Review AdventureDex Retrospective: Sanitarium

[FeelTheRads]

I thought the whole point was for the "levels" to feel disparate because they're dreams of the main character? I also seem to remember there were often hints in a level on what would be in the next one... sort of connecting them visually too not just through the main character. Maybe I don't remember this one correctly, but saying that Sanitarium is lazy because the levels are too different is dumb and plebeian.

And it would seem like the people who made the game are the opposite of fratboys.

But fags gonna fag.

 

[GlutenBurger]

Even my favorite adventure of all time (Sam & Max hit the road) had some spring you use on a hand and ... a ball of twine or something... madness.

Yeah, but with Sam and Max and the other comical Lucasarts adventures, you go around clicking on every possibility because you want to experience every single response.

I remember enjoying Sanitarium, but recall very few specifics. Perhaps I'll have to replay it sometime.

 

[Borelli]

I still remember my first visit to the children village. Bunch of deformed children acting all normally and mentioning some "mother" was straight up pyschological horror, the mystery and the atmosphere of all that was so thick you could cut it with a butter knife.

I also seem to remember there were often hints in a level on what would be in the next one... sort of connecting them visually too not just through the main character.

The levels are structured so that you have asylum > dream > asylum > dream again. The asylum parts are much shorter and as you said they hint on what would happen in the following dream sequence.

 

[StaticSpine]

The only really bad thing in the game was the combat system. It was too clunky and unnecessary.

 

[TheGreatOne]

No one who says this game is great has the right to criticize games like Dreamfall chapters (and other 2000s/upcoming adventure games) for being too cinematic and lacking gameplay. I don't know if Sanitarium is the first of it's kind when it comes to well regarded adventure games, but I definitely see it as one of the most important (PC) games when it comes to the transition in game design from video games to interactive movies.
I don't hate it though. It had some nice areas, graphics and athmosphere but the plot was kind of generic and forgettable and the alien and maya/aztec parts didn't make any sense and kinda sucked.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

I absolutely LOVED this game when it came out and reading this makes me even more excited for Stasis!

 

[VioletShadow]

I absolutely LOVED this game when it came out and reading this makes me even more excited for Stasis!

Hell yeah! Stasis is going to be awesome!

 

[Jaesun]

No one who says this game is great has the right to criticize games like Dreamfall chapters (and other 2000s/upcoming adventure games) for being too cinematic and lacking gameplay.

At least this game wasn't a shitty dumbed down console "action" game like Dreamfall.

 

[J_C]

What are you talking about? This was a proper point and click adventure game, and not some intetactive movie or action adventure.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2

 

[TheGreatOne]

Yeah, it was a shitty dumbed down PC "adventure" game instead

Spoiler

I haven't played Dreamfall so I have idea how big of a dumbed down continuity rape that game is

 

[FeelTheRads]

No one who says this game is great has the right to criticize games like Dreamfall chapters

I haven't played Dreamfall

k.

Sanitarium has nothing to do with interactive movies. It's a typical adventure game.

and the alien and maya/aztec parts didn't make any sense

They made as much sense as the other parts (that weren't asylum) in that they were dreams/subconscious manifestations. Yes, it's a mishmash, but I think it's a skillfully put together mishmash that works much better than it should in theory.

 

[TheGreatOne]

Don't quote me boy cause I ain't said shit

Dreamfall Chapters nigga

Sanitarium doesn't have inventory puzzles or the kind of interactivity with it's environments and items that is common in older point&click adventure games and practically all of its puzzles have very logical and intuitive solutions. The most challenging puzzles in it are the ones that have nothing to do with the items you're carrying (like figuring out how the alien control panel works). That means less interactivity and gameplay at the expense of the story. Kinda like Snatcher. Now I said in the Dreamfall chapters thread that it's better for a story driven adventure game to be like Sanitarium than to force illogical poorly designed puzzles as road blocks for progression just because an adventure game is supposed to have puzzles (like The Longest Journey did in the first/second chapter), so I'm not the adventure game purist here. But if you are one, then you should have a problem with this game as it's obviously not an adventure game in the same sense as something like Day of the Tentacle is. It does have puzzles, but they're mostly very straight forward and simple. You hardly ever combine items together (if ever? I can't remember) and the puzzle solutions are really simple and obvious when it comes to the ones involving objects you find from the game world. You see a key inside a bottle, break the bottle and open a locked door you encountered earlier with it. Not an actual puzzle from Sanitarium, but an example that demonstrates well the difference between it' puzzles and those of early 90s adventure games.

 

[Dr Schultz]

Dreamfall Chapters nigga

Sanitarium doesn't have inventory puzzles or the kind of interactivity with it's environments and items that is common in older point&click adventure games and practically all of its puzzles have very logical and intuitive solutions. The most challenging puzzles in it are the ones that have nothing to do with the items you're carrying (like figuring out how the alien control panel works). That means less interactivity and gameplay at the expense of the story.

I don't really know what are you taking about, man. That simply means that Sanitarium isn't focused on a single kind of puzzle, like old-adventure games are. Machinarium, just to name a recent game, has the same variety of puzzles. Overall it's not easier than - let's say - Runaway 3 or Broken Sword 5, and it's definitely harder than Broken Age or The Book of Unwritten Tale. Exactly like Sanitarium, Machinarium has nothing to do with interactive movies. It is not a classic point-and-click adventure either, but: are you REALLY that fond of the same kind of puzzle remade for decades (a kind of puzzle that usually is hard only when is also illogical, and can still be solved by clicking on everything)?

 

[VioletShadow]

Anyone feeling curious, the game is on GOG right now for $1.99. Flash sale ends in 2 hours. Grab it! :D

 

[RebeccaETripp]

That level design is very visually interesting.