Alone in the Dark

When the trailer first got shown 2 years ago I was excited to see what the competitor that pre-dated resident evil could do. The demo while not great also helped to make me look forward to the game. On release day I saw the reviews were not that favourable but maybe it is something I could enjoy. I went in with lower expectations and after finishing Carnby and Emily's story I cant help but feel disappointed. The game is very linear in scope. You will often be unable to trail off into the unbeaten path with doors that were previously opened being locked to force you into the right direction. The enemy variety is low while the enemies themselves arent memorable at all. The tention that the game tries to create quickly comes to an end as you figure out the best way to deal with every situation, not very good for something that should be survival horror. The puzzle solving in the game also isnt that great with some solutions becoming unattainable after a save and reload or solutions being obscure. It also does not help that the game has multiple interactible objects that are just empty. The story feels disconnected. On the technical side the game stutters a lot. Getting stuck in geometry does happen. Motion blur in v1.03 is on on every startup. I hoped that the game would get better and even that each character would have a different route but apart from 1 sub chapter its pretty much the same.

Story wise it is very similar to the classic original game, although they have changed and refined a few things, the whole premise of going to an old house to recover a piano from the loft doesn't work when you think about it. With that said, it will bring back all the good memories that your mind has added layer after layer of rose coloured filters onto. The graphics are nice, the environments are very well done, and the characters are decent. The atmosphere in general is top drawer, the art deco aesthetic and gumshoe trope are really appealing. The audio is very well done too, although every SINGLE door slamming shortly after leaving a room gets old. The bad, well it stutters, I'm running a beast of a rig and it stutters a lot. The controls are wonky in a lot of places and leave you frustrated when trying to react quickly during combat. For example, when the character is lazily making a mental note of the groceries he needs to get in for dinner while slowly reloading his weapon with 5 monsters smashing his face off, only for him to not aim at all when done because you happened to hold the aim button in readiness while he was getting a stone out of his shoe before shouldering the weapon. Oh I got stuck in the geometry more time than I can count. Overall though, I enjoyed the game.

Mechancs in the game are simple, graphic fancy, story and puzzles interesting to follow. It's not hardcore game and I enjoyed this aspect of the game. Good sound desing and soundtrack. I would recommend it for casual players who like to immerse in the story.

Really enjoying this game. The graphics and presentation are nice and it has that classic adventure game vibe and another one of the best things about it: No woke nonsense, no SBI, no shoe horned politics or DEI or ESG. There is nice mix of puzzles and exploration: the combat is weak--but when has that ever NOT been an issue with Alone in the Dark series? Clearly a lot of love and respect for the source material has been put into this. I wouldn't call this a "remake" as it takes place across various environments, whereas the original game: takes place in Derceto itself (and underneath it) It's called a reimagining--which is a euphamism for remake; but it's different, it's not the same and yet it has that same feel peppered throughout it. As I said, the combat is weak; that's the only part of the game I don't like. The game otherwise, has a decent flow to it. I actually streamed it the day I got it and a couple viewers picked it up after and someone else said that they were going to pick it up. It's a good time. A job well done. Hat off to the devs. I thought for sure after 2008: AITD was dead. No BS just a good game. I would consider it to be, not a "survival horror" game-because you know, that's not a dead horse that's been beaten over and over. It's an adventure game, a puzzle game, with psychological horror

Vaguely inspired by the original game. Only superficially similar, so if you were looking for a remake, this is not it. This is more of a re-imagining of some of the high concepts. I wanted something closer to the original, so I did not like this as much as it probably deserves, but since they went with using the name of the original for the second time, I can not forgive that (I didn't forgive them for the last time they re-used the original's title, but that was a fun game back when I played it). Worst part is that the guns feel weak for the amount of shooting you need to do and ammo you get. So if you keep missing like I do, you'll be reloading a lot. Melee feels decent, but your weapon usually breaks after killing one enemy, maybe two if you're lucky. For how frequent the fighting gets after a bit, this makes the game quite literally suck. Puzzles are good, though some a bit obscure in what they want. Some puzzles are super simple tho. Playing as the different characters also gives altered story, so that's neat. Although gameplay seems in my limited exposure to second character identical except for differently powered and behaving pistol.