This game quickly became one of my favourite games of all time.

Sanitarium has one of the best storytelling i've ever seen in any videogame, most of the bizarre stuff that happens is a metaphor or a motif of the story and trauma of the protagonist, which is something i definitely didn't expect for an adventure game from 1998.

The puzzles are also really creative and well made, none of that unfair bullshit of many other adventure games at the time. Although, they can be a real challenge for many, is hard but fair.

But my favourite part has to be the atmosphere. The old 90's graphics aged "bad", but that makes the twisted world of the game much more unnerving. That, combined with the soundtrack, makes for one of the best atmospheres i've ever seen in a horror game, period.

In conclusion, Sanitarium is a game that any horror enthusiast or old adventure game fan must play, you'll definitely not leave dissapointed.

For the most part, I did enjoy this point-and-click adventure horror. It was released in 1998 so the language isn't the best. One particular ableist slur and demeaning toward mental patients. The main character, Max, refers to patients as "crazies" when they appear to be suffering.

Overlooking that, I did enjoy the overall story (in the real world). There are some surreal moments that make you question "wtf is going on" but in a good way during those chapters. The puzzles are mostly fun up to the last chapter, then it's just trial and error pattern puzzles. Awful design.

There are 9 chapters and 3 of them are "nightmares" where you don't play directly as Max. Those three were easily the weakest points in the game. They had very little purpose.

One chapter was so over the top "horror" that it became laughable. Imagine a horrible thing in a room. Then you move to the next room, where there is something more horrible. You move forward to the third room and GASP it's even more horrid! The game kept trying to one-up itself on horrible and evil things. Plus you knew it wasn't real so why bother to care? I was desensitized and only wanted to move on. Those chapters didn't need to exist. They only dragged out the game.

If the game could completely cut out, or least heavily condense those chapters, it would have been a tighter, more fun experience. I didn't need to see weird things happening in the nightmare world because weird stuff was happening in the real world that was more impactful.

Easily one of the greatest Point & Click games of its time period. A cult classic overlooked by the horror gaming enthusiasts. The theme of psychological horror and mental illness helps to set an incredible atmosphere to the game, accompanied by a fitting OST created by Stephen Bennet James C. McMenamy. At times the game does get bit ridiculous with how convoluted the narrative is, but I think that's also the point of it. Because we see it from the perspective of the protagonist, who undoubtedly is mentally ill. But I won't deny, it does get (un)intentionally ridiculous at times.

I remember seeing Sanitarium at Best Buy when I was about 10 years old, thinking that people are into some weird things, and dismissing it out of hand. In the last few years, several horror point and click games made their way on to my all time favorites list -- Strangeland and Stasis: Bone Totem in particular. While looking for similar games, I read that both were inspired by Sanitarium, that weird game with the guy in full facial bandages I'd seen so many years before. I picked it up on Steam last year, and finally got around to playing it this week.

So how did it hold up?

It was as weird as child me thought, and a bit painful to play. It was also fascinating and worth the time.

You play as a patient in a sanitarium, who, of course, is questionably sane and suffers from amnesia. This isn't just any sanitarium, though. It's a gothic cathedral, castle of a sanitarium. As you regain memories, you alternate exploring the sanitarium and other worlds, each of which feels like it's own little B-movie horror flick, but all of which tie into the rather satisfying overarching narrative. The environments are consistently unsettling, and the subject matter always a bit gruesome, with some fairly heavy themes (e.g. child abuse). Saying much more about the story would be spoilers, so I'll just say I felt it had a strong conclusion.

The point and click puzzles weren't as bad as I was worried about, with most of the logic being fairly intuitive and even enjoyable. There were a few places where the pixel hunting really hurt the flow of the game. The biggest issue with the gameplay is the movement, though. Sanitarium's protagonist is one of the slowest beings ever to grace a video game. To make matters worse, there is a click and hold control scheme, in which he moves toward the cursor when you right click -- but only along the 8 cardinal directions and diagonals. I ended up resorting to a walkthrough for a couple of the pixel hunt situations since I simply could not work up the willpower to make another clunky lap around the current area.

Still, the game is absolutely worth a play for a modern audience. The story holds up well, the environments are still quite interesting, and the puzzles are enjoyable or easily bypassed with walkthrough. It's worth playing on its own merits, not just for the impact that its had on the horror adventure genre.

It's over...

☆

As one can tell by a quick visit to my profile, I am extremely picky about my games and their ratings. I have about 3 or 4 games that I have given a five-star rating, and this is another one that just takes the cake. Sanitarium was a ride from start to finish with various twists and turns unfolding through each chapter as you slowly piece together the story of what's going on and how you came to be in the locations you end up experiencing. It's your average point-and-click style game in which the gameplay isn't really anything riveting, the story being what makes it. The true horror of this game doesn't come from monsters or jump scares, but the idea that the enemy may be closer than you'd think. Although some of the puzzles proved to be slightly difficult and definitely required some brainpower, I feel like it was all worth it in the end since I very much enjoyed my experience. There was never a dull moment while going through this game, and never did I ever find it to be slow. This is yet another one of those games where you feel like you just can't say too much without completely spoiling the entire point of it, so all I can really say is JUST PLAY IT!!! It's so worth it!

