User Reviews (1 - 11 of 65)

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PC game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I read lots of great reviews for this game that made me want to play it. It will not play on my XP. Talked to a lot of other gamers that tried to help but nothing worked. Am holding onto it in case I can get a chance to play it on another computer. I don't think it is XP compatible.

This is BY FAR the best game I have ever played.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It kept my interest from the first second to throughout the game. I couldn't wait to see where I would be taken next. It is the most intriguing game I have ever played, I HIGHLY recommend it. You WON'T be disappointed.

Scary in the most personal way possible o.O

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is the kind of game that sneaks its way past your defenses and bursts into flame right inside your horrified mind. Starting off rather innocuously in a vaguely noir setting, the story morphs into something worthy of Poe or Lovecraft or even (*shudder*) Kafka. The vague feeling of someone stepping on your future grave persists (and this is absolutely unique in all my game-playing experience) even after significant breaks in play (when one simply has to stop playing and say, go to work lol).

Anyway, you will be disturbed by this game, but not in the horror genre's usual "I have no imagination so I must bleed" way. Subtlety, symbolism and tantalizing hints at "reality" underlie every scenario conceived of in this truly wonderful game.

Original in it's approach

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: April 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Quite the little breakthrough when this game came out, although on the surface one would not really know why..Yes the graphics are especially nice for the time, the tone is decidedly dark, and the plot is unusual, but what players became facinated by was the development of the story and how it related to your gameplay..More game makers should take the cues that psychology plays in this game, as it offers an entirely new, less restrictive playground for the seasoned player to venture off into..

Pretty Good Starter Adventure

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you want a good adventure starter game and like 'unusual' mind-twisting; you will enjoy this game. I also liked McGee's Alice in Wonderland, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Darkfall.

Highly Recommended

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: June 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game recently through Amazon by a 3rd party seller. It is the "original" game, not the re-released jewel case XS version. It worked flawlessly on my XP. The game is great if you enjoy puzzles (most weren't too difficult to solve)and a good story line. The graphics are old compared to more recent games, but who cares? It was good fun, & I will play it again (unlike other games). I definately recommend it!

Highly Imaginative Puzzle Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game. I would classify it as a puzzle game with a story that is a cross between Horror and Fantasy (Those kids on level 2 are so creepy!). Normally I do not have much patience with games that just involve talking to people and collecting objects, but in this game I found that I liked the levels so much that it did not seem at all boring.

The levels are very diverse. You play as a mental patient walking through a hospital who turns into a little girl visiting the circus, who then changes back to himself only to turn into a comic book hero in an insect colony on the next level. It all may sound a little confusing, but it is all part of the same story.

The graphics, sound, and story all feel like a psychotic psychedelic dream. (One of the creators even thanks his dealer in the end credits.)

The game is not perfect however. Before you begin playing you must get a patch for the game. Even though the defect is only on level 2 it feels incredibly frustrating to know that you have to start the entire game over. So make sure you fix it before you begin.

Second, the controls very often feel less than precise. It feels like half the game is spent running up and down stairs when all you want to do is walk past a staircase. And the handful of action sequences make it clear just how precarious the controls are.

Lastly, I thought that the puzzles were either a little too easy or way too hard. I broke down and cheated by looking at one of the online walkthroughs when I was hopelessly stuck. When I looked at the solution I felt that I would never have solved it on my own (case in point: that bug control panel to the furnace in "The Hive").

The drawbacks of the game, however, are dwarfed by all of the things that are done well.

Very pleasant creepy and surprising adventure!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Man, I had the pleasure to play this one, that I consider one of the greatest adventure games ever made after Monkey Island!! This is a horror-freak based game that will surprised you in every chapter, in every action that you perform!! A bunch of different and freak worlds with intrincated and very creative puzzles and a involving story that will give to you lots of funny moments!! It's been 9 years that this game was released, and I still play this masterpiece like if 'twas released yesterday! Buy it now!

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". :)

Very Different Indeed

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I loved this game and was constantly impressed by the bizarre storyline. The puzzles were also very fun, but not so hard that I found myself banging my head against the wall trying to figure them out. I highly recomend this game if your looking for an adventure game without constant mind boggling puzzles.

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