I’m glad I finally played I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. Its concept very easily draws players in, and to an extent, I even enjoyed banging my head against its opaque puzzles, knowing that each subsequent episodic level would bring a refreshing protagonist and style. Besides an underwhelming finale and some questionable puzzle design, the game is not as misanthropic or depressing as it would seem. Instead, it will always be narratively remarkable as the sole video game in Harlan Ellison’s expansive body of stories, scripts, comics, and teleplays. Ellison passed away in 2018 at the age of 84 but may his morbid and gleeful performance as AM live on for at least another hundred and nine years.