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==Gameplay==
==Gameplay==
Sanity used a 3D engine to create a top-down view similar to ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)|Gauntlet]]''. Instead of weapons, the main character used various "psychic" abilities, called Talents, both offensive and defensive. The abilities were represented by individual "cards"; the game shipped with a poster showing over 100 individual ability "cards".
Sanity used a 3D engine to create a top-down view similar to ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)|Gauntlet]]''. Instead of weapons, the main character used various "psychic" abilities, called Talents, both offensive and defensive. The abilities were represented by individual "cards"; the game shipped with a poster showing over 100 individual ability "cards".
[[File:Sanity Aiken's Artifact screenshot.jpg|thumb|left|A crate puzzle]]
[[File:Sanity Aiken's Artifact screenshot.jpg|thumb|left|A crate puzzle|365x365px]]
The talents are categorized in to 8 different groups, or 'Totems' in which, each talent behaves like their respective totems. For example, Sun totem has Star blast, Star shower and Sand Pit abilities, which can be linked to the Sun.
The talents are categorized in to 8 different groups, or 'Totems' in which, each talent behaves like their respective totems.


The Totems are as follows:
⚫
Each totem has a Shield ability, which were stronger from the top to bottom, the Shield of Truth being the strongest. There are a total of 80 Talents, which can be gathered along the span of the Single-player game. The multiplayer game has some more talents added to it.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Talent Deck
!Totem
!Color
!Creator
|-
|Fire
|Orange
|Nathaniel Cain
|-
|Sun
|Yellow
|Priscilla Divine
|-
|Illusion
|Pink
|Adrian Starr
|-
|Science
|Green
|Joan Aiken
|-
|Demonology
|Red
|Elijah Krebspawn
|-
|Death
|Purple
|Ajani Namdu
|-
|Storm
|Blue
|Abel
|-
|Truth
|White
|Children of Tomorrow
|}
⚫
Each totem has a Projectile ability, Splash attack ability, Shield ability, Suppression and Protection ability. There are a total of 80 Talents, which can be gathered along the span of the Single-player game. The multiplayer game has some more talents added to it.


=="Booster Pack" expansion==
=="Booster Pack" expansion==
Line 31: Line 70:


==Plot==
==Plot==
Several decades before the game starts, a world-renowned [[genetic engineer]] named Doctor Joan Aiken discovered a way to utilise the unused portion of the human brain via a serum. The serum would give the user psychic abilities, or "talents", which could manipulate the world around them, for example levitating or shooting a bolt of lightning. Talents were split into collections called totems, and each Psionic specialised in the use of one totem, others even founding their own. Aiken became the founder of the Science totem.
Several decades before the game starts, a world-renowned [[genetic engineer]] named Doctor Joan Aiken discovered a way to utilise the unused portion of the human brain via a serum with the help of an Artifact unearthed prior. The serum would give the user psychic abilities, or "talents", which could manipulate the world around them, for example levitating or shooting a bolt of lightning. Talents were split into collections called totems, and each Psionic specialised in the use of one totem, others even founding their own. Using these abilities cost the users their Sanity, so people with Psionic Abilities tend to go insane. To combat these unstable individuals, the Department of Naitonal Psionic Control (DNPC) was established. Aiken has also found a way to inject the Psionic Booster serum during in-vitro fertilization, which made the Psionics not lose their sanity, which created the group of children with Psionic abilities, called the Children of Tomorrow (CoT)


When the game starts, Cain has just been suspended from the DNPC following an incident with Priscilla Divine, leader of the Eye of Ra (a radical organisation who wish to destroy the CoT project for ethical reasons) and founder of the Sun totem. He is eventually recruited back and tasked with infiltrating the Eye of Ra, who have been operating under the guise of a psychic hotline, and apprehend Divine.
When the game starts, Agent Nathaniel Cain has just been suspended from the DNPC following an incident with Priscilla Divine, leader of the Eye of Ra (a radical organisation who wish to destroy the CoT project for ethical reasons). He is eventually recruited back and tasked with infiltrating the Eye of Ra, who have been operating under the guise of a psychic hotline, and apprehend Divine. Cain fails to apprehend her as she is hostile and refuses to go back to prison. Cain has no choice but to kill Divine. Before her demise, she informs that Golgotham will kill them all anyways.


