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I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
I recently completed I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream and there are many things I am confused about.
The whole spiritual barometer, thing. I have read many walkthroughs, and the most specific thing that is ever said about it is that it has some effect on the endgame.
Also the endgame includes different sections for the individual characters, but these do not affect the ending and are completely unneeded to produce the good ending. I do not understand what the point of them was?
Was it just me or is this game really really really buggy? To such an extent that the game becomes almost unplayable if you are not following a walkthrough, because you encounter game breaking bugs constantly while doing the unexpected?
Why is this game so often recommended? The characters did not seem believable to me, the mini sections the game is comprised of had stories too short to be interesting, and it is just so buggy. It it inflated because it had such mature content at a time before you could even get that on TV?
Go to the Community Playthrough thread of the same game. I’m sure your questions will be answered there.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
What a coincidence, I also just finished it. 
The bugs you’re talking about wouldn’t happen to be the dead ends? Those are deliberate (as far as I can tell). There are places where hotspots still appear after the objects have been picked up or objects that appear before they can be picked up.
I thought the game was really interesting. It’s a nice mix of settings and a fascinating gameplay that presents ideas about moral, redemption, self awareness, guilt ect. I do agree that the last part was a little confusing. Why is Nimdok the only character that can open the bridge (at least that’s what I came up with)? The skulls really requires pure guesswork.
NP: A Link Between Worlds, Beneath a Steel Sky and Vampyr
Well I created a situation with the demon where I had not interacted with the door first so that was not an option to unlock, so it was a dead-end that was obviously a bug (as the demon was still their asking me to ask him to unlock something).
I asked to eat the boy, but the game still thought that I wanted to take his place.
In the nimdok sequence going through the metal door forces the sequence forward, regardless of if you have done anything or not. So I could just circle the compound three times and be at the bunker.
Based on my reading of walkthroughs I think 2 other characters can extend the bridge, but that is just because the game randomly allows that input after randomly trying for a little while
That really brings to head another issue I thought was weird. Nimdok is so incredibly important to the plot. Basically, he invented all the science that AM uses on the prisoners and appears to be a really important person to AMs past. That others are just randos.
And the ending. The original novel ended with something similar to the bad ending. In fact every problem I have with the plot of the game (that is takes place in electronic space, that the ending is too “good”/“happy” for the story, that the story is too fragmented and not focusing on a single protagonist, that the humans do not at all act like 100 year torture victims, ect.) is remedied in the original.
I still think most of those dead ends are deliberate.
I also managed to get to the bunker without having acquired all the information I needed in Nimdoks part. A replay seems to be the only option in that case.
I think you can interact with the door and then go back to the demon and ask him to unlock it. So that one is maybe not really a dead end.
If you choose the cannibal option with the mother, AM intervenes and you have to start over. Never tried it with the boy though. That could be a real bug.
Regarding extending the brigde at the last part. Do the game just randomly choose between 3 of the 5 characters? That’s just plain weird on so many levels.
NP: A Link Between Worlds, Beneath a Steel Sky and Vampyr
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream - like so much e-literature, it’s incredibly ambitious in scope and terribly, horribly flawed in execution.
It’s a terrible game, but a compelling experiment - but the point that you bring up is what really troubles me. The game has a completely different thesis than the original story, and the addition of a happy ending marks such a complete betrayal (or, more forgivingly, an evolution?) of the original story, it feels like a completely different, and certainly less visceral and traumatic experience than the original.
Playing the game without a walkthrough is a mistake because the dead-ends and bugs are easy to miss.
That being said, there is a lot to like about the idea of IHNM&IMS; - and having Ellison provide AM’s voice is fantastic.
“The ability to dream is all I have to give. That is my responsibility; that is my burden. And even I grow tired.”
― Harlan Ellison, Stalking the Nightmare
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