Posted April 25, 2010
Suspenseful plot, nice graphics, iffy movement controls
"Sanitarium" is a point & click adventure with a very engaging and creative storyline and nicely painted graphics, which is somewhat hampered by dodgy movement controls and "pixel hunting". It begins with a bandaged man waking up in an insane asylum, with no memories of who he is and how he got there. The answers to these two questions quickly take a backseat since this wing of the asylum is about to blow up. Then, the apparitions start.
The story really holds one's attention, keeping the player as much in the dark as the game's protagonist. Is he insane or are there indeed supernatural forces at work? You will eventually find out.
User interaction is mostly mouse-driven, with a handful of useful (and optional) keyboard shortcuts to speed up progress at a late point in the game. The quickload keyboard shortcut doesn't work, making the quicksave option mostly useless. The protagonist can't run, he will doggedly walk the direction you drag the mouse. He will occasionally get stuck around corners, making navigation somewhat frustrating.
The environments are displayed in a fixed isometric perspective, much like Syberia and other adventure games. The graphics mix renders with hand-painted graphics. The results look good, sometimes even striking. When the main character seems to spiral into madness, it makes for some pretty spectacular settings and a few left-field puzzle solutions. Puzzle solutions are rewarded with pre-rendered cut scenes which are displayed in interlaced mode for performance reasons.
Some puzzles are frustrating due to the fact that you first have to locate small, unremarkable items within a busy environment. This is often derided by adventure gamers as "pixel hunting": You have to move the mouse cursor across the whole screen, looking for a spot where the cursor changes form to indicate an object which can be picked up or used in place. I had to resort to a walkthrough twice after overlooking crucial items in the second level of the game.
Due to game's low graphics resolution, system requirements are fairly modest. I played the game on a netbook with Nvidia's ION LE chipset under Windows 7 (32-Bit) at a resolution of 1366 x 768, where the upscaling looked rather good. Some initial problems at game startup were resolved by closing background applications which try to keep their windows in the foreground. The game crashed once during a cut scene. Otherwise it ran very well, even without resorting administrator rights or other tweaks. To remove distortion, I had to change the upscaling method in the Nvidia control panel, though.
Overall, Sanitarium is an entertaining adventure with great voice acting, a suspenseful plot and a satisfying resolution. A few of the puzzles are hard to solve, but most are fair. I liked this nearly as much as the two Syberia games.
"Sanitarium" is a point & click adventure with a very engaging and creative storyline and nicely painted graphics, which is somewhat hampered by dodgy movement controls and "pixel hunting". It begins with a bandaged man waking up in an insane asylum, with no memories of who he is and how he got there. The answers to these two questions quickly take a backseat since this wing of the asylum is about to blow up. Then, the apparitions start.
The story really holds one's attention, keeping the player as much in the dark as the game's protagonist. Is he insane or are there indeed supernatural forces at work? You will eventually find out.
User interaction is mostly mouse-driven, with a handful of useful (and optional) keyboard shortcuts to speed up progress at a late point in the game. The quickload keyboard shortcut doesn't work, making the quicksave option mostly useless. The protagonist can't run, he will doggedly walk the direction you drag the mouse. He will occasionally get stuck around corners, making navigation somewhat frustrating.
The environments are displayed in a fixed isometric perspective, much like Syberia and other adventure games. The graphics mix renders with hand-painted graphics. The results look good, sometimes even striking. When the main character seems to spiral into madness, it makes for some pretty spectacular settings and a few left-field puzzle solutions. Puzzle solutions are rewarded with pre-rendered cut scenes which are displayed in interlaced mode for performance reasons.
Some puzzles are frustrating due to the fact that you first have to locate small, unremarkable items within a busy environment. This is often derided by adventure gamers as "pixel hunting": You have to move the mouse cursor across the whole screen, looking for a spot where the cursor changes form to indicate an object which can be picked up or used in place. I had to resort to a walkthrough twice after overlooking crucial items in the second level of the game.
Due to game's low graphics resolution, system requirements are fairly modest. I played the game on a netbook with Nvidia's ION LE chipset under Windows 7 (32-Bit) at a resolution of 1366 x 768, where the upscaling looked rather good. Some initial problems at game startup were resolved by closing background applications which try to keep their windows in the foreground. The game crashed once during a cut scene. Otherwise it ran very well, even without resorting administrator rights or other tweaks. To remove distortion, I had to change the upscaling method in the Nvidia control panel, though.
Overall, Sanitarium is an entertaining adventure with great voice acting, a suspenseful plot and a satisfying resolution. A few of the puzzles are hard to solve, but most are fair. I liked this nearly as much as the two Syberia games.