The original 1992 Alone in the Dark, developed by Infogrames, is considered to be the first ever survival horror game. While I haven’t played the 1992 original, I have played many of the games inspired by its creation, including the Resident Evil series which I’m a big fan of, with the Resident Evil 2 remake being one of my favourite games of all time. Thirty-two years after the release of the original, Alone in the Dark has been remade by Pieces Interactive, bringing the investigation of Jeremy Hartwood’s disappearance to life with modern graphics built on the Unreal Engine 4 and with performances from award-winning actors Jodie Comer and David Harbour.
Set in the 1920s American South, Emily Hartwood receives a disturbing letter from her uncle, Jeremy Hartwood, and brings Private Detective Edward Carnby with her to Derceto Manor, a home for the mentally fatigued and where Jeremy has been staying. Upon arrival, they find that Jeremy has now gone missing, and must explore the mansion to find clues to his whereabouts and also the meaning behind his strange letter.
The comparisons between Alone in the Dark and the Resident Evil 2 remake are strong, yet this isn’t a criticism. In fact, it’s quite poetic considering the original 1992 Alone in the Dark inspired the Resident Evil series, and in turn the Resident Evil 2 remake has inspired the Alone in the Dark remake. It’s safe to say that if you enjoyed the Resident Evil 2 remake, then you will solidly enjoy Alone in the Dark too.
Much like the Resident Evil 2 remake, Alone in the Dark begins with a choice. You can either play as Edward Carnby, portrayed by David Harbour, or Emily Hartwood, played by Jodie Comer. The developers recommend that, for the full experience, you play Alone in the Dark twice with each character to experience the whole story as they both have their own levels and will engage different behaviors and conversations from certain NPCs – though the storyline doesn’t rely so heavily on a second playthrough as the Resident Evil 2 remake as the end cutscene will remain the same unless you have found certain collectable sets.
Again, much like the Resident Evil 2 remake, we are contained mostly to Derceto throughout the game, slowly learning the map off by heart as we progress and unlock new rooms. The map even marks off each room we’ve explored and fully cleared out – which is tremendously helpful. Map exploration consists of searching for keys or puzzle parts to unlock new areas to explore and find clues for the investigation into Jeremy’s disappearance. That is until we start to find ourselves in strange, nightmarish planes manifested from our own and Jeremy’s imagination and memories.
Most of my criticisms of Alone in the Dark stem from the gameplay, which can feel clunky, buggy and awkward at times. While our heavy-feeling movements are fine for general exploration, they do not work at all during combat. Thankfully, we have a dodge button, but this doesn’t help when we need to reload or heal as our character will slow right down to do these things, and being interrupted during these actions means we need to try again. Alone in the Dark also has a huge problem with characters getting stuck on walls, tiny objects or even thin air. While this has been acknowledged in terms of enemies and is in the works to be patched, I also hope this extends to the playable character too, as this caused a lot of problems during levels where I had to run from a large group or a single, strong enemy. Especially when one of these took place in a narrow catacombs, which took several attempts due to Emily getting stuck on the tiniest stone and then getting stunned from an enemy attack and being quickly surrounded. I also had to restart my save on three occasions because I got completely stuck on a small object. Alone in the Dark also isn’t optimized well for keyboard and mouse gameplay. Although the developers recommend it be played with a controller, I feel like this could be rectified by making it easier to map onto a keyboard.
In terms of combat, Alone in the Dark does suffice with a steady variation in general enemy types, but it could be better. Dodging and attacks do feel satisfying, but I felt like there could have been more boss variation as there are only two bosses in the game. This would have helped break up the general enemies a little better and also make combat more exciting and utilized to its full potential. The bosses also feel underwhelming, with one being another general enemy, just stronger, and the other being another rendition of Dark Souls 3’s Curse-Rotted Greatwood boss which is heavily disliked by fans of the series.
And while the puzzles weren’t terrible, they did become quite repetitive. On top of this, despite the few creative entries here and there, a lot of them have been overused in other games of the genre, such as sliding tile puzzles or safes where the combination is just written somewhere in the room – who etches their safe combination on the inside of a cabinet?!
That being said, everything else about Alone in the Dark is a delight. It took me around eight hours to finish one campaign which is the perfect length for a survival horror game. It’s a game that you will enjoy completing over a weekend, and will want to revisit again soon to play as the other character.
Although I would say Alone in the Dark captures its Southern Gothic and Lovecraftian horror elements well, it’s not exactly scary and definitely fits better when described as a more action-focused survival horror, similar to the Resident Evil series. Though that doesn’t mean it isn’t dripping with atmosphere and superb direction, it just lacked more chilling moments.
Alone in the Dark is easily going to be one of the best looking games of the year. Although the facial motion capture on the characters is a bit stiff, Alone in the Dark makes up for it with some beautifully crafted environments. Each area is full of detail and little atmospheric touches to help set the scene, such as a rat scurrying across the floor or a cat’s eyes staring at you from the darkness. The visuals aren’t just limited to the 1920s mansion either, as we step into the nightmare plains the developers clearly enjoyed putting some more creativity into the visuals to make it really feel as though you’re traversing a dreamscape. The use of lighting and color is also phenomenal and really helped to finalize all the visual elements put together.
Despite the motion capture expressions, the cutscenes are also superbly directed. They fully take advantage of multiple camera angles and characters moving around the scene to interact with the environment. It makes each cutscene feel so natural and feels much more like we’re watching a movie or television show, stepping away from the more rigid, static cutscenes that games tend to adopt, that simply stay at one angle or follow the playable character around the room.
Partnered with the graphics are some great audio effects. The soundtrack is a neat mix of jazz and horror, which makes it unique, but unfortunately none of its pieces really stood out to me while I was playing. The audio effects are also really well put together, with a large variety of sounds used as you explore different environments.
In terms of storyline, Alone in the Dark’s narrative is in-depth enough to remain interesting throughout and constantly has us questioning whether what our characters are seeing is real or in their heads. Despite this, I did feel like it could have benefited from further reading material to help shed some more clarity on certain plot points, as a lot of the time there is only one book or letter to explain one event as we are collecting clues, which could easily be missed too which would leave gaps in our understanding of the story. I would have also liked Emily and Edward to have interacted more, as for the most part they are entirely separate in the game.
Alone in the Dark is a solid survival horror game with an interesting story, absolutely stunning graphics, and gameplay that remains enjoyable throughout its eight hour (or sixteen if you go for the dual campaigns) runtime.
Jess played Alone in the Dark on PC with a review code.
