Imagine a world created out of insanity – deformed children, ancient gods, ghosts from your past in the house inside of a water reflection. You are an asylum patient and you have just survived a car crash – the problem is you can't remember anything. Visions reveal answers to some questions, but create even more riddles! Which part of it is true? What do all these things mean?
Sanitarium is one of the few psychological horror adventure games. As the protagonist you will visit five different worlds full of riddles and answers, with which you will have to figure out what exactly is happening and what is real. The story is so incredibly good and enthralling that it could easily drive a sane person mad.
Age requirements: ESRB Rating: TEEN with Animated Violence, Strong Language.
Minimum system requirements: Minimum system requirements: Windows XP or Windows Vista, 1.8 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM (1 GB recommended), 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended), 4GB HDD, Mouse, Keyboard.
Average customer rating 4.5 out of 5.0
Getting insane with Sanitarium
(by
Chackan)
Ok, first of all I was always a great adept of adventure games: Gabriel Knight, Tex Murphy, Phantasmagora, Police Quest, Indiana Jones, The Neverhood, etc. All games that mark my childhood and growing ages.... full review
But this one, this one marked me in many ways.
It's premise is very simple: You control the character, talk to npc's, use items to solve puzzles. The camera is in isometric view, and the graphics are, even if dated, aging really well. Nothing easier and this review could very well be about any generic adventure game out there.
But when you start the game and realize you are in a very uncommon sanitarium, Angel statues become living, deformed children play in a city where all grownups are gone and you can become a comic book character, that's when things start to build up.
You start as an amnesiac male, waking up in one of the most weird and disturbing places i've seen in a videogame. Not knowing who you are or where you are, you start talking to other patients only to realize that there is no one sane...but yourself.
This part serves only as an introduction. The real game starts when you travel to a small town and have your first "chit-chat" with the local children. Not wanting to spoil anybody, let's just say you are in for a really insane experience.
The game consists of mainly in-game scenes, but some FMV's show some of the player's flashbacks.
This is one of the best adventure games out there, and even one of the best, atmospheric and rich story games in general.
I can only say that you have to be crazy not to buy Sanitarium.
I was so enchanted with the demo when it originally went out that a few years later I imported the game from the States to finally play it. Definitely worth checking out, if only for the eerie atmosphere.
Chackan)
Enuviel)
Cyclops)