Finally got round to taking notes from the first section.

Firstly, the opening cinematic. Note that we only get to see the main character's legs and not his face (which is covered by bandages by the time we get to see it) The trousers look like the same colour as the ones he's wearing in the tower cells. The video in the control centre indicates he stole a car and raced off believing he was doing something important. That fits together with his excited phone call (we have no indication he actually spoke to anyone so that could easily be part of a delusion). There's also the vaguely overheard comment from an attendant about his car being stolen just before you get control. It would appear we're a dangerous nutter alright. :crazy: One that sees statues come alive, talk to him and transport him to other places as well.

Whilst maybe not ideal, I got used to the movement system over time. However, there was one thing about it that bugged me. The character walks up and down stairs on their own if you clip one end of them. Not so much a problem here but drove me mad on a later level. I wonder if the perspective and the fact there are a lot of rough edges (which would make automated parth-finding difficult) is what led them to choose this method.

I like the voicework overall. At this stage the main character is in a state of shock (he's woken up heavily bandaged and with no memory after all) so his slightly vague sound and dispassionate approach to the wall-butter fitted that state for me. It will be interesting to see if that continues to be a concern for others as the game progresses. The other voices I thought were good, especially the very convincing stutter.

I also like the background animation. The other inmates (including chicken man on the lower floors). The water streaming through the grate at the back. The rats that run around near the furnace. These make it all the more horrible but bring it to life as well.

One other point on the head-bashing noise. It gets louder the closer you get to him and fades if you get a long-distance away. (so noises are as the PC hears them) A minor thing perhaps but it's these little details that make a difference.

I thnk the word Jelena was looking for is "foreshadowing". There is a ton of foreshadowing in this scene. Here's the things I noticed (in spoilers for obvious reasons). Anyone see any others? (please also use spoilers for those playing for the first time)

EXTREME SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IF PLAYING FOR FIRST TIME. I WILL REFERENCE BACK WHEN THESE BECOME RELEVANT.

Spoiler:

The stained glass shows children (on right). pumpkins, and a meteor (both on left). These are clear references to chapter 2. Also referring to chapter 2 is most of the conversation with Lenny (in cell on right). He refers to pumpkin pie, the patch, Mother and everyone going to school (which is where you'll find them in that chapter)

Martin (near Lenny) refers to robotic insects intent on destroying the world and that he'll find their hive one day. These are all references to chapter 6. The exploding furnace next to Martin could also be a reference to this.

Conversing with Danny (on the left) brings all sorts of references to the Aztec village in chapter 8. He mentions fallen temples and warrior spirits seeking vengeance and describes the tower as the village. The key is also Aztec, which is a reference to this, and the "key" to the discovery that led to this whole situation.

Great point. A lot of people hear the detached voice and think it is lazy or inept acting but it is actually character acting, which becomes even more apparent when one hears the actor's other character voices later in the game.

I started playing the game some weeks ago and I'm near the end, so I won't participate, but I may post a few comments anyway. :)
I like the grahpics, and have no problems with the isometric point of view, though it's a shame that they were downscaled to 256 colours. They certainly would've looked better in 16-bit or so.
I'm not very much a fan of the voice acting, and I agree that the "Diagnosis: Crazy!" line ruins the atmosphere at this point, it seems inconsistent in tone in this regard, but it doesn't happen much later on.
The writing overall is quite solid and thankfully quite succinct compared to other games. Yeah, some dialogues go on for a bit too long, but I've seen much worse. So, if the endless dialogues of TLJ didn't bother you, you shouldn't have problems with Sanitarium either. ;)

You get accustomed to the controls. It took some time for me to figure out how to open the inventory, since it's rather unusual how you do it, and I still walk a lot against walls or other obstacles, which is annoying. And the stairs...yeah, how often did I run up the stairs in Chapter 3 without wanting to do it. But they're acceptable, since you rarely have to react fast anyway. Action scenes are very few, can be repeated endlessly and are easy to master.

