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. 😉

The main issue I have with these old school adventure games (IHNMAIMS is another good example) is how uneven the tone of the story is. Sanitarium has some strong imagery, certain depiction of body horror and gore are strong and effective still today thanks to the incredible and timeless work the art department did in designing some of the most brutal sections (The Hive for example is a visual nightmare), and the writing reflects that, almost lovecraftian in describing the dread felt by the characters.

But then there are other sections filled with out of place humour or clearly toned down (i.e. most of the Lost Village or the Circus), required for some levity or just a way for the developers to have some fun with their game, but still way less impressive or memorable compared to what the game has accustomed the players to.

The story itself is pretty good but without much fanfare or twists, it wants to be a psychological thriller and horror but it plays very straight for most of the time and there isn't much room left for debate about what is going on or what the metaphors under each level mean. Not that being simple and direct is necessarily a flaw, but thematically speaking it felt like halfway through the game it had already played each of its cards and I was just left putting down the royal flush without tension or thinking required.

Also some puzzles are just a pixel nightmare dictated by noticing minute details that for the life of me are indistinguishable from the backgrounds, and the stairs' animation detection with this system of movement is trauma inducing.

Yet all in all it is certainly a timeless adventure game, son of the best the 90s had to offer despite some light missteps and almost consistently enjoyable visually, albeit clearly having some sections much weaker than others.

Immagino che ci sia qualcosa di almeno storicamente notevole in Sanitarium, vista la grande varietà di scenari, ambienti ed elementi di gameplay che si susseguono dall'inizio alla fine, ma la mia esperienza di gioco non è stata granché positiva: giudicandolo come punta e clicca, il sistema di movimento estremamente grezzo e la pochissima cura messa nell'evidenziare gli oggetti di interesse a schermo rendono l'esplorazione sgradevole e poco appagante, mentre i puzzle sono generalmente carini; volendo giudicare la scrittura, ho trovato la narrazione molto confusa, sconclusionata e incoerente, povera di temi effettivamente interessanti e condita da una serie di stereotipi da psicologia spicciola che ad oggi penso si faccia generalmente molta fatica a digerire. Con la giusta apertura mentale e magari un minimo di interesse o simpatia per i thriller psicologici anni '90, bizzarri e grotteschi, magari può risultare in qualche modo affascinante, ma non fa per me.

Adventure, strategy, and RPGs were the pinnacle of PC games back in the mid to late 90’s, and Sanitarium is one of those games. You play as Max who suffers a car accident and is stuck in his own insane delusions, or is he? You explore 12 sick and twisted chapters with excellent voice acting and very interesting characters, but don’t forget those adventure puzzles.


The game isn’t much different from the standard adventure game where you wander around and click on items to proceed to the next area. Your icon is a magnifying glass and you hold down the right mouse button to move your character around. This was my first annoyance with the game being that the characters walk so slowly and there’s no run button. Despite this clicking on things is actually interesting because most of it doesn’t even pertain to the real world. Your first area is an asylum where guys are bashing their heads against walls, and the people you talk to are completely out of their minds. This gets even worse as the game progresses, but that’s a good thing.


As you collect items you find ways to use them in interesting ways, and it actually makes sense. However, most of the times the way to use them is so obvious that you will miss it. This game isn’t exactly easy and just gets harder as the game progresses. You get thrown a couple of puzzles at the beginning, but towards the end, the game gets very puzzle heavy and they are not fun or easy. Sure they are unique to the individual worlds, but they aren’t easy. I had to use a walkthrough through most of the game because I just couldn’t get what to do most of the time.

My favorite part of the game was wandering around and talking to people and hearing their strange voices or weird stories. The world themselves are characters because each one has a big problem to solve, but thankfully each level is small and it’s not easy to get lost in. The game is paced well with some CGI cutscenes (of course they look horrible being from 1998), but it’s nice that this game feels high budget for its time. I always looked forward to the next zany world and what weird character I would run into. I never got bored, and always wanted more. The game is nicely paced at around 5-6 hours, and it had a satisfying ending. The one surprise I had, however, was a couple of boss fights. Most adventure games don’t have these, but these were strange.


Overall, Sanitarium is an excellent adventure game that shows how great the 90’s were on the PC. You can pick the game up on GoG.com for only $6, but I did run into one huge problem. The game crashes a lot on the newer operating systems, and GoG never addressed the issue. If you can, get the CD and use on an older operating system (like Windows 98), but otherwise, you will have to trudge through the constant crashes.