Cult classic 90s point-and-click horror I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is – in a slightly unexpected turn of events – making the jump from PC to PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch courtesy of Night next Thursday, 27th March, courtesy of Nightdive Studios.
As well-read sorts will no doubt immediately recognise, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is based on author Harlan Ellison’s influential post-apcalyptic short-story of the same name. Its point-and-click adaptation – developed by Cyberdreams and The Dreamers Guild – released in 1996, building on the story from an extensive outline penned for the game by Ellison himself.
I Have No Mouth’s game adaptation, as in the short story, focusses on the last five human survivors of an apocalypse orchestrated by a sadistic AI, who’ve all been kept alive and tortured by that same artificial intelligence (here voiced by Ellison himself) for over a century. It follows each character’s final trial and the personalised psychological torments inflicted upon them by the computer, each unfolding over its own chapter and playable in any order.
With freedom perhaps now finally in reach for each character if only they can satisfy the murderous AI’s whims, players must confront story shaping moral dilemmas as each trial unfolds. That’s alongside the kind of disturbing, provocative horror themes that set the game apart from its point-and-click contemporaries back in 1996 – themes that helped I Have No Mouth garner strong critical acclaim on release, despite it ultimately proving to be a comemrcial flop.
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’s console release is built on remaster specialist Nightdive Studios’ earlier PC version, itself well over a decade old at this point. “Over the last couple of years,” the studio explains in its announcement, “we’ve seen a lot of love for the original game and Harlan Ellison’s short story across social media platforms… It only felt right that we helped make this title more accessible and further preserve its legacy.”
And if that appeals, I Have No Mouth will be available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch when it launches next Thursday, 27th March.