Sanitarium is not perfect, it has lots of rough edges. Chapter 2 especially features some pixelhunting, and in later ones you have to walk around a bit too much. Still, it's a unique experience, and I'm glad it exists.
I imagine what Dreamforge could've done next, because they really hit their stride with this title. It's by far their best game. Therefore it's a shame that the studio dissolved shortly after Sanitarium's release.

That's a nice summary Step, concise and to the point. I'm keeping my mind open as to what may be going on though! ;)

On the whole, i'm reserving judgment on the voicework at the moment, although I simply can't agree with you on the stutter. I have a couple of friends/relatives with stutters/stammers and I really can't reconcile the stuttering character's voice acting in this game with the reality as I have seen it. (Or maybe that should be heard it ;)). That may just be me though.

I look forward to coming back to your foreshadowing spoilers later on!

I think you covered them all. I didn't notice any other 'foreshadowings'.

I really like that word btw. ;)

I see your point. But he reacts naturally to the guy falling down the chasm, expressing shock and concern. And this is just seconds later. They should have made it consistent.

(Argh, I almost saw your spoilers when quoting your post!)

After reading the opinions of those who have already played, I'm even more eager to continue playing! I have high hopes for the rest of the game, despite the somewhat shaky start.

Hey Step. I actually saw more foreshadowings, because

Spoiler:

the guy who falls off the edge is talking about a tightrope, and other circus things.

This is my second play-through after finishing Sanitarium a few months ago. Funny thing is that I now recognise that the people you talk with in the first chapter are already referring to the later chapters. Let me elaborate:

Spoiler:

Don - the patient all the way on the left - talks about warriors and temples; the chapter called The Lost Village. Is he hiding from Quetzalcoatl?
Lenny - the patient sitting on the bed on the right of the tower - is talking about mother and the pumpkin patch that appear in the second second chapter
Martin - the patient sitting near the boiler on the right - is talking about insects, probably referring to the sixth chapter; The Hive.

In my first play-through I just thought they where talking gibberish, well actually I still think so, but it gives some extra coherence to the game as a whole and is also giving some joy to replay it.
The chapters are probably metaphors, I just haven't figured most of them out. I hope we can talk about their meaning later on. As for the first chapter, does anyone have some thoughts on the large angel statue?

Edit: oh crap, my post totally crossed stepurhan's one. Sorry for repeating the subjects!

Wow, that was a lot shorter than I expected!
I think it's kind of what you'd expect from an introduction: it raises questions, but doesn't answer any.

So far the people you can talk to aren't making any sense. I wonder whether they're there just to get the atmosphere across, or whether their delusions are part of the story and will be explained later.

The moving statue surprised me quite a bit, I somehow expected the game to not contain any "unreal" elements. I wonder: is it just the main character's delusion or is it really happening? And why is he suddenly at another location, did he simply forget what happened in between or did the statue actually move him? I'm tempted to think it actually happened, but again, I am surprised that (or would be surprised if) the game contains such supernatural elements. Something tells me that he doesn't really have any business being in a sanitarium (although it is strange that he can't remember anything, while he appears to have been there for some time). A nice conspiracy perhaps? There's not much to go on yet...

I'm very curious about the rest of the story, although I can't say I like the interface much... I wonder how hard the puzzles will be; so far they were pretty straight-forward :P

That's interesting because I have a friend who stutters and I thought it did sound like them. Would it be wrong to ask our stuttering friends to read the game dialogue so we can compare properly? :devil:
The English language is full of wonderful words. The definition for this one is "A technique that involves clues that a writer gives his/her readers about what will happen later on in a novel or in a short story"
That's a good point. I hadn't thought about that. As I said earlier, it will be interesting to see if those who didn't like the voicework in this scene maintain that view in later scenes. Was that one line an anomaly or will they spot other things like this that don't sit right?
Sorry about that.
Good catch.
Those were exactly the sort of questions I asked myself first time out. Don't expect any definitive answers either way any time soon.
If you (or indeed anyone else) has trouble with the puzzles then feel free to PM me or post in the hint forum. We probably want to avoid too much "how do I solve this" here (though feelings on solving puzzles and whether they were fair are definitely part of the picture)

Just a thought on the graphics question as a few people have mentioned it. This game was originally released in 1997, so you can't really compare to modern graphics. To put it into context, the original Diablo (which has a similar perspective if not content) came out in January of that year. Here's a screenshot for comparison. (ignore the fiery outline, which was added where i sourced the screenshot)

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...han/diablo.jpg

:D

"Uh, uncle Ian...?"

