Reviews
Alone in the Dark is a game with a heritage that spans the modern evolution of computers. Created by Infogrames, it first appeared on the PC in 1992 to critical acclaim as it heralded the arrival of the survival horror genre. Since then it has seen a few iterations and in 2005 it even became a movie courtesy of Uwe Boll, which did the franchise, gaming and the human race in general no favours at all. Now Eden Studios have created the 5th instalment of the series titled after the original ‘Alone in the Dark’, but can it reclaim some of the ground breaking glory that it had back in the day?
Alone in the Dark seems to be a conscious effort to break new ground. There is a salute to the forerunner of the series, for instance you play the role of Edward Carnby which is the same name of the character from the original game but with this exception there is little similarity to the game that launched a genre. Yes you get zombies, more than you can shake a burning stick at, but zombies and survival horror go hand in hand. It seems that in this version Eden Games has gone for a global disaster of biblical proportions. You get splintering buildings and ground that cracks and shifts like a 70’s disaster movie which though impressive, is largely unconvincing.
It is a game with some very nice touches. You begin the game in a New York City apartment, regaining consciousness and suffering from amnesia opposite a man named Paddington who is equally as disoriented as you. There are some other people of questionable moral fibre in the same room having a conversation about ancient things being unleashed. You are quite bleary eyed and you must press the right thumb stick to blink in order to clear your vision which you must do every so often as your vision clouds up. This interactive blinking seems trivial but it involves the gamer nicely in the set sequences. Meanwhile, the entire city is literally falling apart all around you. As you find your unstable feet, you are given a quick guide to the controls. You can switch between first and third person view’s which is always useful when shooting, though you unfortunately need to be in the third person view to interact with objects.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|