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Great Old Adventure

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 35 / 35
Date: October 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

_Sanitarium_ opens with a movie: a man on his way home from work calls his wife with the news that he has "the answer." Next thing you know, his car flies off the road. He wakes up in an institution, his face swathed in bandages, with no idea who he is, where he is or how he got there. Of course, this is exactly what he -- and you as the player -- must now find out.

_Sanitarium_ is a really great, old-style, 3rd person adventure game that combines an intriguing story with interesting puzzles, a spooky atmosphere and pretty decent graphics for its time. In its nine levels you visit various parts of the asylum, a huge insect hive, a scary circus and other places, all steeped in the main character's personal mythology. Each level not only has its own internal continuity, but is connected to the larger story by threads of symbol and dream logic. I found this fascinating and extremely well done. It was one of the things that kept me wanting to play even when it was late at night and my eyes couldn't focus any more--something I haven't experienced with a game in a while.

The puzzles are a pretty good variety: some inventory, some conversation, some mechanical. Most are pretty easy once you find what you're looking for, but there are a couple of frustrating pixel hunts where it's possible to miss the one thing you need to move on. Also, sometimes the inventory, which flashes when it can be used, has to be positioned in exactly the right place. There are also a few action sequences and you can die. Usually I really object to this in adventure games, but _Sanitarium_ handles the action the way it should be handled: the sequences are pretty straightforward, if you die you get to start again at the beginning of the sequence without going through a tedious "You failed" ending sequence or reloading from page one, you have infinite lives, and the pieces of the puzzle you have managed to solve STAY solved, so you don't have to repeat what you've already done over and over. Take a tip from this, game designers!

Navigation is a little awkward to start -- you interact using the left mouse button and move using the right -- but you get used to that quickly enough. The main problem is that the character can get sucked into things like stairs, so you spend a lot of time going back and forth (or I did, anyway). Another problem is that sometimes you have to have your character in exactly the right spot before he'll do what he's supposed to. If he's not close enough he'll say "I can't do that (or some variation thereof)." Except for sometimes, when he'll walk over and complete the action on his own. I found no rhyme or reason to this and it got a bit annoying in places.

The graphics are mid-nineties graphics: 3rd person, 2-D. So if you can't appreciate a game that doesn't have all the latest bells and whistles, you won't appreciate this one. There are some really gruesome scenes, not for the faint of heart or stomach. The voice acting is mostly pretty good but in some places character voices were hard to understand. There are subtitles, though, so that wasn't a problem. Other sound f/x were well-done, being suited to the various environments yet not too repetetive or demanding of attention.

I completed _Sanitarium_ in about 30 hours. If I had a complaint it was that the ending was a little rushed and I felt that all the gaps in the story hadn't been filled in. Still, compared to the bulk of games that are being released today, this is a great find and a worthwhile buy! If you like older adventures, _Sanitarium_ is a must.

Very straight-forward and engrossing game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 25
Date: April 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Tired of complicated controls that require you to remember 10 keyboard buttons and 5 function controls? If so, then this is the game for you. Previous games I have purchased have included: Longest Journey (too long, too many dialogs), Myst (too slow), and several of the Dreamcatcher series (Dracula and Messenger; definitely require walkthroughs). My most recent game was Black and White. Though exceptional in it graphics and permeabilites for story, the controls were IMPOSSIBLY difficult to manage. Not my cup of tea. Santitarium, on the other hand, was wonderfully simple to use. Don't get me wrong, the game is not simple in either graphics, gaming or story line; all were excellent. The game begins with a cutscene of you (the main character) driving and crashing on a wet and windy road. The game opens with the main character stuck in an old insane asylum, hence the name. The main reason that I LOVED this game is that the interface is simple; with the left and right click mouse controls giving you access to all vital components of the puzzles and characters. If you interact (talk with) another character, previous converstations are easily available to review without consulting a separate menu. Also, you are encouraged to revisit characters after you have continued on to other places in order to gain more information about the puzzles and the mystery that you are trying to solve. This game is excellent partly because of the simple, intuitive interface, but also because of the great story and cut-scenes that are woven into the game. There are also several fight/challenge sequences that are puzzles in themselves, albeit simple to overcome with some determination. True, the acting is somewhat amateurish, but it also gives the game an intimate feeling, since you will hear the same person acting the roles of several characters. Overall, a great, fun, and simple game that engrossed my son and I for over 5 days. We were not bored for a minute. Buy this game. You will not be dissatisfied.

