Never mind those adorable little tykes dressed like puppies or pumpkins. Forget cartoon ghosts or happily grinning scarecrows. If you like your horror visceral and bloody, we've got the game for you. Point-and-click adventure game Asylum 626, the follow-up to Hotel 626, is now accepting patients.
We begin with a warning: This game is not for the faint of heart or those under 18. Or my grandmother. Even this review, therefore, may also not be suitable for some. Asylum 626 has a plot yanked straight from an R-rated horror movie, complete with the requisite blood, screaming and slashing inherent to the current scary movie style. Even better (or worse, depending on your point of view), the game uses video clips and fabulously realistic sound effects to create a haunting atmosphere.
You awake to find yourself in some sort of operating room, strapped to a gurney with creepy doctors lurking over you. One picks up a handsaw and slowly starts towards you. Then the horror truly begins, as repressed memories start flooding back and the true nature of the asylum comes to light.
At the start-up screen, you're asked to allow the game access to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. This is not mandatory and will not impede your ability to enjoy the game. However, if you do choose to provide your account information, some innovative features are activated and the experience takes on a more personal feel. While third-party access is a controversial subject here on JIG, I have to admit that Asylum 626 uses these connections to their full advantage. The Facebook information is especially well-used.
As the game proceeds, more interactive features become available. You have the option to include your e-mail address, phone number, web camera and microphone in the mix. Again, though, the only mandatory entry is your date of birth due to graphic violence. Even then, entering a month and year while omitting a date seems to work just fine.
Halloween approaches, and a glut of horror games will be upon us shortly. If you want something really scary, check yourself in to Asylum 626.
Although the game is only available to play between the hours of 6PM and 6AM only, you can change your computer clock to let you in immediately.
I cannot figure out how to start the thing... it's just a countdown :/
Whitney:
Your computer clock needs to be set between 6 PM to 6 AM in order to play.
The game is accessible only from 6PM to 6AM, as determined by your computer clock.
Although it's presently after 6PM here on the East coast of the US, the time may be different in your location.
It's too bad they still have the time constraint on the game. It kept out of the hotel last year.
I get the point of making the player only participate during sunless hours, adding to the immersion, but it's an inconvenient restriction. (yes, I understand tweaking the clock will get me in, but to me that adds to the fact that it's a flimsy, gimicky restriction anyway.)
I guess I'll have to skip this year's edition, too.
With all due respect, Bloated. That's just silly nonsense.
Chill dude, relax a bit and go with the flow. Life is too short to be so rigid.
Hmm... once I enter my details it loads about 45% of the way and then apparently freezes. :/
it refuses to load... am I supposed to have a special something to play this?
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not bent out of shape or anything. Call it slight disappointment. I'd love to enjoy these, but they don't really work with my schedule. Good thing JIG keeps the great games coming!
So, I'm off to play some intruder, or maybe work on some more star wars lego lvls. There's plenty of schedule free games to enjoy.
Ok, then, carry on. :)
Cheers.
@bloatedsack:
Do what you will, but by simply not setting your clock temporarily on your computer to play (which takes all of ten seconds...) you will be missing out on quite a wonderfully immersive gaming experience... I loved Hotel 626, was quite blown away with the creativity and am stoked to play the new one...
What can I say, if life taught you to be this stubborn, then, as Jay said...
carry on :)
Cheers!
Uhh, am I getting game over when I got tv screens? D:
It ends for me with all the Dorito tv screens too...is there supposed to be more?
I think we got game over on that screen. Because from the first installment, you see their webcam captures at the end of the journey.
I met two sequences and I don't think I escaped any of those.
The chainsaw part, you can move to avoid the chainsaw.
The room where you got flashlight. There is something around 'seek the light' but the light generator is unclickable.
There is no retry button and refreshing it appears to reload everything from zero.. No cache :( Including the video.. it rebuffers.
Really scary, but doesn't make sense.
That was sort of terrible. A bunch of generic hospital/slasher flick videos, 3 opportunities to actually interact, and a doritos ad as the payoff.
I just found out that you can use the light
to scare off the people attacking you
In all honesty, I think Hotel 626 was a lot better. It had more interactivity and real puzzles to solve instead of just watching some short video clips from Doritos
Wow, what a let-down! After how great Hotel 626 was, I was super excited for this! But I still don't know if I got to the end or if I hit a fake ending (I ended at those TV screens too). The flashlight section was a poor-mans camera phone nurse from last year, and this wasn't nearly as scary OR immersive.
