Alone in the Dark (that new one)

[AndrewTS 0]

I rented Alone in the Dark for 360, played through the entire game...and I still really don't know what to make of it.

 

Once a game has had a Uwe Boll movie made about it, is there really any coming back from it? House of the Dead was just a braindead rail shooter anyway, Bloodrayne, it and HotD got a movie sequel while the games didn't, I don't know anyone who knows or cares about Postal, and Alone in the Dark...well, it was something. The series actually had some dignity to it at one point, and the game being delayed for so long made me think someone maybe stepped in and decided to delay it to distance the new project as much as possible.

 

Well, I still don't know what to think. I can't really call it a good game any more than I can several b-list Survival Horror games, like ObsCure, but I was compelled to at least play it. However, with the game getting good to terrible reviews, Atari threatening lawsuits over supposed reviews of pirated or unfinished game copies, and curiously a good score on 1up and good European sales, I gave it a shot.

 

You play as Edward Carnby, who is the protagonist of the original Alone in the Dark. Making him like a hundred years old. This isn't a spoiler since the game synopsis tells you so.

 

At any rate, you look like a scarred up Harrison Ford circa 2008, you don't remember anything about yourself (even your name at first), and some thugs are trying to knock you off when some unearthy crap hits the fan, and you're soon trying to make your way out of a destroyed/burning building in New York City.

 

Throughout the course of the game, the gameplay shifts a lot, with game styles ranging from simple puzzles, to shoot-outs (including an essential FPS perspective), to Tomb Raider style platforming, to vehicle scenes, to a full-blown free-roam, GTA-style set of scenes where you hijack cars and drive up and down Central Park burning giant roots.

 

I really wanted to like the game--and it's ambitious if nothing else, but Atari/Eden missed the memo that survival horror games don't need to have terrible controls anymore (not that it seems to think it is one, though). The vehicle scenes are abysmal, melee combat is workable once you get the hang of it (your control stick controls the movement of the item), but since you're always reaching for fire to do in baddies anyway, and ammo is doled out in generous amounts, it's usually a waste of time when you can use fire bullets to do the job. Some cool boss fights, though.

 

The best part is the inventory system, where you can sometimes sacrifice ammo packs or even healing spray to make a last-ditch weapon. I still found myself wishing it was more flexible, but it's still a pretty solid foundation to build upon if they do a sequel.

 

Shame that the story is generally pretty silly. The game tries to play out like a TV series...but with lots of cursing, so you can skip around to different scenes, "episodes" and get recapped on what you missed. However, it comes off and generally pretty cheesy, and forces cliffhangers at the end of every ep.

 

I got a good rental out of it, and I couldn't help but cheer it on despite the many obvious gripes (the biggest one being the crummy controls). Still, moments like chopping off a dead security guard's arm to get through a handprint security gate, or sticking a molotov cocktail to a giant bug as it crawled back to its nest, making the nest go kaboom--pretty neat.

 

Spoiler-ish, but LOL:

 

Ironically, the PS2 and Wii versions are apparently pretty terrible, with the expected cuts in graphic quality, physics and some mechanics. Same basic settings and stuff, though. It's too bad, because those versions were made by the same team who made ObsCure, which I actually liked (a survival horror game inspired by The Faculty, featuring 2-player co-op).

 

Anyone else brave enough to try it out?

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

I was tempted to pick this up yesterday, but the £40 price tag put me off. I'm going to hang back and wait for the price to come down and give it ago. If I'm honest, the gameplay videos I had seen made me think it looked and ran like a PSone Tomb Raider game. It didn't look like it moved smoothly at all.

[AndrewTS 0]

The on-foot stuff is generally okay, but vehicle stuff is a glitchy, buggy mess.

 

Also, platforming segments sometimes throw in falling objects that you have to know are coming ahead of time, otherwise you might get nailed with debris.