This review contains spoilers
[First impressions and overview with some spoilers]
This game is one of those ''compilation of otherwise seemingly unrelated short stories with 1 main story that serves to connect all of them together'' kinda stories. It's also one of those ''You get a glimpse of an underlying story through bits and pieces in someones mind/dreams and information in environments, giving it a text but also a clear subtext you keep guessing as to what exactly did happen and didn't'' kinda stories. You know like Paranoia Agent is for Anime.
The game is split into ''chapters'' and sometimes 2 areas/levels/maps between them you can only really move between when specific section ending events are triggered. Odd numbered chapters tend to involve the main story, and while they feel like something is off and weird, they feel more grounded in reality. The even numbered stories tend to be obviously not real dream-like ones that also serve as their own independent short stories where except for the first time the protagonist takes on a different character form entirely that is in some slight way related to the protagonist. This makes for quite some decent pacing as you go back and forth between the two wondering what else weird the game is going to throw at you next.
To connect the two together a bit more, during both you'll slowly regain bits and pieces of the protaganists memory through cutscenes. While they do interrupt the flow of the game for me, they have a mysterious show not tell vibe to them I dig. You slowly start to uncover more and more of what is a twisted but much more accurate representation of reality, and it keeps you guessing without the answers to the mystery ever feeling disappointing. It's clear about the main events, but subtle enough to keep you on your toes. As wacky and insane as a lot of the in-game moments are, these cutscenes their more grounded feel work as an explanation and suddenly the context behind it actually feels very sad and human. Instead of just being fun little short stories with incredibly interesting, creepy imagery it becomes something more than the sum of its parts.
Eventually you'll notice a pattern in the chapters that despite being so seemingly unrelated, you'll probably quickly notice that the even numbered chapters are stories that have parallels and themes in common with the main plot you uncover throughout the game. They're metaphors, but the fun part is always that they work as their own little separate stories first, though it would have probably grown old and predictable if there were even more within the exact same structure. It's fun to see how many ways they could essentially tell the same kind of story. The twist is that when it ends you'll realize that as the game foreshadows, fucking none of it was real, not even the odd numbered chapters. But it's not like it's a cheap ''haha everything was a dream'' because well you could already tell from the start something was just very off, and the gimmick in these kinds stories is in indirectly figuring out what really happened through these dream sequences and memories.
The game's strong point is definitely its imagery. The pre rendered isometric style often used in CRPG's definitely stands out on its own, but fuck if it isn't good at building atmosphere. There's a lot of strange, creepy, yet beautiful locations and moments in this game.
I can't really say the same thing for the voice acting though. It sounds EXTREMELY CHEESY to me and while that adds some 90's charm and kinda fits the ''delusional insanity' theme, it also makes it hard for me to take the game seriously. Ofcourse, the graphics have 90's cheese to them as well, but I find that that actually adds to the uncomfortable and zany atmosphere, the voice acting just takes me out of it at times.
Maybe it's because I'm playing this for the first time and in modern times but I don't seem to find the game as impressive as others do. It's probably because the gameplay is pretty typical point and click adventure but I don't really like its scenario progression in this at all it didn't make much sense to me and I didn't feel much direction. A lot of it basically felt like a really lame escape room riddle with some separate logic puzzle screens thrown in every now and then. I just skipped most of it with a guide, to be honest. The thing is that a LOT of the game is actually gameplay. It's not like you are constantly uncovering clues about the main story, you often just run around looking for clues as to how to progress for the sake of it (You're not really given much motivation) rather than to progress the plot of whatever story you find yourself in. There's some fun quirky characters to interact with but there's a lot of dialogue that at least when playing for the first time feels like goes nowhere, or on the opposite end dialogue that feels purely to be there for the gameplay progression rather than narrative.
I mostly like the game for its story and imagery, but when so much of the story is actually just gameplay scenario progression contextualized into it, it gets kind of tiring.
There's some quality of life features here and the odd control scheme works fine, but the game is pretty janky. I had to reboot a soft lock a few times and well, those action sequences are definitely awkward.
The only chapter I personally just didn't like was the olmec one. I heard a lot of people didn't like the hive one, but I fucking loved that one because I'm into body horror and similar settings. It just felt so weird and otherworldly, I like that kinda thing.
The final chapter, while short was neat as well, culminating every other world into 1 place not just in environment, but also in switching between the different characters. It's a good way to wrap it up and pace it well.
I like piecing together the mystery set up in the intro cutscene, I like how the game ties otherwise unrelated things together with its psychological themes in multiple ways, I like how there's both clarity and nuance to it, but I do think the game can feel a bit incohesive at some points and seemingly aimless at others.
All in all, even if I found it a bit frustrating at some points and dull at others, I think Sanitarium is such a unique intriging experience that even people who don't like adventure games should give it a try. It's the type of thing you typically only see in other mediums, but it still does it in its own way I haven't seen elsewhere.
