Alone In The Dark - 6/10
When it comes to horror games in this current state of gaming, these days most people will refer to either the Resident Evil series or the Silent Hill series, both franchises are no doubt the genre's leaders, but many gamers in this day and age seem to forget where it all started, and that's Alone In The Dark, which could be argueably the reason that both Res Evil and Silent Hill exist today. Alone In The Dark as a series started nightmares in gaming, full stop. But since the series have continued flowing, each installment has gradually gotten worse, who can possibly forget the very disappointing Alone In The Dark New Nightmare back on PS2? Which almost resulted in the death of the series.
Considering how mediocre New Nightmare was to the Alone In The Dark series, i was very surprised that the franchise didn't bomb. Upon hearing the announcement and ambitious ideas flowing from Atari's matter about a next generation developed Alone In The Dark game, i had mixed feelings surrounding the project, in all honesty, it didnt grab my attention straight away, until news leaks and gameplay footage started seeping through.
On first impression, i like many others was completely astounded by what i had read and seen from Atari's potentially biggest project. The gameplay elements almost seemed too good to be true. Being able to break down any door without the use of a key? Check! The ability to create weapons yourself in order to survive? Check! A photo realistic realisation of New York's Central Park as the games sole environment? Check! The most surprising part about all these benchmark features is that all of these elements have somehow made it into the final build of Alone In The Dark, that is right, you can smash down doors without hunting down any keys, you can create your own weaponry to kill off ghouls with and the game is indeed set in the depths of Central Park.
The plot has us playing the role of detective Edward Carnby * Who resembles a chereoke indian without the face paint* Ed is on a number of supernatural natured investigations throughout the game, all ungodly events being caused from the strange activity and conspiracies beneath Central Park. Ed is just your everyday no nonsense Chuck Norris trying to put a lid over all the odd occurences that are brimming throughout New York City. Each of these events are told and experienced through T.V style episodes which work very well with the game. Its a shame this mission structure isnt used more often these days, as its a refreshing way of briefing the player with their set goals before they get involved in a mission.
So why? Why the 6/10 as the final score? Why is Alone In The Dark recieving horrid reviews from all over the globe? Well, although it does have some genuinly impressive gameplay aspects it is also victim to a number of unforgiving flaws that cause this promising thrillride to crumble at the seams. Glitches can be found quite frequently with the polished PS2 style visuals, controls are agonisingly wobbly to get the grips with, the camera is absolutely atrocious, the characters and voice acting is embarressingly cheesy and as a horror game that is supposed to be scary, the game even fails in scare factor, being about as frightening as an episode of Angel.
But let's start with the good news, and Alone In The Dark does have some VERY good ideas going for it that all work very impressively. I am sure many gamers got tired of searching for a crescent key to open that crescent door in Resi Evil, we would always think out loud saying "Why cant we just blow the door open with our shotguns?" Well guess what? Now you can, no more tedious key hunting required, a shotgun and any form of firearm will take a door down quite quickly, however if you smash a door down using a fire extinguisher or crowbar, it will take a little longer to break down, only smashing particles of the door off. But basically, any door you see, can be bashed open, and its about time too.
When the going gets tough with the supernatural forces that you will encounter no longer do you feel you have to fear, shakingly holding your 15 clip sized pistol, you can pretty much create your own weapon, for example, Ed could be in a room full of fire, an enemy is approaching and the only object you have to defend yourself with is a wooden chair, "You're Dead Game Over Screen" right? Wrong, lean your wooden chair over those nearby flickering flames and you now have a burning chair to kill off that monster with. Alone In The Dark forces the player to use their initiative, their imaginations, and it works! Want other examples? How about flipping over some furniture, a table perhaps, tearing off its blunt wooden leg? Found a bottle of spirits? Torch that bottle and wholla! You have a molotov ****tail instead of a dull glass bottle. Is that a lighter in your jacket pocket with some first aid spray? Combined the two together and you will have yourself your very own flamethrower can to toast the ghosts with. That can low on spray? Simply throw that empty can at a nearby enemy and shoot it to ignite him. Its creative killing at its purest, and you will love it!
