Sanitarium

Sanitarium is a isometric horror adventure game in the same vein as most other adventure games. Yet its puzzles are innovative, the storyline intelligent and surprising, and the emotional impact astounding. If it had only been longer, and a bit more polished, it could've been "the best", instead of only "one of the best". You star as Max. Sanitarium starts off as Max steps into his car and calls a loved one to reveal some "important" information. Supposedly, Max had made a astounding discovery in the not yet revealed field of work, that had been quite obvious. While promising to tell all the details when home, Max attempts to stamp his brake at the turn, whereupon too late he discovers that the brakes have been slashed. The game begins as you wake inside a Asylum of sorts, with no memory previous occurences. This simple begining sets up a fantastic story. One of the first things you'll realize when you play Sanitarium is the great artwork. Characters are all interesting and memorable, and the pre-rendered backgrounds are both disturbing and beautiful to behold. But to tell the truth, Sanitarium is not for the weak of stomach, at times I wonder how the game managed to acheive only a Teen rating, instead of Mature. Certain scenes are incredibly gory (the sight of a disgusting experiment in a bloody lab) and others are just a bit too disturbing to look at for too long (small "cyclops" children trapped in grill crates). Despite it's graphic appearance, Sanitarium is never too bloody or gory just for gore's sake. Everything is used in the perfect context to create the perfect scene, instilling the right emotions and fears inside a person at the right time. But along the line of graphics are a few of the irregularities. Some character animations are choppy at best, and don't fit with the great models. Backgrounds can sometimes be off-key with the characters in them. And at several times, graphical glitches occur, although not too major to deter from the overall look. Sanitarium really shines in the gameplay department. Although the game is certainly too short, (it can be finished in less than ten good hours by Adventure veterans) the experience is memorable while it lasts. Puzzles are never too difficult, and always involve a little investigation and logic on the player's part. Discussion with other characters is interesting, at some times disturbing, at others revealing. Everyone you meet in turn is memorable, and some of the characters are just too bizarre to forget. Although navigation is pretty easy, the movement system is a bit annoying and cumbersome at first. Moving Max around consists of holding down the right mouse button, and pushing it in the direction you wish to move. Too many times I accidently stepped down stairs instead of walking along a narrow pathway. It quickly catches on at least, and the most trouble you'll have is the occasional misstep. Although sound is fine and dandy, the voice acting suffers in some cases. Max's acting is sub-par, and some characters are just atrocious. This is even more bizarre crediting to the fact that some actors are superb. Sounds are sometimes wonky, and there's a definite lack of music. Otherwise the atmosphere set up by the menagerie of different sounds and graphics is perfect. There you have it, if you want a good, short time, Sanitarium is worth picking up. Although it has it's collection of problems, these are too small to deter the game much, and Sanitarium still manages to please. But I can only award it so much credit, as there are some polish issues that could have been easily avoided. But Sanitarium's story alone makes it worth playing, and its great gameplay can only help more.

Sanitarium is truly a masterful example of p'n'c adventures. I could end it right there, if I so wish, but I won't. It would be unfair not to mention the fantastic elements of this one of a kind game. The highlight of Sanitarium is most certainly the plot. From beginning to end, there is not a moment where you will not be (at least slightly) confused and possibly disgusted. After all, you are in a madhouse. Or inside your mind? Or inside your *minds*? Or something completely unexpected? I won't spoil anything, but I can say that the game, divided into chapters, is thought out and planned with care and reads like a good book. A good, terrifying book. The game's production cost must have been high when it came out. All of the locations are pre-rendered, but done so beautifully. Characters are 2D sprites of high quality and detailed animation, fitting into their backgrounds perfectly. The art style fits the game's mood, and that's always a plus. Every bit of dialogue is voiced, including the thoughts of your protagonist, sometimes it's great, sometimes it's a bit lacking or cheesy. The music is somber, chilly and sometimes completely unexpected. There are lots of FMVs too, adding to the story. The gameplay is standard p'n'c fare, in terms of collecting items, using items, solving puzzles, talking to characters and exploring locations. The difference between Sanitarium and other games in the genre is in structure: the game is divided into chapters, and each chapter is actually played on one single big screen. The screen is divided into closed and open areas - ie. standing in front of an open door will "open" the room to your view and slightly darken the outside. This completely eliminates any loading times in the chapters themselves, which is a huge thing for immersion. The controls are a bit different too, everything is done with the mouse and its two buttons. The left one for interacting with objects/NPCs and holding the right one for movement in the direction you choose (ie. holding the right button and moving the mouse left will move your character left). The inventory is simple and appears by clicking on the protagonist: items appear in a circle around you, pointing over them brings up a description and clicking on them makes them usable with the environment. NPC dialogues are done with topics. Talking to a character brings up a screen on the bottom with your picture and the NPC picture, with topics in the middle. Ie. talking about "You" will bring up the question "Who are you?" and so on. Talking about topics almost always brings up new topics. It's important to talk to everyone (and every...thing) because new topics appear a lot. A nice visual touch is that the pictures represent the mood of the protagonist (an angry face for rebuttals or a shocked face for revelations, etc.). The puzzles themselves are mostly fairly logical, you just need to adapt to the certain chapter (like I said, I won't spoil anything). There's a decent amount of items and chances to use them, but not much (if at all) combining. It's important to note that everything needs to be examined first before you can use it/pick it up. The only bad thing about Sanitarium might be its ending. I say 'might' because it's a personal preference. To me, it feels a bit rushed. The final puzzle is excellent and challenging, but the end leaves you wanting for a bit more. Some users also reported a few bugs, but nothing that can't be fixed with a few clicks on Support here on GOG. Other than that, you're in for a great and mad experience. I wholeheartedly recommend this game. Definitely one of the best games in GOG's catalogue, dare I say it.

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.

This game is worth it for the intriguing story. It gets especially good in the final chapters, when you finally start to figure out what's going on. My issue was simply that the character was hard to move, and several times I found myself doing the right action (clicking on X), but I was just a teensy weensy bit off in my clicking so the action didn't register, and I thought my solution was incorrect. Some of the inventory items are hard to see and blend into the background as well. The puzzles were okay (mostly inventory/dialogue puzzles--as mentioned, my biggest problem wasn't coming up with the solution but clicking in the right spot). It was often a total pain to get the character to move in the direction you wanted him to. Despite these drawbacks, it's a fun little game and worth the half a day it takes to beat it.