He returns to the DNPC to find that they are protecting another CoT, Bobby (no reason is given for this, but Bobby claims that it's because he has exceptional psionic powers). Abel breaks in and tries to kidnap Bobby, but Cain manages to hold him off until the DNPC arrive and use Talent - suppressors, forcing him to flee.
He returns to the DNPC to find that they are protecting another CoT, Bobby (no reason is given for this, but Bobby claims that it's because he has exceptional psionic powers). Abel, Cain's brother, breaks in and tries to kidnap Bobby, but Cain manages to hold him off until the DNPC arrive and use Psionic suppressors, forcing him to flee.


Cain is later told that a shipment of Aiken's test serum from when the labs tried to make the serum suitable for adults was stolen. The magician Adrian Starr, founder of the Illusion totem, is a suspect, and Cain is instructed to visit and question him.
Cain is later told that a shipment of Aiken's test serum from when the labs tried to make the serum suitable for adults was stolen. The magician Adrian Starr is a suspect, and Cain is instructed to visit and question him. Before getting into the theater where Starr is about to perform, he meets Golgotham, who asks Cain to join him in dominating the world. When Cain refuses, Golgotham summons the Sun guards summoned by Priscilla Divine. After defeating the guards, he makes his way to the theater.


On meeting Starr, he does not wish to meet with Cain, and tries his best in silencing Cain. Dodging everything that Starr throws his way, Cain finally manages to meet Starr and ask him about the missing serum. He denies his involvement and also informs Cain to look into Aiken Pharmaceuticals, and that Dr. Aiken is not whom she seems to be.
Once Elijah is dead, Cain leaves the mansion to be rewarded with a baseball bat over the head by one of the Bone Priest's men. Now, Cain must find the head and stop Golgotham from destroying it, or the Sanity Devourer will be called and consume the world.

With Starr's lead, Cain visits Aiken pharmaceuticals, and slips into the lower secret offices to understand more about Aiken and the Children of Tomorrow. Just before entering Aiken Pharmaceuticals, Golgotham visits Cain again, asking him to join forces, but when Cain refuses, Golgotham summons both the Sun guards and Starr's showgirls. On his foray into the pharmaceuticals, he finds out that Abel and himself were grown as part of the earlier recipients of the Psionic Booster Serum and grown in the labs. When Cain finally manages to meet Aiken in person, she demonstrates the Brain circuit, which enables the user to channel the powers of the brain of the person placed in the brain circuit. After the demonstration of summoning Priscilla's guards and Cain defeating them, Aiken informs that she was part of the group who volunteered to provide genetic material to give birth to Cain and Abel. In disbelief, Cain is forced to leave the lab, after a brief skirmish with Aiken. Cain learns in the labs that Aiken, Professors Elijah Krebspawn and Garland Troy were the ones who worked closely on the artifact and developed the Psionic Booster serum. Troy disappears after sometime, disagreeing with the way Aiken uses the artifact. Not knowing where Troy is, he escapes the labs, and is on his way to meet with Krebspawn. to understand about the artifact.

Cain makes his way to Krebspawn's house, and asks him about the artifact, realising that he does possess the artifact during their conversation. When Cain demands that Krebspawn hand over the Artifact, the latter traps Cain in his catacombs. Fighting his way through the demons that Krebspawn houses, he manages to exit out of the dungeon. Before getting back to the House floor, Golgotham appears again, reiterating his request. After Cain's refusal, Golgotham summons Aiken's robots in addition to the previous guards. Defeating them, Cain makes his way to the ground floor of the house.

While exploring the house, Cain stumbles into a lair where he finds the Artifact, a floating sentient head, which is knowledgeable in the workings of the universe, and explains how it helped Aiken and the others in developing Psionically abled individuals. Before he can know more, Krebspawn appears and fights Cain, telling him that the Artifact cannot leave his control. After Cain defeats Golgotham, he enquires the head about its purpose. The head reveals that its purpose is to accelerate races of people in various planets and develop their minds so that its master, The Sanity Devourer can absorb the psionic powers of all the people on the planet. Though it is the head's purpose, it reveals that this process is lonesome, and it does not wish to do so. It also reveals that Golgotham intends to destroy the head so that he can obtain the power of the head and become the servant of the Sanity Devourer.

