I can't properly describe the happy dance I did when IHNMAIMS got re-released on Steam a few months ago. As a young lad the demo of this bleak, creepy adventure game had haunted me, but never did I save enough allowance to buy the full game before it disappeared into the ether. Now, at last, I can revisit it and experience the horror for myself... and discover it's not all that horrifying, but it's still a fine adventure game.

Well, the premise is horrifying at least. The mad supercomputer AM has obliterated humanity, preserving only five individuals to torture for more than a hundred years. Now AM wants to play a special game with them, one that could result in their freedom, if they can overcome their fears and regrets. Each of the characters has some dark secret that AM has used to torture them; one was a Nazi doctor, another had his wife committed, and so on. You chose which scenario to play through, and if you die (yes, you can die in this adventure game, but it's only a temporary setback) you get to choose again. The gameplay is what you'd expect of an adventure game, though my impression is that this one is lighter on the item collecting and combining and more on interacting with the scenery and other characters. It can be a bit of a pixel hunt at times, and some of the puzzles are a little obtuse owing to the nightmarish nature of the scenarios AM concocts.

What really got me was the voice acting. I didn't even recall the game being voice acted when I was a child, and honestly the game is probably better served without it. The godlike supercomputer taunts his victims like a stuffy DOTA player ridiculing his team. The one woman of the group talks in some seriously dated 90s forced ebonics that gets pretty cringeworthy at times. The writing itself generally holds up, but there are occasional tonal shifts where a character tries to make a funny in the midst of confronting their horrors. Sadly, this one isn't quite as atmospheric and creepy as I had remembered, but it's a solid enough adventure game from what I've seen. And the world always needs more unique adventure games.

I can't properly describe the happy dance I did when IHNMAIMS got re-released on Steam a few months ago. As a young lad the demo of this bleak, creepy adventure game had haunted me, but never did I save enough allowance to buy the full game before it disappeared into the ether. Now, at last, I can revisit it and experience the horror for myself... and discover it's not all that horrifying, but it's still a fine adventure game. Well, the premise is horrifying at least. The mad supercomputer AM has obliterated humanity, preserving only five individuals to torture for more than a hundred years. Now AM wants to play a special game with them, one that could result in their freedom, if they can overcome their fears and regrets. Each of the characters has some dark secret that AM has used to torture them; one was a Nazi doctor, another had his wife committed, and so on. You chose which scenario to play through, and if you die (yes, you can die in this adventure game, but it's only a temporary setback) you get to choose again. The gameplay is what you'd expect of an adventure game, though my impression is that this one is lighter on the item collecting and combining and more on interacting with the scenery and other characters. It can be a bit of a pixel hunt at times, and some of the puzzles are a little obtuse owing to the nightmarish nature of the scenarios AM concocts. What really got me was the voice acting. I didn't even recall the game being voice acted when I was a child, and honestly the game is probably better served without it. The godlike supercomputer taunts his victims like a stuffy DOTA player ridiculing his team. The one woman of the group talks in some seriously dated 90s forced ebonics that gets pretty cringeworthy at times. The writing itself generally holds up, but there are occasional tonal shifts where a character tries to make a funny in the midst of confronting their horrors. Sadly, this one isn't quite as atmospheric and creepy as I had remembered, but it's a solid enough adventure game from what I've seen. And the world always needs more unique adventure games.