This game is one of those ''compilation of otherwise seemingly unrelated short stories with 1 main story that serves to connect all of them together'' kinda stories. It's also one of those ''You get a glimpse of an underlying story through bits and pieces in someones mind/dreams and information in environments, giving it a text but also a clear subtext you keep guessing as to what exactly did happen and didn't'' kinda stories. You know like Paranoia Agent is for Anime.
The game is split into ''chapters'' and sometimes 2 areas/levels/maps between them you can only really move between when specific section ending events are triggered. Odd numbered chapters tend to involve the main story, and while they feel like something is off and weird, they feel more grounded in reality. The even numbered stories tend to be obviously not real dream-like ones that also serve as their own independent short stories where except for the first time the protagonist takes on a different character form entirely that is in some slight way related to the protagonist. This makes for quite some decent pacing as you go back and forth between the two wondering what else weird the game is going to throw at you next.
To connect the two together a bit more, during both you'll slowly regain bits and pieces of the protaganists memory through cutscenes. While they do interrupt the flow of the game for me, they have a mysterious show not tell vibe to them I dig. You slowly start to uncover more and more of what is a twisted but much more accurate representation of reality, and it keeps you guessing without the answers to the mystery ever feeling disappointing. It's clear about the main events, but subtle enough to keep you on your toes. As wacky and insane as a lot of the in-game moments are, these cutscenes their more grounded feel work as an explanation and suddenly the context behind it actually feels very sad and human. Instead of just being fun little short stories with incredibly interesting, creepy imagery it becomes something more than the sum of its parts.
Eventually you'll notice a pattern in the chapters that despite being so seemingly unrelated, you'll probably quickly notice that the even numbered chapters are stories that have parallels and themes in common with the main plot you uncover throughout the game. They're metaphors, but the fun part is always that they work as their own little separate stories first, though it would have probably grown old and predictable if there were even more within the exact same structure. It's fun to see how many ways they could essentially tell the same kind of story. The twist is that when it ends you'll realize that as the game foreshadows, fucking none of it was real, not even the odd numbered chapters. But it's not like it's a cheap ''haha everything was a dream'' because well you could already tell from the start something was just very off, and the gimmick in these kinds stories is in indirectly figuring out what really happened through these dream sequences and memories.
The game's strong point is definitely its imagery. The pre rendered isometric style often used in CRPG's definitely stands out on its own, but fuck if it isn't good at building atmosphere. There's a lot of strange, creepy, yet beautiful locations and moments in this game.
I can't really say the same thing for the voice acting though. It sounds EXTREMELY CHEESY to me and while that adds some 90's charm and kinda fits the ''delusional insanity' theme, it also makes it hard for me to take the game seriously. Ofcourse, the graphics have 90's cheese to them as well, but I find that that actually adds to the uncomfortable and zany atmosphere, the voice acting just takes me out of it at times.
Maybe it's because I'm playing this for the first time and in modern times but I don't seem to find the game as impressive as others do. It's probably because the gameplay is pretty typical point and click adventure but I don't really like its scenario progression in this at all it didn't make much sense to me and I didn't feel much direction. A lot of it basically felt like a really lame escape room riddle with some separate logic puzzle screens thrown in every now and then. I just skipped most of it with a guide, to be honest. The thing is that a LOT of the game is actually gameplay. It's not like you are constantly uncovering clues about the main story, you often just run around looking for clues as to how to progress for the sake of it (You're not really given much motivation) rather than to progress the plot of whatever story you find yourself in. There's some fun quirky characters to interact with but there's a lot of dialogue that at least when playing for the first time feels like goes nowhere, or on the opposite end dialogue that feels purely to be there for the gameplay progression rather than narrative.
I mostly like the game for its story and imagery, but when so much of the story is actually just gameplay scenario progression contextualized into it, it gets kind of tiring.
There's some quality of life features here and the odd control scheme works fine, but the game is pretty janky. I had to reboot a soft lock a few times and well, those action sequences are definitely awkward.
The only chapter I personally just didn't like was the olmec one. I heard a lot of people didn't like the hive one, but I fucking loved that one because I'm into body horror and similar settings. It just felt so weird and otherworldly, I like that kinda thing.
The final chapter, while short was neat as well, culminating every other world into 1 place not just in environment, but also in switching between the different characters. It's a good way to wrap it up and pace it well.
I like piecing together the mystery set up in the intro cutscene, I like how the game ties otherwise unrelated things together with its psychological themes in multiple ways, I like how there's both clarity and nuance to it, but I do think the game can feel a bit incohesive at some points and seemingly aimless at others.
All in all, even if I found it a bit frustrating at some points and dull at others, I think Sanitarium is such a unique intriging experience that even people who don't like adventure games should give it a try. It's the type of thing you typically only see in other mediums, but it still does it in its own way I haven't seen elsewhere.