Alone in the Dark

"Just Needs One Thing"

Alone in the Dark 1992, that was believe to be the start of the 3D survival horror genre. It's said that the first one set the standard for such games as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. If you've never played one of the AITD games, don't worry about it, only a few people in the game actually know about the past.

Story- 8/10

You wake up, not knowing where or who you are. Slowly things start to piece together and you'll get there to the full story. Like any horror movie or game, it really doesn't make complete sense. Of course you have to remember that no one have any damn sense in these games. If you're a fan of horror movies and games, you'll love this game.

Sound- 10/10

The music in the game blows you away. It's perfect, not many games have excellent music like this anymore that aren't RPGs. The voice acting is a mixed blessing, some voices will annoy the heck out of you. Since there are no subtitles you have no choice but to listen to everything they say. James McCaffrey is great as Edward Carnby. Very tired sounding, which fits the character.

Graphics: 9/10

If you got this on PC, it was probably one of two reasons. You don't have an HD TV and it looks prettier on your PC or you don't have a Xbox 360. There are some graphical errors like clothing being where it shouldn't be and the game does have a tendency to slow at the weirdest times, (Driving, cut scenes) but it's nice to look at. It's not very realistic as everything seems to have a plastic coating to it.

Game play- 6/10

The over all game play is good. There are a few things that are really odd. Like poor flammable liquid on the bullets in your gun to have fire bullets. Don't try that at home. (Your gun will go boom!) The real time inventory was a little scary at first, all I could think was that I would die while trying to figure out what to use, but I haven't have any problems with it so far. Like wise the healing also is real time but very easy to use. You have only a limited amount of what to carry, so you really need to thing about it at times. Sometimes you can't decide, then others you just know. Fortunately, most time you need something, you will find it laying around nearby. Some items can double as other things, like bandages can also be used as rags for Molotov Cocktails. Any thing that sprays can be used as a flame thrower.

Controls - -9/10 (With keyboard and mouse)

That's right. A NEGATIVE nine. These control are so horrible it is not funny at all. The first hint that the control are bad is the manual. It's obvious that it was written for the Xbox 360. So you start up the game and you just wonder if the person who mapped the keys actually ever used a keyboard. So you spend an hour re-mapping the keys, don't even bother with the sensitivity of the keys as it does nothing! So, you get the last part of episode 2, get ready to spend about two hours trying to get past this part. The car swerves like there's oil all over the street, the lights touch of a key sends it barreling in that direction. Then there's times you're pressing the gas and the car just stops. You look in 1st person and there's nothing there, so you back up, but the street collapses.

Now if that wasn't bad enough, you have to drive a lot in this game and it's the same thing all the time. (The road may not always be trying to eat you...some times) The fighting with melee weapons is fustrating at best and awkward most of the time. There is hope!

Controls- 7/10 (With Xbox 360 controller)

This proves that no thought was put into this game when it came to keyboard controls. With the controller, the driving becomes so much easier and does the combat. The main problem I have with this, is the shooting. Sometime the laser will jump onto an enemy when you didn't move it and it will miss the creature completely.

Replay?

There's nothing to unlock, so really unless you love the game, you'll probably uninstall or leave it go unused for a while before coming back to it.

Final word

All in all, it's a good game. Better controls and you would have a top notch game. Maybe Atari will release a patch to better the controls. Most likely not. If you really want to play this game, get it on Xbox or the other systems. You'll have better controls and you won't have the annoyance of Atari's 3 activations only rule.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/08

Game Release: Alone in the Dark (US, 06/23/08)