Alone in the Dark, worth playing but quite flawed.
When I first heard that Alone in the Dark was being remade, I was all for seeing what they could do with the series and try to compete with the hugely popular Resident Evil series by Capcom. Anyway on with the review.
Graphiaclly Alone in the Dark uses it's engines dark and light textures to a good extent, the contrast of the two types are used well in the game creating more of an atmosphere that you are Alone in the Dark. Dynamic lighting in the game is used very well, since that was the main focus of the developer's engine, except fire of course. Fire in the game is a great technical achievement, with it spreading across wooden object like any fire normally would, whilst not making the game engine lag or being graphically deficient. Overall Alone in the Dark's graphics suit the game very well, even though it may suffer from a few graphical glitches from time to time.
As for the sound, I found Alone in the Dark to be quite quiet for some reason. I don't know if this was thanks to my speaker setup, but I had to end up turning up the sound louder than I would normally have too. Quality wise however, Alone in the Dark delivers. With each explosion, scream of agony and voice acting sounding great. However, the voice actors I thought could get a little annoying due to the fact that almost every second or third word out of their mouth was a swear word. Overall Alone in the Dark's sound delivers to set an atmosphere, even though the voice acting is annoying at times it's still great overall.
The gameplay is the real hero for Alone in the Dark, using the X360 controller to it's full extent it feels refreshing to know that you'll be doing far more than your average, press "Y" "X" "A" "B". Also, the real-time inventory is a cool feature, giving it a more real feel than pressing a button to open a separate inventory screen. Combining items is refreshing feature also, rather than "Here's a gun, go kill stuff." Such combinations as a lighter and mosquito spray or a cloth and bottle to form a molotov cocktail can be great fun to execute. The real time inventory is also incorporated into the healing section, with yourself applying bandages and heal sprays to yourself. Also Eden seems to have realised that people can only carry a certain amount of things, for instance when I played Oblivion I could have tonnes of stuff in my "invisible bag" and still run around at light speed. Overall Alone in the Dark's gameplay is refreshing, and something that most people should enjoy.
The only real concern I have about this game, are the driving sequences. In chapter 2 you will have to go through one of these very sequences, and while it may have been an exciting and cool premise, it's executed very poorly. Due to poor handling and buggy scripts. For instance, I crashed into a car and had to remain stationary for a few moments and the road in which I would have to go over in a few moments collapsed. Now, I know this was not meant to happen as afterwards I went through the same sequence and the road collapsed after I had driven across it.
All in all, Alone in the Dark is a refreshing or new experience, which survival horror fans and gamers should enjoy.
