A lesson for developers
Alone in the Dark is kind of like your drunk Uncle who everyone roots for in life to get back on track. It's hard not to love him, and even when he disappoints you and even at his most frustrating points in life, you never give up on him. Even when you feel like throwing the game out the window and smashing it to pieces, there's still a warm place in my heart for it.
There's a lot of good in AITD. You begin the game with a unique way to get acclimated with the controls in an eye checkup, a very subtle way of immersing yourself in the game's environment, something developer Eden Games did a fantastic job of doing throughout the story. Later on, as you walk to your "death", a big scar looking creature comes out and attacks you and your hostage taker. This is when all hell breaks loose.
Without into getting into too many details about the story, Central Park has been hiding something. Exactly what is unknown, but you are going to get to the "bottom" of it, no matter what. You'll encounter some interesting friends and enemies along the way. It's nothing exactly groundbreaking, but it's not too shabby, either.
Forced to escape the complex where he is in, Edward Carnby, the main character from the original AITD, must climb, jump, and smash his way through any obsticales that get in his way. It's a great way to open the game and get the player used to the settings in a closed environment before releasing him into the vast and open Central Park.
Two of the coolest features in AITD has to be the new inventory system and the combination of weapons.
The inventory system has to be the coolest damn thing ever made. It's seamless, doesn't pause the game (to keep the suspense up), and does an amazing job of reinventing a stale model (I'm looking at you, Silent Hill!!).
Secondly, the weapon combination system is amazing as well. You only start out with a pistol, tape, gas, a knife, and some other supplies, but there's over 60 items that can be created from these simple devices, like a molotov cocktail, or a glowstick ammo bomb. Anything is possible, really.
The game really hits it's stride once you are allowed to roam around Central Park, with any car, truck, and lawn mower at your disposal. It's also where the game becomes extremely frustrating. Once again, without ruining a whole lot of the story, the player will eventually have to kill these "roots of evil" in order to get past a certain point. It's a pointless extension of the game, and it almost made me not want to complete the game.
There's bugs up the wazoo, the cars are hard to drive (especially after playing GTA IV), and the "ending" (if you can call it that) sucked. Despite these almost game-killing flaws, the game was still extremely fun to play.
Just like you should always give that Uncle another chance, give this game a shot. You won't be disappointed.
