Super bargain review – Alone in the Dark (2008)

Alone in the Dark (2008) – Fen got it from CEX for £2.

There have been many ‘simulator’ games in recent years – anything from lorries, trains, and cranes to farms, fishing, hunting and bus driving have all been emulated in gaming.

Imagine, if you can, ‘hobo simulator’ (similar to this recent iphone app). You are a lone bum. You wander around a large park, filling your pockets with junk; you root through bins, for alcohol and meths; you break into cars and raid gloveboxes; you start fires for the comforting warmth and light they provide.

Sadly, this actually makes up a large part of the middle of 2008’s Alone in the Dark remake, which I got for the bargain price of £2.

The original Alone in the Dark came out all the way back in 1992. It pioneered the survival horror genre – way before Resident Evil or Silent Hill were even conceived.

And despite my initial moanings, this 2008 revival does actually follow in the footsteps of its predecessors. Darkness fills the game (as you’d hope with a title including the work ‘dark’), and there almost always seems to be a sense of impending danger: before long, the city literally begins tearing itself, and its inhabitants, apart – and yes, you do appear to be very much alone.

There are some innovative features too – your ‘inventory’ is actually the jacket that you’re wearing, that you browse through in real-time. Weapons are often the nearest piece of furniture, or a hastily improvised combination of your own items – and these are up to you: combine, for example, vodka and a bandage and you have a Molotov cocktail; add sticky tape, and it becomes a timed bomb; add a box of ammo and it becomes more deadly still. Though the novelty does wear off eventually, the concept is nice.

Perhaps the game’s strongest and most impressive element is its use of flame – as the only thing that hurts your enemies, you’ll use it quite a bit – and it looks great, spreading organically, and proves to be both your friend and enemy.

However, ironically it also highlights what was, for me anyway, the game’s biggest flaw – the control system. Melee weapons are an odd sensation, with you having to control your own arm positions, which makes you feel a bit stupid – and you are constantly forced to switch between 1st and 3rd AND a fixed camera position. Disorientating to say the least.

The designers have obviously strived for a ‘TV drama’ style, and this largely works: action scenes are fast paced and frequent, and are split up into ‘episodes’, with dramatic cliff-hangers to keep you hooked. When returning to the game after a break, you are even greeted by a ‘Previously on Alone in the Dark’ sequence – very handy for getting you back up to speed.

There are still serious issues though – why can’t I skip cut-scenes? Don’t force me to watch them again, just because I screwed up and died. I wouldn’t mind so much if they weren’t sometimes so badly acted; though it’s probably hard to deal with dialogue which seems to consist of mainly ‘FUCK THIS‘ and ‘FUCK THAT‘ and so on.

Perhaps the most amazing error is how bad the driving model is – it’s not unplayable, but it gets close – and considering this was made by Eden, of Test Drive Unlimited, that’s incredible. Where this is most noticeable is during the hobo-esque middle section: it’s a shame that this part exists at all, as it pretty much ruins all the pace and tension the game had delivered to this point.

But you know, despite all this, I still enjoyed playing it – and it really isn’t all bad. There were enough enjoyable things for me to see past the bizarre glitches and poor game design – maybe it was just nice to play something a bit different. I do hope that someone some day does take a close look at the criticism and improve on Alone in the Dark. If the abrupt ending is anything to go by, Eden were certainly intending a sequel – but who knows now if this will ever happen!

Did you ever play this game in 2008? Or did it sink without a trace?