Perhaps not. ;)

Sorry if i'm labouring a point but a question for those who criticize the voice acting for not sounding 'authentic' (by which I presume they mean naturalistic): would you make the same criticism if you went to see a performance of Shakespeare? Or indeed in one of those period dramas where the characters all talk ever so properly and in that strange stilted manner employed in such things. The realism there is zero but it gets accepted because its accepted as the style for that type of drama.

Also, let's be fair: this game has thousands of lines of dialogue. I doubt any game anywhere has this much dialogue and doesn't occasioanly hit a duff or inconsistent line.

Graphically I think the game still holds up. Obviously, the resolution is low by modern standards but aesthetically I still find it pleasing on the eye. And its generally true to the say that the more advanced the graphics appeared to be in a game at the time the more quickly they will date. A game like this ages far better than say, the awful 3D animations in Gabriel Knight 3.

Regarding the story: I think that aiming for too literal an interpretation of any of the events in a game like this would be a little bit diagnosis: crazy :P but rest assured, for better or worse, there will be clarity come the end of the game.

There is undoubtedly a lot of dialogue in this game so "Diagnosis Crazy" may be an anomaly. This is why I think this discussion will prove more interesting once we've played a decent chunk of the game. Those that don't like the voices in this short segment may find that the voices feel more natural over time or they may have a problem with the voices for the game as a whole. The Innocents Abandoned is fairly chunky and so may give some indications on that.

I think, up to a limit, it's always going to be a matter of taste though.

Great discussion in here so far. When Sanitarium was first released I remember loving the demo, but I just never bought the game (14-year-old kids have to budget a hell of a lot!).

I found a copy of the updated for XP Sanitarium a few years ago at Office Depot or Office Max and played it through then. I don't have time to replay with you guys but will follow along with the a youtube playthrough I found.

This is one of my favorite games. The story is very much like that in the movie (BIG-TIME SPOILER, only read if you've played before)

Spoiler:

Jacob's Ladder.

The writing is really great, the puzzles fit within the story, and the characters are relatable.

I have finished this (very, very short) segment for some time now, but until now I hadn't had the time to post my ramblings, so you be warned, here they are.

I think I don't need to add again that the atmosphere is great, something spooky is going on. This isn't your every day asylum. This isn't your every day story. This isn't your every day game. I like how they made the main menu more creepy than a usual main menu. The eyes that follow you, the kid's voice telling you which button you hover over...
(By the way, anyone else jumping up a little bt when putting the disc in for installation and out of the blue hearing someone say Sanitarium? :P)

The controls...they haven't given me much trouble, they are just...different. It may have helped that I played GK3 just before playing Sanitarium, which also contains mouse-based movement (albeit a bit different), so maybe because of that I was already a bit used to it.

Regarding the point of view/camera: it does feel a bit like everything is happening somewhere far away-ish down there. It does give the opportunity to include a large bit of scenery in one view, but it also makes everything down there so small. (Before seeing the cutscene I thought the base of the satue was covered with some red substance like blood or something). I wonder how that will work for immersion, with things happening so far away (apart from the cutscenes of course).

The 'delusions being part of the story' thought made me think of something. If we assume that our main character may not be delusional, why are we so certain the others are? I mean, granted, they sound a lot more delusional and all like the main character, but if indeed our main character is sane, and he, in all is sanity is seeing the things he does in this first chapter, including a talking angel... If he, in his sanity, sees that, and relays it to others, would they not consider him delusional as well?
Or alternatively, could it be that the other inmates had been there so long that they started to sound delusional, yet that there is still truth in what they are saying, even though it may have come to sound like delusional gibberish over the (possibly) years they have been captured in the tower?