I didn't get to use a mic, webcam OR my phone number. Can someone let me know if I did something wrong and just missed all the cool parts?
the clue is the back of the dorito's bag. I guess you have to have the special logo on the back to hold up to your webcam to advance, I don't have a webcam so I can't advance.
Was blown away by Hotel 626, I think I played it every night for a week. This was Very disappointing. I think without realizing it Dorito's set a standard that they wasn't able to live up to.
Not going there. Nope, not playing this one. Hotel 626 was just too intensely scary for me, even in daylight, and I couldn't finish because I didn't have my webcam or mic set up, and I'm just too darn lazy to put it all together just to get scared (too chicken also). Reading the review and the ensuing discussion is more than enough for me. Yup. More than enough.
This one feels a lot less interactive than Hotel 626 was. Shorter, too.
Is anyone else having trouble with this game loading? Do you need a certain version of Java/Adobe/Flash installed for this game to work?
i heard you have to buy a doritos pack in order to proceed because theres a key at the back of the back is that true?? cause where i live we don't have doritos :(
It's not working for me. After it shows the title all it does is sit there and play that cheesey music. Did anybody else have that problem.
I really want to play but it is totally not loading :\ I tried to play it on three different browsers...none worked :\ i didn't have this much trouble at all with hotel 626
I don't get this.
I got to a screen showing a bunch of webcams on TVs and a way to spam my friends and that's it. It seems to indicate that I need to buy some doritos or something to play the actual game, but didn't explain it at all.
It completely locked up my computer in Google Chrome and was using nearly 100% CPU constantly on this screen in IE.
1/5
I'm afraid I have to agree with G.P. re: the low rating.
Hotel 626 wasn't just a series of jump-moments. It was an actual game, and one where you could retry a level if you didn't make it the first time. This lacks directions for the few times you CAN interact, and has no flow overall.
Hotel 626: 4.5/5
Asylum 626: 2/5 (and the extra star is for finding the very creepy doctor-actor).
Utterly incomprehensible. The sound and visuals are the tightest, but I have no idea when it's an intro and when it's interactive, if it's interactive or even if I'm still playing.
Wow... They definitely dropped the ball after one of the best online experiences I have had in referencing Hotel 626. I read somewhere that the creators were criticized in their lack of product placement and interactivity in the game so they meant to make up for it here... Yep, definitely more product placement, definitely more disappointing...
*sigh* There goes the one good online scare this year...
bummer.
anyone have a walkthrough?
Really?? REALLY?
I was so happy to see a sequel, and then it just... stops? and doesn't give any further instruction?
Come ON, there's gotta be something more, they had a whole year to work on this!
Someone tell me what I'm doing wrong, I really want to play this game.
And I'm really sick of other people's pictures flashing across my screen.
i think im doing something wrong because mine stopped with all the screens to and i cant figure it out!do you have to by doritos?
Wait, are you telling me that I HAVE to use a camera and microphone to finish Hotel 626? I haven't had time (or the guts) to play through it and I just found out about it recently.
Still, do I have to have those pieces of hardware? Because I don't. I have an old laptop. :(
I will pass on playing it. I loved Hotel 626, but I don't want to be forced into buying Doritos and using my webcam just to finish a game. (I say forced to use my webcam because I read on another site that you will have to use your webcam to show what is called an "augmented reality marker" on a bag of Black Pepper Jack or Smoking Cheddar BBQ Doritos in order "to access the climactic scene."
you don't need a webcam to play Hotel, so don't let stop you from playing what is really a great game. Asylum, on the other hand, looks like the suits in marketing got ahold of it and completely trashed what could've been a great annual experience.
I now realize I, for some reason, combined "Hotel 626" with my "forced to buy Doritos" comment...
Rephrase: I loved Hotel 626. However, I dont not like being forced to (yadda yadda yadda) to play Asylum 626.
It seems it is as low quality as that... They don't think of international people and people without webcam, and yet they don't even tell at the beginning about the limitation. :(
Yay! I loved Hotel 626, can't wait to play this one!
I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account (yeah, I'm an antisocial geek boy).
Is the game still good without the external applications?
Oh and I didn't finish the first one. Guess I'll go do that.
