Sanitarium 3: Curiouser and Curiouser

Finally got back to the game. I've actually played for short bursts for several days, but only now am getting to my write-up here.

The circus was really nice, although as always with this game, you have to keep a sharp eye out for teensy items that you need. At least there are some decent clues here.

In the big top

We have to play some games and visit some freaks. The games are pretty straightforward.

Got enough tickets?

Actually if you pay attention, you will find more than the number of tickets you need to get through the area.

Can you get into the roped-off section?

So I made it through the circus! I confess that I did get a couple of hints. It's a fairly extensive area, but it's quite entertaining. Upon exiting the area we get dumped into a cave.

Pixel hunting required here

The cave turns out to be an action area. Tried absolutely everything before I went to the WT and found out that I had to use an item on a very obscure spot. The main trouble with this game is that the hot spots and items are difficult to see. It really can turn into a pixel hunt. 

But, with the information I got from the WT I was able to get through the area.

That takes us into what clearly is another major piece of the character's backstory. Now it's fairly obvious that the goal of the game is to find out just who the main character is, what he did and how he got into the sanitarium.  

Is this backstory?

In the mansion, we meet ghosts of what will of course turn out to be our family. In fact, it seems that the little girl that took over in the last two areas is Max's sister, who died.

Now we're back to playing Max. 

Max is himself again

In the laboratory

The laboratory has a seriously bad puzzle. I suppose you could spend a week just trying things, but save yourself. Even with instructions this is hard to do:

Bad, bad puzzle

It's puzzles like that which caused adventure games to get a bad name—and this is a good game!

Once solved we get into an area where we have to solve anagram puzzles on blackboards. Again, just figuring out what to do is the real challenge. Once you have that the puzzle is fairly easy, and gets us into the next area.

I keep getting interrupted from this game and no doubt will be interrupted again, but according to the chapters I'm about halfway through, and I eventually will finish it! 

It is a good game!

Next Entry.