I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (what a title, what a game)

When I first read Harlan Ellison's 1967 short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," I wouldn't say I enjoyed it.  It's not really the kind of work that exists to be enjoyed, so much as appreciated.  Preferably with a nice, hard, glass of whiskey and a pillow to cry into afterwards.  By way of quick summary, Ellison's short story takes place in a Cold War future where humanity has been all but annihilated by nuclear war, triggered by an artificial intelligence called the Allied Mastercomputer, or AM.  The only 5 survivors have been kept alive by AM for 109 years after the destruction, and have been tortured and physically altered by the malevolent computer, which at this point is completely insane.  The group is kept in a hellish half-life with the bare minimum of food, always at the point of starvation.  It is this driving need that compels them to go on journeys across and under the ruined landscape of Earth, pursued by vicious creatures that AM lets loose, and punished severely when they try to escape.  The ending, which I will not spoil here, is incredibly bleak, the closing lines of which form the story's title (which, depending on how you take it, may be a spoiler in of itself).  Such a topic probably doesn't seem like natural fodder for a video game, but, in 1995, they made one.

Ellison was intrigued, but also quite skeptical at first at having his work adapted to the PC, and it was the question of game writer David Sears that cemented his commitment to the project:  "Why were these people saved?  Why did AM decide to save them?"  It is that guiding question that drove Ellison to revisit the individuals imprisoned in this post-apocalyptic hell, and give them a stunning amount of depth.  The game version of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream does away with the central plot of a quest for food, instead putting the player in control of each of the five humans, as AM subjects them to a little game of his own devising.  In this point-and-click adventure you must guide each main character through their own twisted scenario, before finally attempting to confront AM itself via a "backdoor program" opened to you by one of AM's old enemies:  The Russian and Chinese supercomputers that AM absorbed into itself at the start of the war.

Each scenario is dreamlike and bizarre, ranging from a primitive jungle setting to the Holocaust to fantasy castles and pyramids.  Whether or not these places actually physically exist is open to interpretation, but what is certain is that each has been carefully tailored to prey on the traumas and fears of the character in question.  Nimdok's scenario, for instance, is a recreation of a Nazi concentration camp, forcing him to confront his own terrible past as a scientist who turned his own Jewish parents in to the regime.  It might at first blush seem like AM is administering a kind of twisted therapy, but as the characters gradually gain an understanding of AM's various personality facets, it becomes apparent that the insane computer is determined to prove that humanity is just as bad, if not worse, than it is.  The machine is insanely jealous of humanity's freedom of movement.  AM is cursed with a genius intellect but no means to really make use of it.

Ironically, however, if you take the right actions in the scenario, your characters will come out with a renewed sense of hope, having confronted their pasts.  Ellen's scenario, for instance, is an incredibly well done, mature meditation on the trauma of rape.  A programmer and computer scientist, Ellen was working late at a promising startup, and was assaulted in an elevator by a maintenance man in yellow overalls.  As such, AM sadistically places her in a bright yellow pyramid, full of enclosed spaces.  The final crucible of her trial involves sealing herself inside a yellow sarcophagus.  Having faced her trauma and beaten AM at his game, Ellen gains newfound confidence for the final scenario.  The other characters can also find strength from completing their missions successfully. All this said, however, even the best efforts of the player will result in only the most pyrrhic of victories in the final battle.  This ultimately tragic narrative definitely stays true to the spirit of the short story.

Still though, despite the stark final notes of the ending, I do think this game has a touch of optimism about human nature.  Even when confronted with the most horrifying traumas imaginable, even after over a century of torment, there still remains a sliver of decency and, indeed, nobility to be found in these characters.  The decisions are largely in the hands of the player.  Do you take the easy way out and sacrifice your wretched mother-in-law's heart to a jackal in order to escape?  Or do you find another way?  Taking the easy, simple path may get you to the endgame quicker, but is that any way to prove yourself better than AM?  Any machine can find the easiest path to a solution, given enough intelligence.  It is our capacity for Compassion, Forgiveness, Gallantry, and so much more that truly sets us apart from the machines. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is held up in the horror gaming pantheon as a classic, and deservedly so.  Take some time out of your life to plumb the depths of your soul.  It will be time well spent.