Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

"A game certainly equal to Silent Hill and Resident Evil!"

Following on from the earlier Alone in the Dark games the next installment, The New Nightmare certainly impresses and is up to speed with the Resident Evil series, and is just as good, if not better. The game features 2 separate stories, much like Resident Evil 2, and set in the same survival horror ilk.

You play as either Edward Carmby or Aline Cedrac as you embark on an epic quest to Shadow Island, each character has different attributes and different personalities, and they keep in touch via a walky-talky handset – a very original idea!

Your helicopter crashes after being attacked by some manor of beast and you are separated, Aline lands on the roof of a mansion, and Edward lands in a tree then falls into the gardens – ouch! As mentioned you choose your character and are on your way.

The location of Shadow Island is spooky, as you wonder around the beautifully rendered backdrops; the lightning effects are brilliant, lighting up the night sky. It’s a case of surviving the island whilst exploring looking for saving charms, health ups, keys and other objects which you require to progress. There are monsters to kill, but whilst this is no 3rd person shooter there is enough to keep you occupied.

Graphics 9 – Beautifully rendered backdrops and good, solid character models add to the experience. Great lightning effects add to the spookiness of the whole place. Environments are filled with all manor of statues etc to fill them out – the game looks very complete.

Gameplay 9 – Complete survival horror experience equal to, if not better than Resident Evil series. Keeping in contact, along with some other new ideas keeps the game, and the ilk fresh.

Sound 9 – Does the job with spooky background sounds and music. Voice acting is pretty good, with good expression, and is generally realistic.

Life Span 8 – 2 characters with differing locations and stories means double the value. All the exploration will take time too. It will also be quite fun to re-play it at some point also.

Overall 10 – As good as any of the Resident Evils or Silent Hill, this game is a must buy for any survival horror fans, or indeed fans of the previous Alone in the Dark series. The storyline is interesting (I won’t spoil it for you, just check out the fantastic intro movie), this game is a steal at any price– go buy!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/07/03, Updated 06/07/03