Rating: 
Summary: Involving and challenging
Review: Sanitarium is a rare gem of a puzzle-solving adventure game. All puzzles are a challenge, but not too hard, and none are just there for the sake of being there (such as to prolong the game or frustrate the player). All levels relate to an overall theme which reconstruct one man's life. Each level is set in a world that the player must learn about and find clues to unlock secrets and eventually reach some goal. Levels include waking up in an asylum with no memory; a townful of mutant children, a circus, cave, and mansion, a lab where hideous experiments are conducted, and a few others. The background music was excellent, the learning curve was very easy, the puzzles were relevant and challenging, and each level was unique and had it's own story that logically relates to the overall story. I have played over a hundred PC games, and this is definitely one of my top five favorites. It is engrossing and rewarding. Worth buying by all means.
Rating:
Summary: Very straight-forward and engrossing game
Review: Tired of complicated controls that require you to remember 10 keyboard buttons and 5 function controls? If so, then this is the game for you. Previous games I have purchased have included: Longest Journey (too long, too many dialogs), Myst (too slow), and several of the Dreamcatcher series (Dracula and Messenger; definitely require walkthroughs). My most recent game was Black and White. Though exceptional in it graphics and permeabilites for story, the controls were IMPOSSIBLY difficult to manage. Not my cup of tea. Santitarium, on the other hand, was wonderfully simple to use. Don't get me wrong, the game is not simple in either graphics, gaming or story line; all were excellent. The game begins with a cutscene of you (the main character) driving and crashing on a wet and windy road. The game opens with the main character stuck in an old insane asylum, hence the name. The main reason that I LOVED this game is that the interface is simple; with the left and right click mouse controls giving you access to all vital components of the puzzles and characters. If you interact (talk with) another character, previous converstations are easily available to review without consulting a separate menu. Also, you are encouraged to revisit characters after you have continued on to other places in order to gain more information about the puzzles and the mystery that you are trying to solve. This game is excellent partly because of the simple, intuitive interface, but also because of the great story and cut-scenes that are woven into the game. There are also several fight/challenge sequences that are puzzles in themselves, albeit simple to overcome with some determination. True, the acting is somewhat amateurish, but it also gives the game an intimate feeling, since you will hear the same person acting the roles of several characters. Overall, a great, fun, and simple game that engrossed my son and I for over 5 days. We were not bored for a minute. Buy this game. You will not be dissatisfied.
Rating: 
Summary: It has its kinks, but...
Review: First off, this game is great! You frantically bounce between realities while trying to regain your memory and find out why you're in the titular asylum. However, the controls are incredibly hard to deal with, as you have to use your mouse to move while holding down the left button. It looks and plays great, however, and I wholeheartedly reccomend it.
Rating:
Summary: Freaky, But terrific!
Review: This game is about a man named Max who gets in a accident, and can't remember anything when he wakes up. As he goes through the game, he starts to remember his past, which is both sad and creepy. Also, some of the levels in the game include some weird stuff. Like mutant children, and even an old man in a tutu, where whenever he hears a certain song, he stands up and does some ballet. The graphics and sound are excelent, and the acting is fabulous! Although, the storyline is a little hard to follow, and you may need to play it more than once to understand it.The puzzles aren't too hard or easy. They're just right. It has some humor in it ,too. (Like the old man in the tutu!) If you like adventure and don't mind that it's a little complicated, then you will, with no doubt, treasure this game. I highly recommend it!!!
Rating:
Summary: Top Tier Adventure Game
Review: I am mourning the slow death of the Adventure Genre. I remember when Sierra was pumping out incredible adventure games at a very impressive rate...............seemingly successful ones too. However Sierra is for all practical purposes dead in the Adventure world(see KQ:mask of eternity). Sadly Gabriel Knight(the best series ever in my opinion), Quest for Glory(second best series) and the rest of their catalogue will probably never get to see the light of day again(unless they get worked into a quake installment somehow lol). This lack of productivity in the genre left me searching for older games in the field that I had never played. I found Sanitarium online for relatively cheap and ordered it........I was not dissapointed........It is by far one of the most imaginative storylines I've come across. The gameplay is perhaps too easy for the most part, though there are some moderately tough puzzles to figure out. And while the voice acting ranges from horrible(unfortunately the lead is the horrible part of it) to slightly above average(the children of chapter two were extremely creepy), it makes up for its other deficiencies with an incredible story .
