I'm a huge fan of Harlan Ellison's work, and I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is my favorite short story of all time. So I naturally became interested in this game. I keep hearing both good and bad things about it. It won a few awards, but it received a highly negative review from a GameSpot editor.  
 
So is this game worth playing? Or is it a horrible game that I should avoid?

Fuck yes!

Definitely, it's an incredible adventure game experience, it has so much story and is a true adult game experience.

It is a horrible game that is worth playing. Go out and play it!

EDIT: Ha! I didn't realize that was such an old thread :)

I don't have anything to say here right now.

However, I do love how this question that was asked 1 year, and 2 months ago is answered again today.

Can this game be acquired as a download?

@Gerhabio: No, I believe the only legal way to acquire the game is to buy the original CD-ROM version old school mail order style from the official Harlan Ellison Record Collection (listed under books).

It's a horrible game in that there is a very specific list of esoteric things one must accomplish in order to get the "good" ending. It's been a while though so I don't remember exactly how that goes. It's a fairly wonky point and click game with an interesting premise. A much better game in terms of gameplay AND story is Sanitarium

highly negative review from a GameSpot editor.

Well, which one?

EDIT: Nevermind, it was Ron Dulin. Whoever that is.

@Humanity said:

It's a horrible game in that there is a very specific list of esoteric things one must accomplish in order to get the "good" ending. It's been a while though so I don't remember exactly how that goes. It's a fairly wonky point and click game with an interesting premise. A much better game in terms of gameplay AND story is Sanitarium

This is true (though I haven't played sanitarium). It's annoyingly picky and weird and some of the puzzles are downright stupid. I played about halfway through but when I hit the wall I watched the rest on youtube. I enjoyed watching it more.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream was some scary stuff. A new version by Telltale would be neat.

If you don't play it, at least read/watch the Let's Play of it (http://lparchive.org/I-Have-No-Mouth-and-I-Must-Scream/).

The game goes down some really fucking dark paths, man. Especially with Nimdok and Ellen (if you're really impatient, you could skip to part 27 to see what I'm talking about, but I'd suggest reading through the rest first).

I Have No Legs, and I Must Walk