10 Video Games That Use Your Imagination Against You
5. I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is one of the first games described as "nightmare fuel". Considering the story deals with sadism, genocide, and insanity, that shouldn't be surprising.
The story takes place in the future after a supercomputer called AM decides to wipe out humanity. AM's hatred for mankind is so potent, it spares five humans and makes them immortal so it can torture them forever.
The most chilling aspects of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is not what's shown but what's implied. Each human's punishment is designed to parallel his or her sins. One human is starving and says he will eat anything to survive, implying he's a cannibal.
Another human has forgotten he was a Nazi physician in his old life, but AM forces him to conduct unethical experiments on helpless victims to taunt him with his past.
Although AM teases his prisoners by describing the agony they'll endure, most of the game's violent moments occur off-screen. However, this makes the game more disturbing since your imagination pictures images far worse than anything that can be put on-screen.
It just goes to show that there is nothing more effective than the human imagination.