Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

I love this game but i bought the steam version not so long ago. At the same point the game always bugs when you try to enter the code in the portrait. And it never got fixed and no one got a solution. So my question is is this version fixed or does it has the same bug ? Still 4 out of 5 stars for the game it self ;)

AITDTNN is a survival horror, reminiscent of the old Resident Evil games (tank controls, pre-rendered backgrounds with 3D characters). It does have its own unique elements to help it stand out, but sadly the game suffers from a number of flaws which pile up to drag the experience down. The combat is fine for the genre, but the encounter design less so: enemies will spawn suddenly and very close to you at times, and in certain areas enemies respawn, or spawn a little too often without any good reason. You can generally run circles around the enemy AI, but it is still annoying. The combat is otherwise solid, and features some interesting weapons. Some of the puzzles are spoiled for you inside notes, although there are a few which are actually nice. Exploring the mansion to find the next key to progress is a good time, and you can also radio the other protagonist for hints or for fun. Aline's (the female protagonist) campaign feels unfinished, lacking both in context for the plot (I guess they expect you to play with Carnby first) and content in general. It also has the bad habit of teleporting you around to save time, but that kills the scary mood considerably. Speaking of which, the mood of the game isn't consistent through the adventure. The early parts of both paths are quite nice, but lose steam, and with sections where you get effectively infinite ammo and hordes of enemies near the end, it just doesn't feel quite as good. I think the PC version in particular is easier than the PS1, if I remember correctly, and you get too many saves and ammo to ever feel pressured (although the PC limits you to just 4 save slots, annoyingly). The soundtrack is also uneven. Some of it works really well, but you get too much silence at times, and some tracks are just too much like noise to build the atmosphere. Visually, though, the game is quite nice. The pre-rendered backgrounds are solid, and they figured a nice way to have the flashlight illuminate them when it's dark, generally enhancing the atmosphere (given how darkness is one of the themes and also affects the gameplay, it's good that they nailed this aspect). The monster designs are also suitably grotesque. It's an old game, but if you keep that in mind, the visuals are easy to appreciate. The backstory and mythology of the game are interesting, but the plot never takes off (some NPCs are obnoxious, too). The dramatic start of the game is probably the best part, plot-wise, and the mystery works well at first, but ultimately it doesn't quite deliver. When things work, it's a GREAT game, but it's just too sporadic to earn a higher score.

I played this for the first time this year after beating the first 3 games. It is a step up in some regards and down in others. The main issue I found with this game was that the story is really split between the two main characters (and they are played separately). You don't switch between the two like Alone 2, which would have made this game and story flow better. You play one side (Ed Carnby) and then the other (Aline Cedrac). The story is really not complete until you play both. There is actually no ending for Carnby's part (the game just ends). Aline has the full FMV ending along with filling in the story blanks from playing as Ed first. I see that they wanted to give you two games to play technically, but it doesn't work the way intended. Combat is a better improvement in general, but still some issues. You get an autolock with various weapons at your disposal. The problem is that sometimes they didn't seem to work, your shots do nothing sometimes when they normally work on the same creatures, or enemies seem to spawn over and over very close to your character. This game introduces "Save" charms as a way to save your game. For the PC, this is pretty stupid. It is a platform conversion that should have been removed. You only get 5 save spots, which you can use over and over. There are not a lack of charms though (I ended each character's game with over 60 left). Once you figure out how to deal with each enemy, ammo and save charms are plentiful. For newer systems, you may have issues that can be fixed with some searching online. The best one is an Alone.exe conversion from the Spanish/English Demo that improves graphics. number of saves, and FMV sequences. The problem is the game prevents you from continuing half way though asking for CD 3. I had to convert back to the old Alone.exe to fix it. I recommend just playing GOG's version as is. Overall, I highly recommend if you played the original trilogy. It has its quirks though.

And what I would call the first Remake too. Still I think the PC version is hardly playable if you have a AMD card like I do. You need to use Window Mode to watch the movies but it shows in a minuscule window. Plus to that the game randomly closes after some videos. The game would greatly benefit from have bilinear filtering for the backgrounds but it doesn't. The auto aim and lantern system are well executed and give a singular feeling compared to other from the genre. Good use of lighting and atmosphere. Though the PC version does not have a brightness or gamma setting to right calibrate.

I'll be honest, I haven't purchased this from GOG, but I owned it quite a long time ago when it was released. Perhaps because I hadn't yet played AitD 1 or 2 yet (I was a console gamer until about 1997, when I finally began playing PC games as well), there wasn't a nostalgic yearning for a return to those games that I felt disappointed by. Instead, this being my first entry into the series, I was able to judge it on its own merits. This game did have a great deal of similarity to other games in the genre that were popular in that era, i.e. Resident Evil, but it had an eeriness and a mysteriousness that RE didn't have. This game was more supernatural and the puzzles felt a little more well done. RE and SH had puzzles I had to look up the answers for and still didn't understand even when I knew the steps I was supposed to take. I never got WHY those steps worked. They didn't always feel like they required logic, so much as persistence, which annoyed me. I'm logical, but I'm impatient. Though it's been a long time since I played this, I don't remember that frustration with the puzzles like I remember with RE and SH. Above all, though, is the atmosphere. I loved the atmosphere of this game. Later, Alan Wake captured a similar atmosphere and it was positive memories of this game that drew me to Alan Wake.