Alone in the Dark

When I first heard that Alone in the Dark was getting a sequel I got a little giddy inside. My first experience of the Alone in the Dark franchise was Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, which I recently re-completed. Whilst I knew that the game was nowhere near as good as its predecessors, and was actually closer to Resident Evil than its actual roots, I still enjoyed it and it holds a special place of nostalgia in my gaming history. So I purchased Alone in the Dark on the day of its release and I wasn't disappointed for the most part.

The game opens with you, literally, waking up. It's here that Alone in the Dark's first unique gameplay mechanic is introduced. Whilst a guy shines a torch in your face you must click the right thumbstick to blink. You continue to blink throughout the next five minutes, even after your captor is eaten alive by the dark forces that are present in the building. The blinking mechanic is really gimmicky but it was the first of many unique game mechanics that Alone in the Dark would continue to throw at me.

The game continues to teach you on how to use its unique gameplay mechanics as you traverse your way through a terrific set of levels which take place in a building that is currently collapsing around you. Alone in the Dark brings many unique features to the table such as the real-time inventory screen. Instead of going to a separate inventory screen you look down into Carnby's own jacket. From here you are able to combine, use and drop the items stored in Carnby's jacket as you so please. The combination feature of Alone in the Dark really shines and leads to many satisfying results. I laughed for a good few minutes after I created a molotov cocktail with attached sticky tape and threw it at an unfortunate enemy who subsequently exploded.

Whilst the gameplay mechanics for the most part are sound there are a number of actual gameplay issues which severely damage the experience, especially in driving sections. Using the right thumbstick to control melee weapons is quite satisfying, when it works. However there were a number of times when the game would misinterpret my gestures or just not interpret them at all which lead to my face being eaten off by the Humanz. (Yes, the enemies are called Humanz.) However, the main problem with Alone in the Dark’s controls is its driving mechanics. Vehicles are really unsatisfying to drive and will sometimes flip over at the slightest bump which shows up an otherwise fantastic physics engine. It's such a surprise that the driving mechanics in Alone in the Dark are so awful since Eden Games past success with Test Drive Unlimited.

After escaping from the collapsing building and racing against an uprising road surface Carnby finally arrives at Central Park, which is where the majority of the game takes place. It's here that we discover that Carnby is actually the Edward Carnby from the original Alone in the Dark games which took place in the early 20th century, rather than the 21st. The rest of the game's story details Carnby and his annoying, and quite forgettable, accomplice as they fight to take down the dark forces which have attacked New York City.

The story is actually quite a disappointment and isn't particularly memorable as we don't really learn much about the dark energy itself nor anymore backstory on the Humanz or any other enemy for that matter. As well this Alone in the Dark has one of the worst endings I have ever seen in a video game. It doesn't matter which ending you end up seeing they are both awful. I remember watching the ending play out and feeling as though they had written it at the last moment. It offers barely any closure and made the hours I spent playing the game feel almost worthless.

As well as a disappointing storyline, the character development is just as bad, with the characters being fairly unlikable as well. Edward slowly began to redeem himself as I played through the game and learned a little bit more about him but Sarah continued to make me cringe every time I heard her voice or saw her face. The voice acting, and script, in the game are average at best and some of the writing can by very lazy with characters spewing a swear word every other line.

Sarah's face isn't helped by Alone in the Dark's graphics either which are hit and miss. There are moments of graphical glory when watching fire spread and burn flammable objects in the game world and there a number of places where darkness is used particularly well. Though the environments and lighting look great the character model's look waxy and there a number of textures that I saw which were just plain embarrassing. Also, the driving portions of the game deal Alone in the Dark another blow as a lot of the cars, inside and out, look awful with little to no attention to detail.

Alone in the Dark is a mixed game with many good things about it but at the same time there are a number of things about the game which drag it down. If you're willing to try something new in terms of actually playing a game then I suggest you play Alone in the Dark but if you're looking for an overall solid survival-horror game then you're better off playing the original Alone in the Dark and its sequels.