Has he been there for some time? I must have missed out on that bit then...either way, even if he has been there for some time (let's assume that, what with Step's remark on the colour of his trouwers before the crash, he has actually been an inmate for some time), the crash could have easily caused the amnesia he is experiencing now, which sort of makes it logical that his mind is blank.

Yes, I like conspiracy theories :D
My current idea is that our main character is, in fact, sane. He may have lost his memory due to the crash, he may still be in a shock, but he is not delusional. He just doesn't sound that way (yeah I know, great argument, will win in any debate :crazy:).

Could his so-called delusions just be a way to shut him up? In the intro he mentioned he found something out. Something that sounded like a huge thing, something that could have something to do with the asylum. Likely something the staff of the asylum does not want to be known. Wouldn't it be the easiest way to give everyone (including the main character himself) the idea that he is in fact delusional, and all he says is made up? That all what he has discovered thus far is just made up by the delusions in his own mind, not something to be trsuted or to be regarded as real? After all, the only one really calling him delusional is Dr. Morgan, and it may seem a bit too convenient that out of all tapes just that one is in the VCR...

Remains of course the question of the colour of his trousers. Either he has been an inmate before, and found something out while being there (but I wonder for what reason he was in the asylum in the first place), or could it be that the staff of the asylum also has that colour trousers, yet with a different colour above what we see in the intro?

And why was he so stupid to drive so extremely fast that made him get in the crash, knowing he had such important info to share? Was he so eager to tell it? Was he followed? Was he pushed of the road? Did someone of the unknown bad guys somehow take over the wheel, and most importantly, the gas pedal?

Something else I've been wondering...in the intro someone of the (I think) staff asks "what to do with that one", to which someone else replies to "leave him, that's the bastard that stole my car". So that would be the reason to specifically leave our main character for dead, but what about the other inmates? Had they done something against them as well, that they could easily be left behind, to die in the tower cells? Or was it normal to leave the inmates, and does our main character have a special status, belonging to a group who usually would be saved, unless of course when they do something bad like stealing a car?

Okay, I have bored you enough with my conspiracy theories now :P Looking forward to see how the story really evolves.

I've just re-installed the game and played Chapter 1 again. When I played Sanitarium for the first time a few years ago, I knew I was in for a very disturbing adventure. Although the initial shock and horror of the asylum I experienced has passed, the imagery and unsettling, creepy atmosphere of two upcoming chapters are permanently stuck in my mind. :crazy:

As always, it's very interesting to hear first-time players' initial thoughts and speculations about the plot. :) Without spoiling too much, I'll have to play through the next chapter as quickly as possible (unsettling and creepy, see above ;)), as our heretofore-unnamed character begins his quest to "seek the truth".

I've played this game some time ago, and like Trunkyo says, it's great to see how people actually discuss the way the game develops. I was just playing from scene to scene not knowing what to expect and it kept on growing in it's disturbing way. Not giving detailed thoughts about it as I'm reading here...

I think I can speak for the people who played this game, that we wonder about where the thoughts of the first-time-players will go, because there's some really awesome stuff coming up during the upcoming levels that is confusing but awesome in perspective of the eventual solution. So yeah, I've played it... And this will be my first (and probably final) post in this thread, since I'll love to read about the thoughts going that will go into this game! Have fun you newcomers. God, this game is worth a movie. - And about the visuals, I love the simplicity; you get the basic picture, but the details can be easily created by the mind.... And the voice-acting is great also. Shove that need for realism where the...!

Anyway. Favorite adventure game ever.

Any info on how far we should play for this next segment? I was kinda hoping I'd be able to spend the day in blissful insanity (?) before heading back to the dull, non-delusional life of school tomorrow. :D

Finally found my copy of the game and played the little chapter.
My memory of the game is very blurry. So it is more a rediscovery of the game than a replay for me.
But happily i remembered instantely how to turn out the alarm.
Everything seems already said.
I'm happy i found my copy in time!

