Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

"A decent port of a survival horror game"

I had been wanting to get Alone in the Dark, the survival horror game that practically started the genre, for the PC for a while. But of course, it is such an old game, it's impossible to find. This new version, ''The New Nightmare'', came out just around the same time I was leaving to Chicago for vacation. And since they were fresh out of the new Zelda games, I thought, ''Why not? It'll kill some time.'' And it did. Constantly going back for a key is a good way to kill time...

(Note: Some of this review is separated into ''Moving'' and ''Fighting''

Moving: 75% of the game; walking around finding keys

Fighting: The other 25% of the game; attacking enemies)

Story: Edward Carnby is sent to Shadow Island by Aline Cedrac, an archeologist. She sent Carnby's colleague and friend Charles Fiske to get back a statue Alan Morton from Shadow Island stole. Fiske wound up mysteriously dead. Carnby goes to get the statue, and to avenge Fiske's death. The story after that unfolds nicely, and you start to learn more about what's going on in Shadow Island.

Story rating: 10

Music: The opening music does a good job of setting the mood for a survival horror game. The music when fighting enemies is suspenseful (a bit), and when you hit the ''game over'' screen, the music lets you know it's over. Although, the music for fighting enemies is a bit more repetitive than I would like.

Music rating: 9

Graphics
Moving: Definitely the high point of this game. The backgrounds are pre-rendered, so they look incredible. Blood stains, lighting, eerie environments; it's all good. Unfortunately, Carnby doesn't look as good as his backgrounds. It's a small price to pay.

Fighting: Over-head view. The lighting is better, but it's still dark enough to make the enemies, who all happen to be a solid black color, hard to see. There is a lack of variety for the enemies too. They all appear to be either black spiders or black dog-demon-things.

Graphics rating
Moving: 10
Fighting: 7
Overall: 8

Control
Moving: Your sense of direction may screw up a bit, but it's not that bad. Finding where to move so you can make the camera move to a different angle to reach a door, then getting to that door without making the camera move again, that's a problem.

Fighting: Awful. It is near impossible to find what angle to shoot at to hit the enemy. I swear, I've pointed the gun at a 90 degree angle from the enemy and still killed them, but missed when aiming right at them. Carnby is slow, also.

Control rating
Moving: 7
Fighting: 4
Overall: 5

Gameplay
Moving: Walk around. Find the door. Find that the door is locked. Go back to where you came from. Find key. Walk back. Open door. Solve occasional puzzle. Repeat. The constant looking for keys gets tedious.

Fighting: Walk around. Look for enemy. Find enemy. Waste bullets trying to hit the enemy. Finally kill enemy. Repeat with several other enemies. The fights are the part that I dread in this game, because of how much ammo you use, and how much health you lose.

Note: Even though I made the gameplay seem boring (which it can be at times), the suspense and story development make up for it, and make you want to go on.

Gameplay
Moving: 8
Fighting: 3
Overall: 7

Sound: Not a lot. Mostly background sounds.

Replay: 5
After you beat it, you might come back to it after a while.

Difficulty: 6
You can get pretty far in the game without too much effort. If you can survive the fights.

Should I buy it?: Rent it first. Try it out, then see if it's right for you.

Overall score: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/01, Updated 08/06/01