Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

"Don't turn the lights off, or ....."

I've never ever played a Alone in the Dark game before this, so I'm surprised how good this game is. It make me remember the first time I've played Resident Evil 2, that in my opinion is the best survivor horror game ever appeared in this World. So I'll try to explain how I felt when played this game on the first time.

Gameplay.

The first impression you have when play this game is that the gameplay is exactly as the Resident Evil series, and this is great because the Resident Evil have one of the best gameplay I ever see, you can move your character fast and easy, what make you avoid the shadow creatures easily and make fun of it. Like in the Resident Evil series the problem in the gameplay is that you crash in the walls many many times until you finish the game, and it sometimes make the game seems stupid.

The weapons and the aim system is the same of Resident Evil too, but the difficult is far harder than Resident Evil and the number of saves and healing items are much
minor. The puzzles are much harder too and sometimes it will require some time to think, what will make the beginners have fear of play.

In resume the gameplay of this game is good, but will take some time from who never have played this genre of game before.

Story

The game's story I really still don't know at all , but I'll try to explain. Edward Carnby don't know his past and he search for strange facts that can somehow be linked with he. In this game his main mission is to search for clues about his friend's death, so the Shadow Island and the Morton's Family seems to have something with the Edward's Friend death.

When the journey progress Edward learn more about the evil cloud that are linked with the Morton's family, and meet the evil, nasty and darkest creatures that appear in the island.

As Aline Cedrac you will have a different adventure and a different goal, but always helping and being helped by Carnby, she wants to find the Indian tablets, that have a ancient inscriptions on it. This inscription seems to have some link with the Shadow Island and the Evil things that there happens.


Audio / Video

Graphics are a very strong point in Alone in the Dark, the scenarios and the effects of the light are very good. Edward and Aline have both possession of a flashlight, that can light the dark scenarios without fails. The flashlight's effect is awesome. When you put her light on a wall that have a item on it some sparkles lights will show you more easily where the item are.

The sound effects and background effects are great, you can hear screams, shoots and thunder, all sounds at the same time, without make the game's sound bad.

The music is the audio worse part, is repetitive and boring. Try to play this game without music and you see how scary this game can be, but don't turn the lights off, or ...

Replayability

This game have no replayability value, and this is what make this game don't be one of the bests game ever on playstation. Don't search for, because you will not find any secret characters, costumes, scenarios or weapons, nothing!.

In resume, after you finish the game with both characters you can literally throw this game inside of the most deep chest, and never more play it again.

To buy or to rent ???

If you have bought this game and have finished with both characters, I'm sorry, because this isn't a game to be bought, I suggest that you to rent this game for 3 or 4 days, and you will have time to finish the game and make your mind about buy the game, rent again or never more play this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/01, Updated 10/24/01