Sorry for seemingly neglecting the playthrough. I've been having not only (predictably) busy offline life, but also (what I hadn't predicted) constant problems with the game. It began well enough, then started random crashes which were gradually becoming more and more frequent, eventually forcing me to save and reload every two minutes. Following the advice from one of the threads either here or on GOG, I ran it in a windowed mode, which eliminated the crashes. But then I encountered a game-stopping bug, apparently similar to the one stepurhan mentioned but in a different chapter, so just to be on a safe side, I've replayed everything from the beginning with the patch applied. Argh. Serves me right for questioning the bugginess of the game a couple of years ago. :shifty:

But I am glad to see the discussion is going strong even after this brief introductory chapter. So, about The Tower Cell...




What the...?The above quote, taken from one of the earliest examples of mental-asylum-based fiction, could be a motto for the game, as is evident from wild theorizing of the first-time players among us. For indeed: if our anonymous, faceless character isn't crazy, then how do we know that the other patients are, and who is in on the conspiracy that put him in this haunting place? And if he is insane, what else is also a part of his delusion? Either way, it seems we can't take anything for granted. But that, as Ozzie noted, this shouldn't stop us from enjoying the ride. Whatever is "real", we can always try to decipher the metaphors behind things we witness. And whatever the metaphor, we can always enjoy the clever way the stories overlap. Which brings me to...

Foreshadowing. Actually, from the start, one of my secretive plans regarding the playthrough was to list all the tiny connections between chapters we manage to find, including those subtle enough to be possibly accidental. However, because there are quite a few (though nowhere as dense as in the first chapter), I was taking notes intending to try to summarise them when we reach the foreshadowed part, if everyone's okay with that.

That's not to say you are not allowed to point them out whenever you see it fitting -- that's what the spoiler tags are for, after all. (And I fully intend to steal Step's and Fantasy's observations when applicable). I just want to avoid having big parts of the discussion being in whitespace if we almost definitely get back to them anyway.

I am hearing voices. It's a very interesting debate about acting, which I expect to get only more divisive in later stages.

These are excellent points. I am reminded of the discussions about the way characters talked in The Village (I mean the Shyamalan's movie rather than a latter part of Sanitaium), which I thought was lovely and suited the context (even more so after one of the reveals), but everybody else lambasted.

That said, while I am certain much of the voicework here that rubs people the wrong way is due to very intentional writing and direction (like the "Diagnosis: crazy!" bit which I believe was supposed to grate, by contrast with all the gloom and insanity around; in the next chapter there'll be a very similar moment where our hero, amidst the very grim environment, will do something very childlike and laugh), the talent of the actors are also nowhere near, say, Blackstone Chronicles, comparable because also had a cast of characters with a loose grip on reality. As much as it pains me to admit it, because I remember pretty much loving Sanitarium's acting back when I originally played it.

Other things I'd like to reply to:

No, I believe harald's right. You can only look more than once at hotspots that are not pickable/usable objects.

Prisoner of Ice had infamously "squished" character models, but rather outstanding backgrounds (which made the characters all the uglier). Anyway, I love the look of both those games. :) I wonder if you'll be more keen on the graphics after you see all the varied environments in the game (although the tower was one of my favourites, so perhaps you won't).

Oh come on. Playthroughs are not fun if we restrain from being talkative. :D

Interesting. Can you explain why it isn't both of those things? Because to me it's clearly direct control movement despite employing only a mouse (and I actually used it in at least one conversation as an example that mouse-based interface and direct control aren't mutually exclusive). Telltale has started using basically the same method recently (just with left click) as an alternative to keyboard and gamepad, and I had no doubt it is direct control, as well. And I have no idea why you wouldn't call the view isometric.


Finally, welcome to the new inmates members: aimless, AnneS, TheLongestJourney -- hope you all stick around. :)