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    Alone in the Dark

    Game » consists of 22 releases. Released Jun 24, 2008

    A reboot of the Alone in the Dark series, once again following Edward Carnby in his fight against the vile creatures of the darkness.

    vinchenzo's Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360) review

    Avatar image for vinchenzo

    Some interesting ideas clash with poorly executed gameplay.

    Pros

    • Cinematic moments are great.
    • Fire looks and spreads realistically.

    Cons
    • Everything seems to be disjointed, broken, or awkward.
    • Controls are unforgiving.
    • Game is short with no replay value.
    • Story is questionable with no rewarding ending.

    The story of Alone in the Dark tries to be overly epic, incorporating Central Park with a demonic tale involving Lucifer and a spawn of unworldly creatures. To say the least, it has no satisfying moments. If you want to enjoy the story, there are texts to your PDA displaying background information, along with some decent cinematics to follow. The two somewhat cliff-hanger endings provide no reason or motivation to rush through the game unfortunately.

    Gameplay is simple when you grasp every possible mechanic, but when booting up the game for the first or second time chances are you will be incredibly lost. There are two sets of controls - third person and first person. Third person is mainly for the small platforming segments as well as wielding melee weapons. I definitely liked first person better, you didn't have to worry about the iffy camera and everything was more precise for most of your weapons.

    I am finding it difficult to detail everything you can do but let's try to sum it up. The game mixes up puzzle and action sequences, where in both situations you must use your stash sparingly. At your disposal you have a lighter, flashlight, and gun (mandatory), and can pick up bandages, bottles, first aid spray, and some story items. Combining these items into useful weapons is key to surviving. For instance, you'll want to use a spray and lighter to annihilate most enemies. (Who are extremely weak to fire, dieing in one or two contacts with it.) Other times, you'll use the system more in-depth, combining a liquor bottle with a wick then setting it on fire to make a molotov; even double-sided tape can be added for a sticky molotov.

    The biggest problem with your inventory is lack of space. I would have liked to find new coats (despite how cheesy that sounds) to hold more items. Often times you'll have to drop key items of surviving, just to pick up items to use at a current puzzle. After that, you'll have to find all-new items and is simply frustrating.

    In-between indoor sequences, you can roam Central Park and burn roots to gain Spectral Vision. The problem with this is as aforementioned, you'll run out of items. Central Park always seems to lack supplies when you need them most. At least you can hijack cars to get around! The much complained about driving isn't as bad as everyone makes it sound. Sure the car is a little loose with little to no handling, but most driving scenes are exhilarating with a constantly, albeit linear, changing path.

    But that can be said about this entire game, it's all far too linear with no replayability whatsoever. Between burning Humanz, Ratz, and Vampirz (that is the correct spelling) there isn't much enemy variety. Then the puzzle scenes are mostly frustrating, with your key objective oftentimes in front of your face but providing no helpful hints.

    The graphics are inconsistent. I liked a few character models, but hated others. Fire may be great, but entire environments are sometimes unbearable and repetitive. For every pro there is a con. Same with the sound, you'll get tired of hearing the same few sound effects but will enjoy the music and it's unique and thrilling tone.

    There are a couple glitches, but not as many as you might of heard. Any problem that should be noted is how they are releasing a new patch to fix up the game a fair amount. People should be given a complete, tested, and polished game when they dish out cash to buy said game. Patches should not entitle developers to slack off.

    In the end it's hard to justify any price point except a free rental or a borrowing from a friend. The game is just unfinished despite a few nice concepts and attempts at innovation. If a sequel is planned, I don't doubt it will be good since the series has potential.

    Other reviews for Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360)

      For one thing it does right, it does twice as many wrong 0

        You can’t fault Alone in the Dark for its ambition or for its production values, but for everything else it attempts to do, it does it badly; for every unique innovation it presents, it almost always, unfailing, counterbalances it with something to piss you off. Alone in the Dark isn’t a total disaster, but neither is it any good. Fundamentally, the game is a cross between a traditional, third-person survival horror game (pre-Resident Evil 4) and a first-person shooter. While initially the g...

      3 out of 3 found this review helpful.

      Suspend your disbelief, get over yourself, and enjoy this game! 0

      If Eden and Atari had given us absolutely no sense of what Alone In The Dark (2008) was going to be, it would have been the greatest surprise hit of 2008. These days developers are being hoist on their own petard (aka: blow'd up) by their own desire to promote the work they're doing for a return on the enormous budgets involved. It's practically as though the ratio of hype-to-hands on enjoyment involves a penalty: the "but you pwomised us!!!" mentality. It's a problem, but it's not up to us cons...

      2 out of 2 found this review helpful.

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