Cain leaves the mansion to be rewarded with a baseball bat over the head by one of the Bone Priest's men, who has already captured Bobby. They grab the artifact and throw off Cain into a Zombie infested region, without his gun or badge. Cain fights through the city, and meets up with his colleague Strassbourgh, who has identified the location of the Bone priest. Making his way into the Bone priest's barge, Cain defeats him, before getting to know that he has shipped off Bobby, the Artifact, and the Brain circuit to Golgotham on the other side of the river.

Cain goes to a power plant on the other side of the river, while DNPC agents storm the meat processing plant near the power plant. He learns that Bobby has escaped from Abel, his captor, along with the head. When Cain is trapped in a crusher waiting to kill him, bobby rescues Cain, but is then recaptured by Abel. Cain follows them into the meat plant, where Golgotham has reanimated beef into Psionic Monsters. Fighting all these mnostrosities, he heads deep into the meat plant, discovering a secret lair.

In the lair, Cain finds that Aiken has gathered the brain copies of different psionics of each totem, and placed them in the brain circuit, allowing the user to control all the abilities of the psionics, combined. Aiken then reveals that Cain and Abel are an integral part of this fight because, they are the sons of Aiken, and Troy, who in turn became Golgotham. After Golgotham reappears, he takes control of the brain circuit, and kills Aiken. Cain fights with Golgotham, destroying the Brain Circuits, and destroying Golgotham himself. On discussing with the head, he learns that the Golgotham he fought was just a projection, and the real Golgotham has transformed into a huge monster. After a big fight, Cain defeats this monstrous version of Golgotham, thus destroying him once and for all.

When he frees Bobby and the head, and takes them out of the meat plant, he is double crossed by another unit of DNPC, and is only saved by Abel. Seeing Abel kill all the agents, Cain fights Abel and manages to kill him, with help from Bobby. Free from any old enemies, Cain, Bobby, and the head goes out to get something to eat.


==Development==
==Development==

Revision as of 11:35, 17 June 2025

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact
Developer(s)Monolith Productions
Publisher(s)Fox Interactive
Producer(s)Gary Sheinwald
Derek Fialho
Designer(s)Kevin Lambert
Garrett Price
Programmer(s)Toby Gladwell
Brad Pendleton
Artist(s)Matthew Allen
Writer(s)Kevin Lambert
Garrett Price
Composer(s)Guy Whitmore
EngineLithtech 2.0
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
  • NA: September 22, 2000[1]
  • EU: November 3, 2000
Genre(s)Action
Mode(s)Single-player, Multiplayer

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact is an action video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive exclusively for Microsoft Windows. The game's lead character, Agent Nathaniel Cain, was voiced by Ice-T. A Dreamcast version had been in development, but it was eventually cancelled.[2]

Gameplay

Sanity used a 3D engine to create a top-down view similar to Gauntlet. Instead of weapons, the main character used various "psychic" abilities, called Talents, both offensive and defensive. The abilities were represented by individual "cards"; the game shipped with a poster showing over 100 individual ability "cards".

A crate puzzle

The talents are categorized in to 8 different groups, or 'Totems' in which, each talent behaves like their respective totems.

The Totems are as follows:

Talent Deck
Totem Color Creator
Fire Orange Nathaniel Cain
Sun Yellow Priscilla Divine
Illusion Pink Adrian Starr
Science Green Joan Aiken
Demonology Red Elijah Krebspawn
Death Purple Ajani Namdu
Storm Blue Abel
Truth White Children of Tomorrow

Each totem has a Projectile ability, Splash attack ability, Shield ability, Suppression and Protection ability. There are a total of 80 Talents, which can be gathered along the span of the Single-player game. The multiplayer game has some more talents added to it.

"Booster Pack" expansion

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact had the option to purchase/download add-on various "booster packs" from Monolith's website to unlock additional in-game ability cards, a concept inspired by collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering. Free "booster packs" were also included with various game magazine CD-ROMs shortly after the release of the game.