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent, engrossing adventure
Review: This is the first adventure game I have played, and I think I picked a really good one. The narrative is often up there with the best of Stephen King fiction. I liked that the mystery slowly unfolds with enough subtlety that I couldn't predict it. The writing is very intelligent for the most part. You get very emotionally involved with the story. The graphics are very well done and the animated movies are very stylish. The puzzles range from easy to difficult (I had to visit the walkthrough web site several times). This game mostly involves collecting objects and using them appropriately, and talking to the characters to receive information. There are 3 or 4 Myst-type puzzles and 3 or 4 action sequences (attacking bad guys or negotiating a maze--this is where it can be annoying to control the movement of the character by holding down the right mouse button). You have to do several gross things in order to solve the mystery, but I wouldn't say it is overly violent. It is much more psychological horror and mystery.
I found some of the voices annoying so I did most of it with the sound turned off.
Note to deaf/hearing impaired: you can do almost all of this game with the use of subtitles. However, there is a puzzle that requires you to hear a tune and replicate it. In addition, there is a radio broadcast during the closing credits that wraps everything up and tells you what happened to the main characters, but it isn't subtitled so ask a friend to tell you what they say.
Rating:
Summary: Great Old Adventure
Review: _Sanitarium_ opens with a movie: a man on his way home from work calls his wife with the news that he has "the answer." Next thing you know, his car flies off the road. He wakes up in an institution, his face swathed in bandages, with no idea who he is, where he is or how he got there. Of course, this is exactly what he -- and you as the player -- must now find out. _Sanitarium_ is a really great, old-style, 3rd person adventure game that combines an intriguing story with interesting puzzles, a spooky atmosphere and pretty decent graphics for its time. In its nine levels you visit various parts of the asylum, a huge insect hive, a scary circus and other places, all steeped in the main character's personal mythology. Each level not only has its own internal continuity, but is connected to the larger story by threads of symbol and dream logic. I found this fascinating and extremely well done. It was one of the things that kept me wanting to play even when it was late at night and my eyes couldn't focus any more--something I haven't experienced with a game in a while. The puzzles are a pretty good variety: some inventory, some conversation, some mechanical. Most are pretty easy once you find what you're looking for, but there are a couple of frustrating pixel hunts where it's possible to miss the one thing you need to move on. Also, sometimes the inventory, which flashes when it can be used, has to be positioned in exactly the right place. There are also a few action sequences and you can die. Usually I really object to this in adventure games, but _Sanitarium_ handles the action the way it should be handled: the sequences are pretty straightforward, if you die you get to start again at the beginning of the sequence without going through a tedious "You failed" ending sequence or reloading from page one, you have infinite lives, and the pieces of the puzzle you have managed to solve STAY solved, so you don't have to repeat what you've already done over and over. Take a tip from this, game designers! Navigation is a little awkward to start -- you interact using the left mouse button and move using the right -- but you get used to that quickly enough. The main problem is that the character can get sucked into things like stairs, so you spend a lot of time going back and forth (or I did, anyway). Another problem is that sometimes you have to have your character in exactly the right spot before he'll do what he's supposed to. If he's not close enough he'll say "I can't do that (or some variation thereof)." Except for sometimes, when he'll walk over and complete the action on his own. I found no rhyme or reason to this and it got a bit annoying in places. The graphics are mid-nineties graphics: 3rd person, 2-D. So if you can't appreciate a game that doesn't have all the latest bells and whistles, you won't appreciate this one. There are some really gruesome scenes, not for the faint of heart or stomach. The voice acting is mostly pretty good but in some places character voices were hard to understand. There are subtitles, though, so that wasn't a problem. Other sound f/x were well-done, being suited to the various environments yet not too repetetive or demanding of attention. I completed _Sanitarium_ in about 30 hours. If I had a complaint it was that the ending was a little rushed and I felt that all the gaps in the story hadn't been filled in. Still, compared to the bulk of games that are being released today, this is a great find and a worthwhile buy! If you like older adventures, _Sanitarium_ is a must.
Rating:
Summary: This game gave me nightmares!!
Review: Well ok, only chapter 2 really gave me nightmares. The rest of it was more sci-fi than horror. But it's been a long time since any book, movie, even Stephen King, really scared me. The feeling of participating in the horror is what got me, and i appreciate it a lot. Parts of this game are really freaky. The voice-overs were pretty sad for the characters in chapter 1 and so i turned the voices really quiet to get away from the bad acting, which was taking awy from the gothic/surreal effect. And there is a bug in chapter 2 that didn't affect me, but you may have to download a patch. installation instructions can be found on uhs-hints.com. This isn't really a puzzle-game. Usually this would be a bad thing, but thinking too much about puzzles would have taken away from this game. There are just enough puzzles for you to really get to know a world/plot.
There is puzzle where this bug is clamped down and it's chomping on something wet and you have to mess with it. That was the sickest puzzle ever! I was tempted to turn the sound down so i didn't have to hear it.
