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Alone In The Dark review
15 years ago
Updated my journal
After a while I managed to finish this game, I saw it a few times on Youtube and I saw the tech demos a while back, this is the 2008 installment of the Alone In The Dark series, and I must say, it doesn't deserve the low reviews it got.
It starts with Edward Carnby waking up on a bed with some sort of amnesia and he has to get out of the building while the whole city is collapsing around him, the intro to this game couldn't be any more epic. I won't reveal anything else though, the story is pretty solid and it makes sense, it may be a B-movie plot but it's better than those piles of crap Uwe Boll shat out when he made the movies. The voice acting is kinda poor, the characters showing very little to no emotion, the writing in this game is full of profanity however the cursing dies down a little as you progress, so all the swearing is in the beginning of the game, but enough with the story and the acting seeing as that doesn't make or break a game.
Now let's move onto gameplay, the gameplay both makes and breaks this game unfortunately. While the item system is innovative and something new, the game relies on the real-time inventory a little too much, drowning it out a little and making the combat very lethargic. The controls are VERY stiff, the turning controls are completely wrong and take a lot of getting used to, better use a keyboard for movement and an analogue stick for handling objects, funnily enough though the controls seem to smooth out when running. The mouse in third person mode can only be used to handle objects in your hands, moving the mouse in a circular motion will make Edward move the object around him, very useful when manipulating a burning object(I'll get to that later). It's a lot easier to move in first person as you have smoother controls and mouse look, but you can't handle objects in first person. The item combinations are one of the coolest and the most annoying things in this game, here's an example, making a molotov cocktail, take a handkerchief(or bandages), combine it with a plastic bottle(or glass bottle) and equip it with a lighter, simple. But you have to do this quite often in this game to solve puzzles and it gets very repetitive. I will explain all this in full detail in a later video review. Driving in this game becomes a chore rather than a mode of transport as the cars have no weight to them and they are vulnerable to glitches, there are LOTS of glitches when it comes to driving(all shall be saved for the video review).
Now onto graphics, this game looks very nice, especially the fire, the fire generates it's own light and spreads in a non scripted way. Eden used dynamic lighting effects so the lights in this game are very realistic and they look amazing. However this leads to combat, the only way to kill zombies in this game is with fire, and you have to shoot them in the fissures using fire bullets(fuel + gun) or by handling a burning object towards them, this is the ONLY way to kill them, making the combat very cumbersome and repetitive. Other creatures such as bats and bugs can be killed with normal bullets, fire just does a little more damage.
Overall, this is a good game that is let down by the incompetence of Atari. After this game got some really bad reviews Atari threatened the reviewers with a lawsuit claiming they "weren't playing the complete game", yeah Atari, nice to know you're on the same level as Uwe Boll. Then they proceeded to make Alone In The Dark: Inferno for the PS3(which wasn't any better), now Atari, if you really care about this game doing well, get off your fat arses, stop being a bunch of money grabbing assholes, get Eden on the phone and patch your damned game. Seriously, all this game needs is a patch, update the physics, the graphics, the combat, the controls, etc. It's not that hard and maybe some DLC would be nice too. Seriously Atari for being such a giant in the gaming industry, you sure are a bunch of assholes.
Good:
Good story
Great gameplay
Nice graphics
Challenging
Bad:
Glitchy cars
Lethargic item system
Repetitive combat
Short(only 8 chapters).
Score: 8/10
It starts with Edward Carnby waking up on a bed with some sort of amnesia and he has to get out of the building while the whole city is collapsing around him, the intro to this game couldn't be any more epic. I won't reveal anything else though, the story is pretty solid and it makes sense, it may be a B-movie plot but it's better than those piles of crap Uwe Boll shat out when he made the movies. The voice acting is kinda poor, the characters showing very little to no emotion, the writing in this game is full of profanity however the cursing dies down a little as you progress, so all the swearing is in the beginning of the game, but enough with the story and the acting seeing as that doesn't make or break a game.
Now let's move onto gameplay, the gameplay both makes and breaks this game unfortunately. While the item system is innovative and something new, the game relies on the real-time inventory a little too much, drowning it out a little and making the combat very lethargic. The controls are VERY stiff, the turning controls are completely wrong and take a lot of getting used to, better use a keyboard for movement and an analogue stick for handling objects, funnily enough though the controls seem to smooth out when running. The mouse in third person mode can only be used to handle objects in your hands, moving the mouse in a circular motion will make Edward move the object around him, very useful when manipulating a burning object(I'll get to that later). It's a lot easier to move in first person as you have smoother controls and mouse look, but you can't handle objects in first person. The item combinations are one of the coolest and the most annoying things in this game, here's an example, making a molotov cocktail, take a handkerchief(or bandages), combine it with a plastic bottle(or glass bottle) and equip it with a lighter, simple. But you have to do this quite often in this game to solve puzzles and it gets very repetitive. I will explain all this in full detail in a later video review. Driving in this game becomes a chore rather than a mode of transport as the cars have no weight to them and they are vulnerable to glitches, there are LOTS of glitches when it comes to driving(all shall be saved for the video review).
Now onto graphics, this game looks very nice, especially the fire, the fire generates it's own light and spreads in a non scripted way. Eden used dynamic lighting effects so the lights in this game are very realistic and they look amazing. However this leads to combat, the only way to kill zombies in this game is with fire, and you have to shoot them in the fissures using fire bullets(fuel + gun) or by handling a burning object towards them, this is the ONLY way to kill them, making the combat very cumbersome and repetitive. Other creatures such as bats and bugs can be killed with normal bullets, fire just does a little more damage.
Overall, this is a good game that is let down by the incompetence of Atari. After this game got some really bad reviews Atari threatened the reviewers with a lawsuit claiming they "weren't playing the complete game", yeah Atari, nice to know you're on the same level as Uwe Boll. Then they proceeded to make Alone In The Dark: Inferno for the PS3(which wasn't any better), now Atari, if you really care about this game doing well, get off your fat arses, stop being a bunch of money grabbing assholes, get Eden on the phone and patch your damned game. Seriously, all this game needs is a patch, update the physics, the graphics, the combat, the controls, etc. It's not that hard and maybe some DLC would be nice too. Seriously Atari for being such a giant in the gaming industry, you sure are a bunch of assholes.
Good:
Good story
Great gameplay
Nice graphics
Challenging
Bad:
Glitchy cars
Lethargic item system
Repetitive combat
Short(only 8 chapters).
Score: 8/10