Plot

Several decades before the game starts, a world-renowned genetic engineer named Doctor Joan Aiken discovered a way to utilise the unused portion of the human brain via a serum with the help of an Artifact unearthed prior. The serum would give the user psychic abilities, or "talents", which could manipulate the world around them, for example levitating or shooting a bolt of lightning. Talents were split into collections called totems, and each Psionic specialised in the use of one totem, others even founding their own. Using these abilities cost the users their Sanity, so people with Psionic Abilities tend to go insane. To combat these unstable individuals, the Department of Naitonal Psionic Control (DNPC) was established. Aiken has also found a way to inject the Psionic Booster serum during in-vitro fertilization, which made the Psionics not lose their sanity, which created the group of children with Psionic abilities, called the Children of Tomorrow (CoT)

When the game starts, Agent Nathaniel Cain has just been suspended from the DNPC following an incident with Priscilla Divine, leader of the Eye of Ra (a radical organisation who wish to destroy the CoT project for ethical reasons). He is eventually recruited back and tasked with infiltrating the Eye of Ra, who have been operating under the guise of a psychic hotline, and apprehend Divine. Cain fails to apprehend her as she is hostile and refuses to go back to prison. Cain has no choice but to kill Divine. Before her demise, she informs that Golgotham will kill them all anyways.

He returns to the DNPC to find that they are protecting another CoT, Bobby (no reason is given for this, but Bobby claims that it's because he has exceptional psionic powers). Abel, Cain's brother, breaks in and tries to kidnap Bobby, but Cain manages to hold him off until the DNPC arrive and use Psionic suppressors, forcing him to flee.

Cain is later told that a shipment of Aiken's test serum from when the labs tried to make the serum suitable for adults was stolen. The magician Adrian Starr is a suspect, and Cain is instructed to visit and question him. Before getting into the theater where Starr is about to perform, he meets Golgotham, who asks Cain to join him in dominating the world. When Cain refuses, Golgotham summons the Sun guards summoned by Priscilla Divine. After defeating the guards, he makes his way to the theater.

On meeting Starr, he does not wish to meet with Cain, and tries his best in silencing Cain. Dodging everything that Starr throws his way, Cain finally manages to meet Starr and ask him about the missing serum. He denies his involvement and also informs Cain to look into Aiken Pharmaceuticals, and that Dr. Aiken is not whom she seems to be.

With Starr's lead, Cain visits Aiken pharmaceuticals, and slips into the lower secret offices to understand more about Aiken and the Children of Tomorrow. Just before entering Aiken Pharmaceuticals, Golgotham visits Cain again, asking him to join forces, but when Cain refuses, Golgotham summons both the Sun guards and Starr's showgirls. On his foray into the pharmaceuticals, he finds out that Abel and himself were grown as part of the earlier recipients of the Psionic Booster Serum and grown in the labs. When Cain finally manages to meet Aiken in person, she demonstrates the Brain circuit, which enables the user to channel the powers of the brain of the person placed in the brain circuit. After the demonstration of summoning Priscilla's guards and Cain defeating them, Aiken informs that she was part of the group who volunteered to provide genetic material to give birth to Cain and Abel. In disbelief, Cain is forced to leave the lab, after a brief skirmish with Aiken. Cain learns in the labs that Aiken, Professors Elijah Krebspawn and Garland Troy were the ones who worked closely on the artifact and developed the Psionic Booster serum. Troy disappears after sometime, disagreeing with the way Aiken uses the artifact. Not knowing where Troy is, he escapes the labs, and is on his way to meet with Krebspawn. to understand about the artifact.

Cain makes his way to Krebspawn's house, and asks him about the artifact, realising that he does possess the artifact during their conversation. When Cain demands that Krebspawn hand over the Artifact, the latter traps Cain in his catacombs. Fighting his way through the demons that Krebspawn houses, he manages to exit out of the dungeon. Before getting back to the House floor, Golgotham appears again, reiterating his request. After Cain's refusal, Golgotham summons Aiken's robots in addition to the previous guards. Defeating them, Cain makes his way to the ground floor of the house.

While exploring the house, Cain stumbles into a lair where he finds the Artifact, a floating sentient head, which is knowledgeable in the workings of the universe, and explains how it helped Aiken and the others in developing Psionically abled individuals. Before he can know more, Krebspawn appears and fights Cain, telling him that the Artifact cannot leave his control. After Cain defeats Golgotham, he enquires the head about its purpose. The head reveals that its purpose is to accelerate races of people in various planets and develop their minds so that its master, The Sanity Devourer can absorb the psionic powers of all the people on the planet. Though it is the head's purpose, it reveals that this process is lonesome, and it does not wish to do so. It also reveals that Golgotham intends to destroy the head so that he can obtain the power of the head and become the servant of the Sanity Devourer.