This is a big disappointment. Hotel 626 = wayyyy better.
Erm, kind of a cool game, but when it asked me to choose between two people, I chose one, the other was carried off, then the tv screens just showed a heartbeat line and a back of chips...
horrifying... ...?
James:
The "heartbeat" line is the current Doritos logo and the bag of chips indicates that you need to get a bag of the new flavors and show that sign on the back of the bag.
I was so excited and anxious to play Asylum. After pressing the link to play, all I got was a black screen and nothing else. Bummer!! It was a major let-down.
Has anyone got a Doritos bag handy? I'm a bit curious as to what happens next.
Wow, this is seriously disappointing. But shouldn't the person who did the review know how to get any further? It sure sounds like she got through the whole game.
From here: http://johndrake.typepad.com/advertising/2009/09/if-you-havent-entered-asylum-626-yes-you-should-goodby-and-doritos-are-back-promoting-two-new-products-that-theyre-bringing.html
"And visitors to the Asylum can only participate in 85% of the experience without purchasing the product... The remaining 15% can only be accessed through entering a code on the back of a Doritos bag."
Though other reports say you just have to show an image that's on the back of the Doritos bag. Lame. D: Guess it's time to hit up Google Image Search!
@Cris: Thanks for the link. That's pretty sad that the short, "free" content makes up 85% of the "game". It seemed more like the opening cutscene of a game than anything else.
For those who cannot buy Doritos, I've found an image of the picture that you need in order to advance past the TVs.
http://jayisgames.com/images/asylum626_cam.png
Just point your webcam at the image until the game advances and enjoy the final scenes.
I was a bit disappointed how quickly this game went and how unlike a game it was. I felt more like I was watching it then playing.
Went back and played Hotel626 and enjoyed it again once more!
Did notice that they had removed the option to enter your phone #....there must have been problems with people entering wrong numbers Im sure! -As well as no phone option in the Asylum game either.
Wait, they were criticized for lack of interactivity in Hotel 626, so they give us this almost non-interactive sequel? :(
after i showed them the picture of the logo all these other videos of ppl who have played the game started showing up that was the end?? what a lame ending!!!
Buggy: You need to show the logo until the lights in the TV room all turn on. then you'll know its progressing.
it just ended on the tv part. i dont have a webcam so i didnt progress. so whats the real ending?!?!?!?!
Awww, dang I was soooo looking forward to this. My stupid computer won't let me download flash 10.
Sweet finally got it working! n_n I don't know why so many people hate it. I had loads of fun. I don't think you could really call it a game, interactive yes, but more like a 1st person movie. You can sort of control,
Using your webcam and moving in parts like the chainsaw, and in the room with the other patients. It doesn't make a difference but it's meant to seem more realistic.
i'm trying but the lights are not turning on
maybe because i have the fake logo ( i'm using the logo in the link you posted kamen cause we don't have those doritos here :( ) oh well I'll just keep trying :)
Ok...so here's the deal with this. It's less game than movie. But it's more interactive. Interactive in the sense that it puts you in the movie. Not interactive like how Hotel626 was. If I'm remembering right, signing in with Twitter makes it have your name in it, or something like that. The webcam is a plus for it...and kind of a necessity. For those of you that wonder what it's like after the tv screens....
basically, you point the webcam at the key, and it sends you off. I don't have a key, but you can find the image in the comments above. It works perfectly. After that, you have to shock the patient you saved. And then it's a lame video of you being wheeled down a hallway. Then it has this weird shot of you mummified or something like that. I didn't really get it. Then, game over. Lame, huh?
The only thing that's cool about it is it puts YOU into it more than Hotel626 did.
over all, it was a letdown.
So, if you aren't using your webcam while you play, you can't progress? I don't like this at all.
The game hold in a perpetual "loading cycle" in Firefox, but not in Safari.
The use of pulling info/images of Facebook friends was very clever, but the POSTING to your Twitter feed was obnoxious.
Hey all! I saw the back of the doritos bag, and was interested to look it up. Though my computer won't load it, I hear it hasn't got good reviews. I'm a bit disappointed at how many people haven't suggested it for small children. What if a little kid was to look it up, watch it, and then get scared? Bad idea, Frito-Lay, bad idea. ~Anna~
I'm stuck in a room that was a lot of tv, help me pls
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