As adventure game titles go Sanitarium is very punchy. You have a set of several, relatively small, areas to explore and puzzles in those areas to solve before things get mixed. This style of puzzle handling was also used in the Castle of Dr. Brain and its sequel, but unlike those titles the puzzles here are not the ends onto itself. The puzzles are instead integrated into a story, which for gaming purposes is solid enough and much like Blade Runner leaves itself open to being read into by those who care to do so. This punchy style further assists by making it hard for any particular area of the game to excessively drag, and allowing for plenty of variety in puzzles. Add on to this inventory management that’s straightforward enough and this title manages to avoid a lot of its brethren’s failings, although it has more problems with moving around the character then most.
On the nature of the puzzles while like similar titles some require a certain amount of pixel hunting to find something the developer intended you to mouse over, on the average they involve legitimate logical thinking. This is one of the title’s I suggest players take a mediocrum of notes with, and figure out some of the puzzles out on paper with, as that tends to help with some of these more complex puzzles verses simply manipulating things on the screen.
Hence I can easily recommend this title for those who enjoy these type of adventure games. It is not however appropriate for children.