


The second chapter features a hut with a large painted impression of a red herring on the roof. Three literal examples of red herrings exist in the game. These graves are distinguished from other headstones in the game by the last names which are abbreviated to a single letter. Clicking on the stones will trigger a narration of a name and a funny epitaph. Some headstones in the game contain the names of people associated with the game's development. Whether this is a reference to the song or a coincidence has not been determined. The Offspring's song " Bad Habit" contains the lyric "stupid dumbshit goddamn motherfucker". 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:Ĭ:\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. However, subtitles are also available for cinematics, game play, and dialogue.Įaster eggs Mad programmer outburst The voice acting is of good quality and most likely done by professionals. The game is fully voiced and even memos are read and summarized by the player character. Similarly, topics may also trigger game events. New dialogue topics may appear after certain game events or after selecting certain topics.

The player can usually choose which topics in the dialogue tree to select but some are necessary to progress the game. Though they are nothing by today's standards they were truly impressive in their day.ĭialogue is an important part of the game as many clues and objectives are communicated through it. During important story moments in the game cinematics with higher graphical quality are played. The game graphics feature detailed 2D backdrops with basic 3D models and animations. The player's inventory is accessed by clicking on the player character and items are used by selecting them and then clicking on the target object. The player controls the character in a bird's-eye view perspective and moves by right clicking and dragging the mouse in the desired direction. The keyboard is used only to access the menu and save. The game is point and click so primarily uses the mouse. Thus a Game Over in this game is non-existent. When Max is sufficiently injured he is transported back to a safe area so the player can try again without losing any progress. This might be challenging if Max could die but he can't. The player is given an improvised weapon for a very short time and must click accurately on enemies to kill them. Though it is used infrequently the game does have a very basic combat system. When the player overcomes the challenge, a cinematic is played and the game proceeds to the next chapter. This challenge may be a more difficult puzzle or combat. The player must find clues, solve puzzles and interact with other characters to reach a final challenge. Each is typically a self contained vignette with its own style and atmosphere. The game is separated into different levels or "chapters". Within the grounds of the sanitarium, through nightmarish worlds, delusions, and flashbacks, he confronts the ghosts of his past and searches for the keys to salvation. Throughout the game he frantically tries to unveil the details of his institutionalization, recover his identity, and find the truth behind sinister events and mysterious visions. Sanitarium tells the story of a man named Max Laughton who finds himself in an ancient and bizarre asylum suffering from amnesia after a car accident.
