Hi

This isn't a review - merely my thoughts on the game - having just re-played it......

My first play was when the game was originally released.
I wasn't too enthusiastic
Probably because until then my game diet had consisted of your much more "standard" adventure stuff and this game was so different.

However, my re-play has certainly opened my eyes to just how innovative the game really is - and more especially WAS at the time of its original release.

My opinion now is very favourable indeed and not only because it installed and played without a single hitch whatsoever ....but also because I could save any time I wanted....the interface was sensibly simple....the few timed sequences were so generous they weren't a problem at all....and the story was absolutely and fascinatingly compelling.

Of course the graphics are not quite what we tend to expect today but then graphics have never been the most important factor for me

There you go !!
A few thoughts from one who doesn't have that many

I loved this game, Mad, and completely agree with you about how advanced it was for its time! Even the graphics were better than the average for then.

I just played it on xp and had sporadic crashes, but not bad enough or often enough to ruin the game for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it & had to tear myself away to do the necessities against my will, until I completed it.

Melanie

The Sanitarium story unfolds via "visions" experienced by a person who is being held in a drugged state (by an evil person) after suffering terrible trauma - and there are some scenes which portray insane and/or mutated/mutilated men, women and children. Although not real men, women and children !!
Real people only appear in FMV clips and they are of normal appearance.

The interactive part of Sanitarium is with the "created third person characters" who appear in the visions - the cartoon style characters you so often used to get in older games.

Hope all that ramblin' made sense somewhere along the line

Sanitarium is a top ten, for sure.
My favorite part is near the end, when you get to switch back and forth between all of the different
parts of the character, to complete a task. It is like a recap of the story and what a story it was!

I was up half the night playing this great game. Wish I had done it sooner. OK, back to the game...Mike.

Sanitarium is still one of my favorite game experiences, I recently re-played it, though not to the end. It's a bit gruesome, but you play from an isometric perspective, so it doesn't throw the gore in your face.

What a great story, I wish they had made a movie out of it.

Hi Milee,

Welcome! I just finished Sanitarium on a fairly new P4 XP computer. I had to do some fiddling with compatibility & acceleration and the game crashed sporadically, (I loved it anyway) but not enough to ruin the game. I just saved often.

You can get 2 patches at: http://www.patches-scrolls.de/

Just type sanitarium in the search box.

I hope you enjoy it.

Melanie

Hello-

This is not a review, but my own personal thoughts
on this game. I had no trouble loading it, but when I started to play, and I have an excellent WL, he seems to stumble around and I can't get him to do anything. I have since then taken it off and thought I would try again next month. Is this the way the game works, or is it me? I m use to Syberia and similar games, so it must be me.

Thanks

Margo

Hi Margo. This game works differently than most others. To move Max around, RIGHT-CLICK your mouse and HOLD IT DOWN -- while using the on-screen cursor to point Max in the direction you want him to go. As long as you hold down the right mouse button, he'll keep walking...

There's plenty to see and do in the Tower Cells! You should start by having Max explore the other rooms/cells. As you approach doorways, the walls 'melt' away and you can enter and see everything inside.

You left-click your mouse to pick up inventory items, or choose to speak to someone.

On Disk 1, there's a complete game manual that you can print out or just read on your computer. If it's not installed, just put Disk 1 in your CD drive and hold down the left SHIFT key, to stop AutoPlay from launching the game. Then use Windows Explorer to find the CD drive with Disk 1 in it -- and "explore" the disk. You'll see all the files on it, including the "READ ME" files (2). One of them is the game manual. You can right-click on that file and highlight "Open" -- and read the game instructions.

Sanitarium is a quirky, wonderful game! I hope this helps.

One of the things that was a little confusing when I started the game is that I was IN a room (and didn't realize it.) So when you start, head in the right/down direction and you'll get out of that first room - and then things will become clearer!

I just finished it, and it was a FABULOUS game! I got the new version, however still had a lot of problems running it on XP (yes, i played with my dpi and acceleration rates, but that did'nt help.) Still, I'd definitely rate it in my top ten games of all time... maybe top 5!!!


Edit: I never did find a manual for this game. There wasn't one in the game, and the link to the "complete online manual" didn't work, so don't necessarily expect to find anything there...