| Sanitarium | |
|---|---|
Cover art of Sanitarium |
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| Developer(s) | DreamForge Intertainment[1] |
| Publisher(s) |
(1998) XS Games, LLC (2002) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows[1] |
| Release date(s) |
[1] 2002 (re-release) |
| Genre(s) | Adventure[1] Psychological thriller Psychological horror |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T[1] BBFC: 15 |
Sanitarium is a point-and-click adventure game released in 1998 by ASC Games.[2] Sanitarium tells the story of Max Laughton, a man who suffers from amnesia after getting in an car accident and awakening in an asylum. As the story progresses, Max frantically tries to unveil the details of his institutionalization and the search for his own identity.
The game was re-released in 2002 with Windows XP compatibility.
Contents |
The game uses a bird's-eye view perspective and a non-tiled 2D navigational system. Each world and setting carries a distinct atmosphere that presents either the real world, the imaginary world, or a mix of both of the main protagonist. In many cases, it is unclear to the player if the world the character is currently in is real or a product of Max's own imagination. This indistinction underlines much of the horror portrayed in the game.
The game is separated into different levels or "chapters" with each having a different style and atmosphere. The player must find clues, solve puzzles and interact with other characters to reach a final challenge where the player must reach the end of a path while avoiding obstacles. If the player fails to do so (by, for instance, getting killed) then the player is transported back to the beginning of the path without losing progress, thus a Game Over in this game is non-existent. When the player reaches the end of the path, a cinematic is played and the game proceeds to the next chapter.
Sanitarium received mixed reviews upon its release. Gaming publications like Just Adventure, GameSpot, and Computer Games Magazine gave the game overwhelmingly positive reviews for the game's atmosphere and horror aspect, even go as far as calling it as "the scariest, creepiest videogame". Other publications such as IGN, Adventure Gamers, and PC Zone acclaimed the game's story and creepiness, but gave the game low scores for gameplay flaws such as easy puzzles and demanding controls.[3]
Inside the main program file, sntrm.exe, on the XS (pre-patched) version of the game there exists an outburst as a possible error code, on what would be line 774 if the file were interpreted as text, when searched by the utility grep:
c:\sntrm_k.txt ERROR: Invalid NPC ID --> All resources == 0 Stupid Dumbshit Goddamn Motherfucker! Unable to find encounter keyword %d '%s' in encounter %d No portrait for this encounter. Goodbye.
The Offspring's song "Bad Habit" contains the lyric "stupid dumbshit goddamn motherfucker".
Some headstones in the game contain the names of people associated with the game's development. Clicking on the stones will trigger a narration of a name and a funny epitaph. These graves can be distinguished from other headstones by the last names being abbreviated to a single letter
Three literal examples of red herrings exist in the title. The second chapter features a hut with a large paint impression of a red herring on the roof, the character states his disappointment of the fact it contains no useful items or objects. The third chapter features a man with a large red fish in the asylum courtyard, who will begin dancing when a certain record is put on, but otherwise offers no real help or aid to gameplay. The last instance of a red herring exists in the eighth chapter or "The Lost Village" and is found inside the water temple. Olmec (the character the player controls) verbally mentions its importance due to its "blood-like coloring" and when given to the fisherman's wife inside the hut she replies she "has not much use for it" and that her husband claims that they're just "useless things that simply take up space".
Inside the file RES.001 (entry #40) there is a music remix which is only played during the credits after the game is completed. It won't be played if the credits are viewed from the main menu. This remix is composed of various NPC dialogues.