Involving and challenging

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: December 22, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Sanitarium is a rare gem of a puzzle-solving adventure game. All puzzles are a challenge, but not too hard, and none are just there for the sake of being there (such as to prolong the game or frustrate the player). All levels relate to an overall theme which reconstruct one man's life. Each level is set in a world that the player must learn about and find clues to unlock secrets and eventually reach some goal. Levels include waking up in an asylum with no memory; a townful of mutant children, a circus, cave, and mansion, a lab where hideous experiments are conducted, and a few others. The background music was excellent, the learning curve was very easy, the puzzles were relevant and challenging, and each level was unique and had it's own story that logically relates to the overall story. I have played over a hundred PC games, and this is definitely one of my top five favorites. It is engrossing and rewarding. Worth buying by all means.

Breathtaking and haunting

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: August 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Most adventure games do not lure you in to such a haunting story with such detail and innovativeness as this one. Others I've played, while good are more light-hearted such as the King's Quest series. Others go for laughs like Day of the Tentacle or Sam And Max Hit The Road. But this game not only skillfully delivers a chilling psychological horror, it sprinkles in gimmicks that I have not seen before in this type of game.

The story literally begins in an insane asylum. You wake up, your head wrapped in bandages with no knowledge as to your identity nor why you are there. Your only clues are the inmates that gibber and bang their head against the wall and sometimes cluck like a chicken. You slowly begin to unravel the strands of a plot, but then are catapulted into an entirely new story altogether it seems.

Sanitarium throughout brings you in and out of "consciousness", traveling to different landscapes , sometimes in different bodies, and yet th ewhole thing flows very cohesively. I must admit the ending was a little disappointing and predictable but it did not spoil the fun.

Some of the new features include the direct-X like feel where you see a building, you enter it, and the side of the wall disappears to reveal the room you step into beyond. THis trick is very ingeneous in packing in all the areas and objects to investigate although on one of the chapters, I had a little trouble with it at one point.

As with all good adventures, it made me want to rush home from work to spend another evening figuring out difficult puzzles, wading through the compelling story, and guessing just what suprise would come next...despite my reluctance to discover just where this strange little story would take me next.

I Want More Games Like This!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: January 03, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Sanitarium is the idyllic horror/comic-book/mystery game. Each level is different from the next, and you never know what to expect. One moment your character is a lonely amnesiac suffering from frightening flashbacks, the next, you're a little girl wandering around a freakish circus, the next, you're a monstrous cyclops in a slimy hive, trying to escape from a Fuhrer-like leader. The graphics are wonderful and the story is choppy but fascinating. Some of the puzzles can be frustrating - But this game is definitely worth your money. It's very intense and absolutely enraptured me. I haven't been able to find any other games like it, and I wish I could... Ah well.

Nothing short of genius

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: November 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I only gave it three stars for being fun because it's not SUPPOSED to be fun . . . it's supposed to be creepy, frightening, and thought-provoking. And believe me, it is all of those things. People don't seem to like it because it's third person, but personally I greatly prefer third person to first person -- I like to be able to SEE my character. But that's just me. They're also saying it doesn't run on XP -- well, it runs on MY XP. So I have no big complaints.

Sanitarium is one of those tragically rare games that contains neither pure mindless violence nor emotionless gameplay with no sense of connection to the characters. It is chock-full of character development and at the end you find yourself surprisingly attached to the main character and a few supporting characters as well (including one that has been dead for several years). One of my favorite parts of this game is that it keeps you guessing. Rather than a straightforward start-here, end-there storyline, it keeps flashing back to events before the game began and slowly fills in plot holes as it goes, so you have to play to the very end to know the entire story.

As you probably know by now, you start out as an amnesiac who finds himself in a very unorthodox asylum (though it quickly moves on to other locations), and have to find out who the guy is and what he's doing there. Unfortunately, you can't find that out without finding out some things best left forgotton -- i.e. his poor little sister who died at age eight when he was only a few years older, and this crazy guy he worked with in med school who, rest assured, comes back to haunt him as the main antagonist. As the main character slowly gets his memory back you eventually find out how all the seemingly random aspects of the game tie together, although it does require you to turn into three other characters (I didn't quite get how the Aztec guy tied into his previous life as much as the other two). A good portion of the game (Maybe all of it -- was the sanitarium even real?) takes place in the character's own head rather than the real world, so this is not a realistic game; it's very sci-fi/fantasy.

