Sanitarium 2: Freaky Fun!

Hooray! I have made it to Chapter 4 and now the game is really taking off into highly inventive weirdness!

But first I had to get through Chapter 3, which mainly involves turning on the water to fill the courtyard fountain. I'm proud to say that I only needed two hints, and one of them pointed out something (very small) that I had simply missed. I figured out how to get the thing, just didn't spot it when it turned up. That is a problem with this game: it's all in a top-down isometric view so items can be quite small.

Landing in Chapter 3

First, of course, we have to go around talking to everybody. Then I realized that I could only manipulate one thing, which turned out to be the right thing to do. If you spot the necessary item it's pretty easy to figure out what to do with it, which gives you another item, which is also easy to use.

The crazy preacher and his very stiff congregation does fit into the puzzle, but only marginally.

Interiors simply reveal themselves when you enter.

That brings us to a real puzzle: turning levers to get the water flowing. This is where I needed help. No, not to do the actual puzzle, but what constituted winning it.

The clue is pretty obscure.

The trick is to know which of the four water levels you have to fill. Once you get it the puzzle really does tell you that you've won. And, again, much appreciated, if you quit in the middle the game saves your progress. You do not have to restart the puzzle every time, as far too many games would have you do.

Once the fountain is filled we get another cutscene, again in very grainy video, which I was unable to get a screenshot of. But it certainly does give some backstory to our character.

In fact, our character has changed radically once we get to Chapter 4. And that's when I got excited about the game! 

Well this is unexpected!

We land in a very freaky circus, somewhere outside of the asylum (I guess?)

It has a big top and one ring.

Let's go in!

A one-ring circus

I did just the first bit of dialogue and stopped for the day, but I am vastly intrigued! This is the kind of imagination I appreciate in a game--something totally unexpected.

Loving it!

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Sanitarium 1: A Really Old Horror Adventure

So I decided to try a really old horror adventure game that I'd been unsuccessful with in the past, but always wanted to play. Sanitarium came out in 1998 on CDs. First I had terrible trouble getting the discs to load, and once I did I couldn't figure out how the mechanics of the game worked. How are you supposed to walk around and talk and pick up and use items? 

Actually it's fairly straightforward. Once you learn the antiquated system it isn't difficult. The game is only partially point & click, with walking done manually. The got away from the WASD movement system by using the mouse exclusively. Walking can be a tad tricky because you have to hold the right button down as you try to navigate your way around the screen.

Welome to the game!

Well finally I found a copy of the game on GOG, so I don't have to deal with physical CDs anymore. The game runs pretty well except for one time when the screen went black and I had to reload and replay for a bit.

We start out after the very grainy opening video, in an unusual asylum. We're covered in bandages and appear to have amnesia. Somehow we make it out to a courtyard filled with children, all of whom are injured or deformed in some way. There are no adults in the area. 

The Courtyard of the Children

We have several tasks here: talk to all of the children thoroughly to get the beginning of a storyline. Then find out who the mysterious "Mother" might be. She's controlling the children and won't let them explain anything. 

Also, this is an inventory game. Picking up stuff is easy. It turns out that accessing the inventory is easy too: click on your character and you will see the inventory items that you have. Once you've used an item it disappears, which is good.

The dialogue system

Eventually we will make our way across a stream and meet a girl named "Maria," who tells us more than anyone else, but stops when she senses that "Mother" has awakened. OK. That takes us into the pumpkin patch that Maria has warned us about.

Maria. Nice kid.

The dangerous pumpkin patch

It turns out that there is combat in this game! In this first area it's pretty easy. When you get killed the game puts you back at the beginning of the fight, but any enemies you've killed remain dead. That is appreciated, thanks!

Once we make our way through the pumpkin patch we will meet Mother, and have to figure out what to do. I actually got a bit of it by myself, but I relied on a walkthrough for this chapter. Now that I know what I'd doing, sort of, I might be able to wean myself from it. After all, inventory games are all quite solvable, even though a few of these puzzles are a bit obscure.

So I will continue! I have made it to Chapter Three out of eleven. Most folks say this game takea 10-12 hours to complete. Let's see how I do!

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