Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

"Batter up girl's and boy's, this is one scarey ass mo'fo!"

To many, Capcom's Resident Evil series is considered the father of survival-horror. Little do they know that it was actually the Infogrames' developed PC game, Alone In The Dark, that was responsible for the genre back in the early 90's. Unfortunately, since then the quality of the series has gone downhill, mostly due to a lack of resources. Also, the later games were unable to compete with the quality of the Resident Evil series that Capcom had begun to craft. Thankfully, with Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare, Infogrames have commissioned an all new developer to bring the classic into the 21st century, and reclaim the series' honour

Graphics
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare features absolutely fantastic graphics. RE: CV's fully polygonal efforts are almost put to shame by Darkworks' intensely detailed static backgrounds. While the backgrounds are prerendered, a meticulously (yes, a big word for me =P) accurate meshing has been created around each object to ensure you genuinely feel that your 3D polygonal character is part of the overall scene. The benefit of such accurate meshing can clearly be seen in one of the game's main graphical features - the flashlight. Each character has a flashlight which can be cast around the screen. And amazingly, light accurately falls on objects as if they were constructed of three-dimensional polygons.
So of course, in the early stages of the game, the flashlight plays a big role in surviving and keeping your ever so fainted heart, beating.
This is a real as it get's for the survival horror genre, giving you shocks and jumps with the brilliantly put together atmosphere that will literally leave you getting a bit messy down under.

But if there was one fault I'd have to say about the game's intensely picture'esque graphics, it would have to be the actual design of the ''Dark creatures'' as they are called. They are not original, not amusing to look at, nor too scary. But the noises they do make, are most likely the most disturbing thing ever to be witnessed in a video game...

9/10 for the fantastic graphics, almost faultless

The sound of music
Ah yes, the next step to the perfect ''atmosphere'' that every game in this category has sought after.
The music is splendidly put together, props go to thierry dessaux and his team for putting in such a great effort.
Moving on, I'd have to say that with the sound on your Tv turned to mute, this title just wouldn't be the same. From the first moment you find blood slowly oozing from a dank shed to when you have that ''infamous'' (as I'll call it) encounter at the iron gate, that's when the music really come's into it's own. It's almost as if they got God to put together the sound implements, making it flawless. Lightning and thunder effects are all here, adding to the gloomy surroundings that is ''Shadow island''.
The haunted house setting is an all too familiar setting, though the game manages to pull it off in an original manner.

10/10 Yes, I am saying that the effects are PERFECT, and they are.

Gameplay
Well here I go, this is going to be hard to explain, but I love this game, and he I will tell you exactly why.
Also, just to tell you, this game come's on two GD-ROMs and and boasts the extra of having two stories in one. As you control Madame Aline and Mr Edward carnby, which as all avid followers will know, is the man that started the series off (It's a wonder why he's not dead yet).

The game begins with an amazing FMV sequence, which describes in detail the pasts of Edward and Aline. Both characters were interested in visiting Shadow Island for different reasons. Yet, the pair's ill-fated helicopter crash separates them. From here it is up to the player to decide which character to take control of. Most will find it appealing to begin with Edward's adventure. This is because it is more instantly gratififying and involves more exploration, discovery and action. Aline's adventure is more challenging and features puzzles in greater abundance and of increased difficulty, but enemy appearances are less frequent. Both adventures feature a good difficulty curve, although those completely new to this type of game may find the initial encounters with enemies a little frustrating.

If you choose Aline your fist task is to get into the house where you’ll immediately be confronted by a blind old lady who warns you to leave before its too late. However, it’s already too late as ''things'' begin to appear from the dark recesses of the house. Edward isn’t much better off in the garden and quickly comes across an injured man muttering similar warnings. My initial shock here was when I approached an iron gate. The lightning crashed and strange shadows flickered on the screen, the scarest damn moment in the game.

The aforementioned mansion isn't the only place your visit to Shadow Island will take you. There are many settings to intice players, such as spooky caves, gloomy moorlands and an old chapel.
As I say the game is large, taking up two GD-Roms, meaning two adventures a la RE 2. And to prevent boredom setting in on the gamer, they are very much different. Two games in one could be said for it, which is extremely rare nowadays!

Thanks to a well written plot, the both adventures cross-over frequently, with the characters communicating in cut-scenes via walkie-talkies and giving each other their current progress. This, in turn, advances the plot and gives the player clues which help solve some more difficult puzzles. Also, the vast amount of readable text in the game is a notable point, all of which needs to be digested in order to solve many of the game puzzles and to understand the fine nuances of the plot.

So yes, my general feeling is the game has a great story, but it does suffer from that de ja vous feeling occasionally, making it not the most original game out there. So yes, that would be my only gripe, but why is that such a bad thing? If RE pulled it off so well, then why change a winning formular? Don't. That's the answer.
So with a great plot and some taxing puzzles, the game's overall gameplay is very good.

8/10, Not original, but in a class of it's own none-the-less.

Scare Factor
The survival-horror genre gained its name thanks to the ability to provoke fear and suspense. Resident Evil took this premise and improved on it no end, with scary creatures and set-pieces, haunting music and scares and shocks around every corner. TNN does an excellent job of keeping you on the edge of your seat, and will make you jump many times through the course of the game. Despite the occasional cliched moment - enemies ''bursting out'' at you, for example - most of the events take place when you least expect them to and overall the scare-factor of the title is far better than that found in RE: CV

9/10, It mixes Silent Hill via RE, making for a brilliant prospect.

Controls
Ok. All I can say is they are identical to Resident Evil, which is good in the way that you are familiar. And bad that you still can bump into walls and walk as dodgy as a drunk Irishman on St Patricks day.
I never really took to these controls myself, but still, we're gonna have to live with it!

6/10, uh-huh

My opinion
Well, I would have to say buy it. It is a large game but to veterans not the most challenging concept put ever put together.The reason this game took me longer to complete than it should have done is because of the damn hours I could play it at. Yes, I was scared to the extent of not playing it after hours, but hell, aren't we all human in are own way?

It’s creepy and it’s spooky but this ain’t no Addams Family romp. It will have your heart skipping beats and the hairs on your neck standing rigidly to attention as you try to unravel the secrets of Shadow Island.
Buy it now, or you'll literally go to hell...

Graphics-9/10
Sound-10/10
Gameplay-8/10
Scare Factor-9/10
Control-6/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/01, Updated 07/15/01