Edge of Sanity (Nintendo Switch) Review

Edge of Sanity as a concept is great but less so in execution. It’s a narrative-driven cosmic-horror survival game, set in the Alaskan wilderness circa 1970, in which protagonist Carter attempts to rescue and sustain a motley band of survivors, fleeing an industrial accident that may have released otherworldly creatures. It’s got detailed and atmospheric pixel art environments; well-animated and gruesome sprites; and a strong focus on stealth and puzzle-like combat that rewards caution and preparation – a combination of designs I enjoy. However, the further I played, the more often scripting and dialogue bugs would ruin the experience.

Edge of Sanity’s premise – corporate greed and unethical science triggering the apocalypse – is hardly novel, but it still offers a strong narrative, troubled cast, taunting antagonist, and several story missions to keep you engaged between contextless scavenging runs. Carter is your typical gruff survivalist, but it’s clear he’s already been exposed to the experiments performed by the nefarious Prism organisation. His colleague Frank seems well-meaning but has a racist streak when it comes to the native Alaskan tribes – or so it seems. He clearly has a relationship with local tribesman Fierceclaw, who offers Carter only hints as to what’s happening and the nature of his own “hunt”. On top of that, you have an unhinged environmentalist, an apologist PR officer, a calculating researcher – all of whom have their own take on events – and a dog!

The opening act serves as a tutorial covering scavenging, stealth, combat, and crafting – gear, consumables, and camp upgrades – before it ramps up the stakes when you realise the protagonist may not entirely be themself. Rather than leave this as some late game reveal, it opens up some intriguing dialogue choices and complicates the usual flee-from-unknowable-horror premise. It reduces the fear factor but raises the mystery factor. Despite the otherworldly monstrosities, I was less interested in finding a way to flee, and more interested in finding out the nature of the forces at play. Most survival-style games have a narrative that feels secondary to the mechanics, whereas Edge of Sanity gives them equal weighting.

Talking mechanics, Edge of Sanity is a mix of 2D traversal and puzzle-like combat through multi-layered environments, with day-by-day management elements that force you to upgrade your camp and sustain your team of survivors. Unless you’re playing on the die-once-and-you’re-done “Ironman” mode, both the hands-on missions and management elements are forgiving and reward caution and planning – a design that satisfies me no end, even if some might argue the lack of surprises makes it too predictable. Play cautiously and smart, you’ll always stay ahead of the difficulty curve. Play fast and reckless, you’ll be left with few allies and less responsibilities, but also less crafting resources and less understanding of events. It’s a smart design that lets you play however you want, with no hard barriers to progress beyond your main character dying, and it makes replays more tempting.

During hand-crafted story missions or brief procedural scavenging runs, Carter can sneak, run, climb, interact with containers or switches, all within a 2D environment – often shifting to adjacent corridors that loop back or contain hidden resources, while sometimes you’ll need to solve code-based puzzles. The lack of a third dimension and limited mobility ensure all enemies are roadblocks, but you can often find alternate paths, use environmental hazards to your advantage instead of wasting consumables, or resort to simple melee combat. Resorting to melee with limited-durability weapons is rarely a good choice though, as taking damage accumulates stress – along with interacting with otherworldly elements – and that needs to be managed to avoid increasingly crippling trauma effects, think visual hallucinations and panicked footsteps, eventually leading to a run-ending death. With no ability to save outside of the camp, the stakes feel appropriately high, but no mission is long enough to make a replay feel particularly frustrating.

I enjoyed the survival and management elements more than I expected, possibly because they’re easy to get on top of. In theory, there’s a lot to juggle. Survivors need food, water, rest to sustain morale, and sometimes a consumable to overcome injury or illness. In practice, prioritising early scavenging runs to upgrade your food and water stations to the maximum level allows you to quickly achieve a self-sustaining cycle, so you can focus on other upgrades, story missions, and crafting both offensive and defensive items. All of this is handled in your evolving camp, in which you can save anytime, assign workers to resource production and scouting, while missions are accessed from a simple map screen. Even if you’re not a fan of the survival elements, progress between chapters usually means gathering enough supplies or fixing something, so there’s no avoiding scavenging runs completely.

In theory, the bite-size missions, accessible mechanics, and a brisk day-by-day structure make Edge of Sanity good fun and a great fit for the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode (or a Steam Deck/handheld PC). Sadly, even with the 1.10 patch installed at the time of writing this up, it feels increasingly buggy from the second chapters onwards, with weird dialogue bugs – think looping conversations or switching to another character’s lines – and there were progress-blocking scripting issues during story missions that forced me to restart them and reroute them on occasion. If Edge of Sanity can get patched into shape, I’d add a point or two to the score, and happily recommend it to those looking for a narrative-driven survival game that finds a nice balance between pushing the plot forward while still stressing you out over survival needs. For now, though, technical issues start derailing the experience just as it gets into a satisfying groove.

Edge of Sanity was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/5.