Cain leaves the mansion to be rewarded with a baseball bat over the head by one of the Bone Priest's men, who has already captured Bobby. They grab the artifact and throw off Cain into a Zombie infested region, without his gun or badge. Cain fights through the city, and meets up with his colleague Strassbourgh, who has identified the location of the Bone priest. Making his way into the Bone priest's barge, Cain defeats him, before getting to know that he has shipped off Bobby, the Artifact, and the Brain circuit to Golgotham on the other side of the river.

Cain goes to a power plant on the other side of the river, while DNPC agents storm the meat processing plant near the power plant. He learns that Bobby has escaped from Abel, his captor, along with the head. When Cain is trapped in a crusher waiting to kill him, bobby rescues Cain, but is then recaptured by Abel. Cain follows them into the meat plant, where Golgotham has reanimated beef into Psionic Monsters. Fighting all these mnostrosities, he heads deep into the meat plant, discovering a secret lair.

In the lair, Cain finds that Aiken has gathered the brain copies of different psionics of each totem, and placed them in the brain circuit, allowing the user to control all the abilities of the psionics, combined. Aiken then reveals that Cain and Abel are an integral part of this fight because, they are the sons of Aiken, and Troy, who in turn became Golgotham. After Golgotham reappears, he takes control of the brain circuit, and kills Aiken. Cain fights with Golgotham, destroying the Brain Circuits, and destroying Golgotham himself. On discussing with the head, he learns that the Golgotham he fought was just a projection, and the real Golgotham has transformed into a huge monster. After a big fight, Cain defeats this monstrous version of Golgotham, thus destroying him once and for all.

When he frees Bobby and the head, and takes them out of the meat plant, he is double crossed by another unit of DNPC, and is only saved by Abel. Seeing Abel kill all the agents, Cain fights Abel and manages to kill him, with help from Bobby. Free from any old enemies, Cain, Bobby, and the head goes out to get something to eat.

Development

The game was announced at E3 2000[3] and was originally scheduled to release in late summer 2000.[4]

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[5] Jim Preston of NextGen called it "A colorful game that starts out fun then slowly grows routine."[17]

References

  1. ^ Walker, Trey (September 22, 2000). "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact in Stores". GameSpot. Archived from the original on April 13, 2002. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
  2. ^ Kollin, Mike (September 14, 2000). "The Dreamcast Loses Its Sanity". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  3. ^ "Fox Interactive Announces Two New Titles for Sega Dreamcast; 'Alien Resurrection' and 'Sanity, Aiken's Artifact' Join an All-Star Lineup of Fox Titles". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. May 11, 2000. Archived from the original on April 11, 2019. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  4. ^ Antonucci, Mike (May 30, 2000). "To boost a music career, get in the game". The Record. Gannett Company. p. 49. Retrieved July 26, 2021 – via Knight Ridder.Closed access icon(Subscription required.)
  5. ^ a b "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  6. ^ Woods, Nick. "Sanity, Aiken's Artifact [sic] - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 17, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  7. ^ Hicks, Cliff (September 7, 2000). "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on October 17, 2000. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  8. ^ McElveen, Nick (October 2, 2000). "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact". Computer Games Strategy Plus. Strategy Plus, Inc. Archived from the original on May 22, 2003. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  9. ^ Nguyen, Thierry (November 2000). "Not Playing With a Full Deck (Sanity: Aiken's Artifact Review)" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 196. Ziff Davis. p. 160. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  10. ^ Edge staff (December 2000). "[Sanity:] Aiken's Artifact". Edge. No. 91. Future Publishing. p. 109. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  11. ^ "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact". Game Informer. No. 91. FuncoLand. November 2000.
  12. ^ Wright, Brian (September 28, 2000). "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact Review for PC on GamePro.com". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on November 9, 2004. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  13. ^ Wolpaw, Erik (September 22, 2000). "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact Review". GameSpot. Red Ventures. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  14. ^ Wu, Jonathan (September 9, 2000). "Sanity [Aiken's Artifact]". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on September 22, 2009. Retrieved September 14, 2008.
  15. ^ Lambert, Jason (November 3, 2000). "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on December 1, 2008. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  16. ^ Steinberg, Scott (September 25, 2000). "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  17. ^ a b Preston, Jim (November 2000). "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact". NextGen. No. 71. Imagine Media. p. 142. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  18. ^ Poole, Stephen (November 2000). "Sanity: Aiken's Artifact". PC Gamer. Vol. 7, no. 11. Imagine Media. p. 138. Archived from the original on March 15, 2006. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
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