The only reason I gave this game four stars instead of five is because there were a few cinematics that I thought were missing in dialogue, and thus the storyline seemed rushed and confusing at parts (especially the cut from the hive to the graveyard and from the lost village to the chimney incident). It did take me a little while to figure out WHY he had to pull that tube out of his wrist at the very end. Other than that, though, this is a superior game that transcends most of the others I've had experience with, and I highly recommend it.

One final note: I liked the little inside joke in the lost village where you can pick up the ruby fish even though you don't need it for anything -- it's a "red herring". :)

Wish I Could Play...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 16
Date: October 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Looking for a new PC game to play, I got Sanitarium based in part on the reviews here on Amazon. Unfortunately, I'm getting stuck on the second level because of whatever bug produces lock-up on that level. I've tried downloading the patch for this, and while I got further along the second time, it still locked up. ASC is out of biz for over a year, and I've written to DreamForge, but for now, this game is essentially a set of 3 silver drink coasters. Aaarrrrgggghhhh....

Intelligent, engrossing adventure

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: October 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is the first adventure game I have played, and I think I picked a really good one. The narrative is often up there with the best of Stephen King fiction. I liked that the mystery slowly unfolds with enough subtlety that I couldn't predict it. The writing is very intelligent for the most part. You get very emotionally involved with the story. The graphics are very well done and the animated movies are very stylish. The puzzles range from easy to difficult (I had to visit the walkthrough web site several times). This game mostly involves collecting objects and using them appropriately, and talking to the characters to receive information. There are 3 or 4 Myst-type puzzles and 3 or 4 action sequences (attacking bad guys or negotiating a maze--this is where it can be annoying to control the movement of the character by holding down the right mouse button). You have to do several gross things in order to solve the mystery, but I wouldn't say it is overly violent. It is much more psychological horror and mystery.
I found some of the voices annoying so I did most of it with the sound turned off.
Note to deaf/hearing impaired: you can do almost all of this game with the use of subtitles. However, there is a puzzle that requires you to hear a tune and replicate it. In addition, there is a radio broadcast during the closing credits that wraps everything up and tells you what happened to the main characters, but it isn't subtitled so ask a friend to tell you what they say.

It does not run on XP

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 19
Date: March 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Please don't buy the game thinking it runs on XP. It does not. I was on so many chat boards trying to find patches or help to make it run. It ran for a little and then would crash at places. What we did get to play did not impress me. However, others have said it is great. My 1 star is a little unfair because of the OS I was running.. but such is life.

Oh, the repetition...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: June 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is basically a point-and-click game with various puzzles to figure out; even the plotting itself is a puzzle to be put together to progress. That is where my primary complaint with the game comes into full bloom. The character(s) you control always move at a slow walk(there really isn't anything to run away from) and this is so annoying, especially if you have to walk from one side of an area(town, village, etc.) to another just to exchange information or gather an item only to return to the previous location. One area made me laugh at one point because I had to once more "walk!" through an entire Aztec village just to gather the lineage information for six fallen warriors. I broke out my pen and paper and subsequently got my virtual excercise. But that is not the only moment in this game that I threw my hands in the air. Another is in a small town. The character(s) are able to pick up and use items they find in rooms, along the way, etc. I am going to ruin this part of the game because it was utterly ridiculous. I was "walking!" all over town clicking in vain, trying desperately to find any sort of an answer to the state of limbo I was in, when I suddenly picked up a rock. A rock! There are rocks all over that bloody town! However, there is a lot here worth mentioning in glowing terms. The places are all interesting and filled with unnerving characters. There are many blood-filled chambers with defiled remains and maniacal behavior from the gruesome denizens that inhabit this game. There are multiple characters to be controlled, even if, in the end, they are essentially one character battling with his dementia. That plot-line is revealed at the start of the game, so don't be mad at me for unveiling it now. The mechanisms that have to be deciphered or puzzled over are all excellent as far as graphics and level of difficulty. They are not so hard as to cause violent head-shaking, yet not so easy as to allow any random clicking to unravel them. Overall, for a decent price, I can see many enjoying this game and "walking!" through the various areas patiently looking for clues...and "rocks!" If you have a lot of time to burn then this is your game. The fact that you can save the game at any point is also a large plus. Take it easy.

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