When Chris SmallGods mailed me about this, I was determined to post about it. Primarily… well, to cover old sins, really. Not that I ever reviewed it – Sanitarium only was released when I first inched into Staffwriterdom – but it was pretty much ignored and/or brutalised by the British games press, and slowly climbed to a cult-status ever since. It’s basically – if you squint – John the Baptist to Planescape Torment’s Jesus Christ in terms of the failure of UK critical response of the period. Anyway – this psychological adventure game is now available on GoG. I’ve never played it, but – from what I’ve had grasped from God knows how many conversations about it from friends – that it’s basically Psychonauts if the designers didn’t find anything funny about mental illness. The examination of Lucasart’s influence on the adventure is manifold… but in reducing suitable topics for adventure games to “gags” if probably the most noticeable, were I to be critical.
Anyone played it? Do you think it’s still worth playing? And similar! The ever-handy youtube Footage follows…
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Tried to install the old demo of it but got a “win 16 subsystem” error even with Win 95 compatibility mode. Oh well. Since I’m not big on adventures, and have enough games on my plate, I probably won’t go for this ’til the price drops even more, but it does sound a little intriguing.
Not really. More excellent game vs good game.
PS:T has a more coherent plot, a better constructed world and less annoying action sequences.
I bought it at the time in spite of most of the reviews being less than positive. It just sounded fucked up so had to get it. And it was I liked it alot. It had lots of flaws annoyances, I was frustrated with bits of it but it made up for it with its atmsophere and just not knowing what to expect next and really feeling as if you were part of this mystery that had to be solved.
“it’s basically Psychonauts if the designers didn’t find anything funny about mental illness”
I think there is an interesting discussion to be had about the treatment of mental health/illness in video games. As someone whose life has been blighted by prolonged depressions and occasional manic episodes (bipolar disorder) my experiences – of my own, of other people with similar conditions and of psychiatric facilities etc. is a long way away from how things are depicted in video games.
While modern movies still have plenty of psycho-serial-killer characters the last decade has seen a lot of movies with sympathetic characters who have mental illnesses and there is increasing public awareness of fact-versus-fiction especially as more high-profile/famous/respected people have “come out” as having illnesses, including people who have continued to work and hold postions of responsibility. There continues to be a lot of stigma, fear and misinformation about “madness” and “mad people” however. It is a moot point as to how much “stereotypes” and other popular media treatments feed into this.
Is that a Manics reference in the headline?! Is it? IT IS?
Good.
I really, really loved Sanitarium. It’s not 100% even, but it’s an adventure game with some very, very atmospheric areas, an intriguing plot of madness and loss, and brilliant dialogue. And I think it’s one of the very few adventure games where I powered through almost entirely without hints. There’s only one red herring that I can think of (a literal red fish), and everything else has a more or less intuitive use, with most of the puzzles being inventory-based rather than some sort of horrible minigame or alien machinery (the kind of puzzles that most frequently stymie me).
I don’t know for sure how well it holds up these days, but unlike quite a few of GoG’s picks over time, Sanitarium is genuinely a Good Old Game.
Sanitarium is a great game, and was received very well in Russia back in it’s days. A shame, that it wasn’t worldwide, and great that GoG and this post will bring the game some attention!
Seriously, buy it. Ice-Pick Lodge recommends it. ;)
Sanitarium is great. A friend gave me a uh, borrowed copy, many years back. It was missing the voice acting. It still was engrossing, immersive, and at times horrifying. And the music was amazing. Once I can pay online, I’ll buy it off GoG for a renewed experience.
Sanitarium is definitely one of the best adventure games that I can remember playing. It has a truly intriguing story that doesn’t feel like it’s cutting any major corners, just to add some mindless puzzlery or overly composed scenarios.
As Malkav noted, the puzzles are all quite logical, and the game tends to funnel you around the maps quite cleverly, which is something I prefer, to standing around for two hours, trying to scry what the hell the game wants me to do. It might be a let-down for some of the more hardcore adventurers, but as far as I’m concerned, the adventure games they crave, are just masochistic and irrational trainwrecks that no one can actually stand.
It’s worth noting that even though it won’t cause you too much unneccesary grief to get through, it’s still quite an elaborate game. I’ve spent countless hours playing, and unlike most adventure games, I didn’t put it down only to pick it back up, purely because it bothered me that I’d left it unfinished. You just need to see what sick joke is next.
Certainly if you’re slightly morbid minded, it’s going to appeal to your sense of humor. Sort of like Downfall, except it’s actually good, and it makes a hell of a lot more sense. Sort of.