Flat Out Broken
Alone in the Dark is a perfect example of a company rushing a game out the door with no regard to quality. There should be an achievement for getting past the driving missions without breaking your controller.
It is as if this game actively goes out of its way to prevent you from getting any enjoyment from it. While playing I felt as though I was being punished.
- Neither the third or first person cameras feel right. The first person view literally feels as though it was tacked-on last minute.
- The "unique" inventory system designed to immerse the player gets aggravating the second or third time you use it.
- The Driving missions have no checkpoints and are based on pattern memorization. The action set pieces cease to be fun if you have to replay them 15-20 times. The car controls as if it has no weight to it. At random times, the smallest obstacle in the way will send the car bouncing around the map like a pinball.
- Inexcusable bugs. The first driving section contains a game breaking bug that prevents you from completing the mission. Time and time again, I crashed my car through a window towards the end of the scene only to plummet to my death. I later found out that there is a nasty bug that prevents the next section of the level from loading.
All of these issues would have been apparent with one or two Q&A people playing through the game. Obviously Atari did not care because they had to get this long delayed game released. Even as a rental, I felt cheated, abused, and ripped off while playing Alone in the Dark.
