnable. There are ways to get permanently stuck in some of these chapters and this console port seemingly left them in. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream has multiple save slots for a reason and not having backups can lead to having to restart entire chapters for careless players.

Ellison's tricks don't stop with game lock-outs. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is one of the rare examples of a point-and-click adventure game where characters can lose health - or in this case "sanity". The cast can lose sanity for any number of reasons. Taking a peek at their psyche evaluation page will make it drop. The idea is to take actions that would be helpful. This isn't the kind of adventure where it's encouraged to pick up everything or check everything. There are an ungodly amount of traps and many of them won't be obvious and will lead to some bad endings or game overs. The heavy emphasis on consequences is refreshing since most modern adventure games don't ever bother with a lose-state.

After completing the five scenarios, a sixth one becomes available and sets the course for one of the seven possible endings. This is where the story goes into overdrive and explores AM's character.

The visuals are surreal and Giger-esque. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream becomes less dreamlike and more nightmarish. The graphics hold up excellently, though characters moving across screens could have been smoother.

The voice acting is very good considering the era I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream was released. Harlan Ellison famously voices AM because he basically is AM. The cover of the game is the author, and in a hilarious AM-like move, doesn't credit any of the other voice actors. The funny title of the game has multiple meanings and the dark themes are handled way better than most games attempt today. There are some Silent Hill 2-esque moments present that still impress.

Playing I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is tricky. The console version is a straight port of the PC version with no frills. The analogue stick and d-pad moves the cursor and the verbs are mapped to the face and shoulder buttons. It's a very pragmatic button mapping and gets the job done, but it would have been nice if a little extra effort was given. Having direct control over characters would have been nice and a CRT filter would have made the visuals more authentic than the optional smoothing filter. There are no QOL features like quest markers, directions, or hint systems. That might have flown in the face of Ellison's vision of the "anti-game", as he intended I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream to be a horrible and confusing experience.