Oct 292025
It’s been a long, long time since we first talked about Asylum.
I first mentioned Asylum back in 2013 in my review of Scratches, the previous game from the same developer.
Asylum was the first game I ever backed on Kickstarter, and after a twelve-year wait, it finally came out earlier this year. And as we approached the end of October, it suddenly occurred to me that I should play it for spooky month!
Set in the crumbling Hanwell Mental Institute, you play a man searching the asylum for answers so he can find out the meaning of his hallucinations by learning what happened to him when he was at the asylum years earlier. It has a haunting, ominous atmosphere as you make your way through the almost-abandoned halls.
It is a point-and-click adventure game, and that actually took me by surprise; even though I knew it was an adventure game, I expected to walk around in 3D.
But no! Just like Scratches, you’ll use the point-and-click interface for everything, including walking around a room. While having only a few set areas in each room you can walk to makes exploration take a little getting used to, I adjusted to it in time and found its gameplay approach almost nostalgic. As you explore, you’ll find documents to read, occasional puzzles to solve, and a handful of characters to talk to.
There are a few oddities. For example, I can’t help but wonder why interacting with the projector had a cutscene for getting out and putting away each film reel when most interactions just had item disappear and reappear as needed.
Nevertheless, it takes a little under 10 hours to complete, and I found it to be a satisfying experience. Although I enjoyed Scratches more due to the way its sense of horror and dread slowly builds up, Asylum still has a great sense of atmosphere, and I felt I really knew the location by the end. The ending seems controversial, and I did find it puzzling at first, but the more I think about it, the more content I am with it.
Now, having waited 12 years for it, I have to admit I had built it up to be bigger and grander in my mind, when it really feels more like… another game in line with Scratches.
But when I think back to how I felt when I played Scratches and what I’d have wanted from another game in that style, I’m happy with what I got in Asylum. It was a good choice to play this October.
12 years for a kickstarter feels……… average hahahaha. I think one of my oldest ongoing Kickstarter games finally came out recently… this also reminds me how few of the games I have backed on Kickstarter I have actually ended up playing when they finally release, whoops xD Whether because of bug fixes, distractions with other games, mixed reviews, or just not feeling that same hype anymore.
But I can still sometimes be glad to be part of the process that got them released.
Most of mine haven’t taken that long, since I’ve had a number of backed games come out and this was the first one I ever backed, heh.
Oh wow, this was your first kickstarter game ever? For me it was Double Fine Adventure, but I know that opened the gates to many at the time. What a time that was! Sometimes I look back on my backed projects over the years to see which ones I liked, which I didn’t, which never happened, which never even came out or came out that I never played… I should probably back less things lol
Yep! Republique was the first one that caught my attention, but Asylum was the first time I actually backed one.
It’s been a long time since I’ve looked back over mine. I should do that again sometime.
Absolutely wild how long it took for this game came out….to be honest if I backed it, I would have forgotten about it all together!Also the name “Scratches” is currently giving me the heebie jeebies for another game i’m playing…..
While I didn’t forget about it, I did get so used to it not coming out that when they announced its release, I was startled, haha.
And ah yes, Scratch…
Coincidence? Maybe Scratch is secretly writing all sorts of horror games, not just books.