Some other neatly implemented concepts in Alone In The Dark is the healing, when Ed has copped some heat, his open wounds will be quite noticeable and will affect his stamina. Using some first aid spray shows a FPS view of the contents of Ed's jacket, you can also spray and heal any part of Ed's body, it was perhaps a little complicated in how they implemented this system, being attacked by an enemy whilst trying to heal that gash in your leg only frustrates, but its still a nice touch, even if its only a small feature. Their is also the ability to hotwire vehicles, this can be an incredibly tense situation as you're trying to warm up and start a vehicle as a horde of shambling zombies approach.
Environment interactivity is incredible at moments. For example during the first chapter *Alone In The Dark is set out in T.V style episodes*, you're being constantly shadowed by a mysterious power that penetrates through walls, vents and elevators cutting the power supply and leaving a massive endless crack where ever it crawls whilst trying to escape an apartment building that is on fire. During this scene, the walls crack, the elevators stop moving, the floors crumble and cave in beneath you and furniture within the interior is literally flying out the window into the city streets below. You really feel as though you're a struggling victim that is trying to escape a tough situation, and this first episode sets the tone wonderfully. The action only gets more intense as you meet up with other characters trying to escape the scenario their own ways. We're then able to either move furniture ourselves *Ed can pull and push any obstacle in his path to help him reach ledges and hard to reach areas* and are then forced to climb along the outside exterior of the towering building which shows off a spectacular view of New York City at night with the dark depths and rippling lake of Central Park down below, swinging from cable to cable, dodging falling furniture, broken balcony chunks and debris collapsing from above as the apartment starts to burn down. The action only gets more intense when civilians start jumping to their deaths from the building to escape the fire, only to have a burning vehicle flying up in your direction from the explosion impact below in the streets. Far fetched? Absolutely, but damn is it action packed. The real intense movie esque style moments are executed to even greater effect during the vehicle driving sections. Again, the Gotham City like metropolis of New York City really does feel under supernatural control as you drive through the destroyed streets, dodging oncoming vehicles, roads of rubble and putting pedal to the medal as the distant sky scraper buildings collapse in front of you. It truly is a spectacle. Driving through Central park is just as daunting, as you try and control your swerving ride as zombies jump on top of your vehicle, this scene is simply brilliant as you franticly turn the tight curvy corners whilst a horde of undead fiends hang off your moving car, think Dawn of The Dead, and you will have a fair idea of how this chapter plays out. More breathtaking moments like this would have made Alone In The Dark a triple A title.
Sadly as far as scares though, they're simply non existent. There are zero jumpy moments, which is an utter shame for a next gen horror game. The enemies are far from scary as well, you will encounter a wall monster that penetrates through ceilings, bright colourful cartoon zombies, possessed priests with hideously scarred faces, melted skeletons, blood thirsty bats, juicy flesh eating beetles and Buffy like female vampires wanting to chomp on your soft tendons and spill your arteries. There really is nothing here that will make you stare at your nearby blanket and pillow. Environments also lack that depressed evil vibe of terror, we have gotham style city scapes, gothic buildings with stone gargoyle statues and of course, the dark misty foggy swamps of Central Park, there is nothing here that comes close to scaring the willies out of you like Condemned 2's doll factory. Overall, Alone In The Dark is like a low budget teen slasher flick or even more similar to an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. In other words, not scary in the slightest.
Visually, the game is miles from amazing. Maybe its because of the recent sexy visuals of MGS4 stealing some of Alone In The Darks visual thunder? But really, apart from some very technically impressive backdrops, Alone In The Dark isnt a visual pleaser, it looks like it belongs in the best looking PS2 game category, the characters are glitchy and ropey, and the environments are souless, empty and rather bland. Lighting effects are quite flashy and the destructable environments are also great, but that is where it ends.
Overall, i have mixed reactions over Alone In The Dark, i was hugely pleased with some of the ideas and the way they were executed but disappointed by the very PS2 like visuals, zero frights, appalling camera, and poor controls. I feel Atari's ambition was far greater to begin with, maybe if they aimed for a less amazing goal and a more doable achievement without sacrificing too much, Alone In The Dark could have been a much better game on release, but as it sits, its a missed opportunity, a chance that has gone begging. And with a mass of horror games coming such as Silent Hill Homecoming, FEAR 2: Project Origin and the brilliant Siren Blood Curse, Alone In The Dark could not have failed at a more worse time. If you want a quality horror game, get your hands on Monoliths nasty Condemned 2 Bloodshot, you would be far better off.
Submitted by callan5
28/06/2008
18
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