Yes it's an old game. They don't seem to make this sort of game anymore. Of course, nothing is as good as Fallout. This game is to horror what Monkey Island or Grim Fandago is to humor.
Rating:
Summary: Great Old Adventure
Review: _Sanitarium_ opens with a movie: a man on his way home from work calls his wife with the news that he has "the answer." Next thing you know, his car flies off the road. He wakes up in an institution, his face swathed in bandages, with no idea who he is, where he is or how he got there. Of course, this is exactly what he -- and you as the player -- must now find out. _Sanitarium_ is a really great, old-style, 3rd person adventure game that combines an intriguing story with interesting puzzles, a spooky atmosphere and pretty decent graphics for its time. In its nine levels you visit various parts of the asylum, a huge insect hive, a scary circus and other places, all steeped in the main character's personal mythology. Each level not only has its own internal continuity, but is connected to the larger story by threads of symbol and dream logic. I found this fascinating and extremely well done. It was one of the things that kept me wanting to play even when it was late at night and my eyes couldn't focus any more--something I haven't experienced with a game in a while. The puzzles are a pretty good variety: some inventory, some conversation, some mechanical. Most are pretty easy once you find what you're looking for, but there are a couple of frustrating pixel hunts where it's possible to miss the one thing you need to move on. Also, sometimes the inventory, which flashes when it can be used, has to be positioned in exactly the right place. There are also a few action sequences and you can die. Usually I really object to this in adventure games, but _Sanitarium_ handles the action the way it should be handled: the sequences are pretty straightforward, if you die you get to start again at the beginning of the sequence without going through a tedious "You failed" ending sequence or reloading from page one, you have infinite lives, and the pieces of the puzzle you have managed to solve STAY solved, so you don't have to repeat what you've already done over and over. Take a tip from this, game designers! Navigation is a little awkward to start -- you interact using the left mouse button and move using the right -- but you get used to that quickly enough. The main problem is that the character can get sucked into things like stairs, so you spend a lot of time going back and forth (or I did, anyway). Another problem is that sometimes you have to have your character in exactly the right spot before he'll do what he's supposed to. If he's not close enough he'll say "I can't do that (or some variation thereof)." Except for sometimes, when he'll walk over and complete the action on his own. I found no rhyme or reason to this and it got a bit annoying in places. The graphics are mid-nineties graphics: 3rd person, 2-D. So if you can't appreciate a game that doesn't have all the latest bells and whistles, you won't appreciate this one. There are some really gruesome scenes, not for the faint of heart or stomach. The voice acting is mostly pretty good but in some places character voices were hard to understand. There are subtitles, though, so that wasn't a problem. Other sound f/x were well-done, being suited to the various environments yet not too repetetive or demanding of attention. I completed _Sanitarium_ in about 30 hours. If I had a complaint it was that the ending was a little rushed and I felt that all the gaps in the story hadn't been filled in. Still, compared to the bulk of games that are being released today, this is a great find and a worthwhile buy! If you like older adventures, _Sanitarium_ is a must.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, the repetition...
Review: This is basically a point-and-click game with various puzzles to figure out; even the plotting itself is a puzzle to be put together to progress. That is where my primary complaint with the game comes into full bloom. The character(s) you control always move at a slow walk(there really isn't anything to run away from) and this is so annoying, especially if you have to walk from one side of an area(town, village, etc.) to another just to exchange information or gather an item only to return to the previous location. One area made me laugh at one point because I had to once more "walk!" through an entire Aztec village just to gather the lineage information for six fallen warriors. I broke out my pen and paper and subsequently got my virtual excercise. But that is not the only moment in this game that I threw my hands in the air. Another is in a small town. The character(s) are able to pick up and use items they find in rooms, along the way, etc. I am going to ruin this part of the game because it was utterly ridiculous. I was "walking!" all over town clicking in vain, trying desperately to find any sort of an answer to the state of limbo I was in, when I suddenly picked up a rock. A rock! There are rocks all over that bloody town! However, there is a lot here worth mentioning in glowing terms. The places are all interesting and filled with unnerving characters. There are many blood-filled chambers with defiled remains and maniacal behavior from the gruesome denizens that inhabit this game. There are multiple characters to be controlled, even if, in the end, they are essentially one character battling with his dementia. That plot-line is revealed at the start of the game, so don't be mad at me for unveiling it now. The mechanisms that have to be deciphered or puzzled over are all excellent as far as graphics and level of difficulty. They are not so hard as to cause violent head-shaking, yet not so easy as to allow any random clicking to unravel them. Overall, for a decent price, I can see many enjoying this game and "walking!" through the various areas patiently looking for clues...and "rocks!" If you have a lot of time to burn then this is your game. The fact that you can save the game at any point is also a large plus. Take it easy.
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