Don't go into this thinking it'll be some cerebral meditation on what it means to be struggling with mental illness or anything like that, it's not that kinda game. Also if you're playing the gog version play it through scummvm to take out the nasty cursor smearing and improve the performance some.

That being said, for what it is it's a neat story to piece together as you play along, with some really interesting locations and scenarios you're brought to. It gets pretty campy, and the plot can be pretty easy to piece together early on, but it's got a nice heart to it I can't help but admire. The game just has that weird experimental vibe I love from this era of adventure games, pushing the envelope on the subjects it depicts, whilst not being just a sludgefest of "what edgy thing can we cram in here?" cough HARVESTER cough
It's got a nice amount of thought put into the design, the characters, and keeps you pretty engaged throughout (mostly, except for the part before the finale anyhow).

It's also one of the better late 90s point and clicks about signposting and no moon-logic, and a lot of the puzzles being simple yet engaging. You will have to pixel hunt for some items though, and there are the matching game puzzles that are lackluster, as well as one puzzle that was real tedious.

Overall though I was surprised with how streamlined this game's design was compared to contemporary/earlier point and clicks. That and its intriguing story; far out scenarios and characters, as well as a likeable dork protag all make for a game worth seeing through at the very least.

W tę grę chciałem zagrać co najmniej od roku 2013. Wtedy ją kupiłem, ale jakoś nigdy nie było mi po drodze na PC. Teraz dopiero udało mi się za nią zabrać na Steam Decku. Przeszedłem jakieś 60% gry z tego co widzę i zupełnie mi się przestała podobać. Nie żeby mi się w jakimkolwiek momencie wyjątkowo podobała. Strona techniczna jest naprawdę zła (np. brak pathfindingu, trzeba trzymać prawy przycisk myszy, aby poruszać się postacią, a bohater nie potrafi sam przejść nawet kilkunastu metrów, aby trafić do celu), ale jestem w stanie to przeboleć grając w dwudziestopięcioletnią grę. Niestety nie podoba mi się ani setting, ani styl graficzny, ani fabuła, ani NPC, ani zagadki. Właściwie to nic mi się nie podoba i grałem trochę siłą rozpędu, mając świadomość, że to krótka gra, a jednocześnie czując jak mi się dłuży. Ostatecznie sprawdziłem jeden z poradników, aby zobaczyć ile mi jeszcze do końca zostało i okazało się, że zdecydowanie za dużo.

Cutscenki są w 15fps (dosłownie, widać na Gamescope w SteamOS), animacje drewniane (może kiedyś robiły wrażenie), gra nie ma żadnego pathfindingu, np. często klika się na obiekt znajdujący się zaraz obok postaci, na co ona stwierdza, że nie ma tam dojścia. Wtedy należy westchnąć i trzymając prawy przycisk myszy ją przeprowadzić w to miejsce w iście żółwim tempie. Tempo poruszania się bohatera jest dobijające. Dostęp do ekwipunku jest zrobiony fatalnie. Voice acting jest co najwyżej średni. Gra nie posiada żadnego systemu podświetlania aktywnych elementów na ekranie (takie czasy...), a przedmioty się niczym nie odróżniają od prerenderowanych teł, więc w Sanitarium mamy do czynienia z najgorszym rodzaje pixel huntingu w grach przygodowych. Raz chyba pół godziny chodziłem tam i z powrotem po lokacji aż w poradniku doczytałem, że mam jakiś klucz francuski podnieść, którego nie widziałem. Innym razem w sumie przypadkiem podniosłem kamień z ziemi, a potem na YT jak szukałem info o czymś innym to widziałem filmik z gameplayu Sanitarium z "RANDOM STONE" w tytule i się uśmiechnąłem tylko :D

Mi nie leży w ogóle świat przedstawiony, sam początek był trochę Kingowski, ale z balonika szybko zeszło powietrze, a potem było coraz gorzej. W szczególności cyrk mnie wymęczył. Chyba nie lubię cyrków i klaunów. 😉

Starts off as a pretty solid psychological horror but leans too hard towards the absurd later on, akin to watching a lackluster version of Courage the Cowardly Dog. The transparent metaphors didn't help alleviate it either.

Nevertheless, it's a pretty simple story of a man learning to deal with his guilt, and for a crudely animated janky ass point-and-click game, it did manage to evoke some genuine emotional moments.

I just wish good things happened to video game characters named Max.