Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy 1+2+3

This game is an evocation of horror in the true sense of Lovecraft. There’s urgency and tension…and death if you don’t act fast. There is a reigning sense that anything can happen. Chilling music, primitive sound effects…eerie. Add to this some cool in-game Lovecraftian tales and you have a game that holds a place all its own…a wonderful experience I highly recommend. If you’re an adventure aficionado and don’t play it you’ll miss one of the best games of the genre ever made. If you’re a horror game enthusiast you’ll miss one of the best of that genre, and if you’re a survival horror fan, you’ll miss the best of that genre as well. THIS IS where it all started to come together. At times it is tremendously difficult. The version I played had only one save game slot. Commands and inventory are tasked through a sub-menu, and items used or actions necessary are then carried out by pressing the appropriate key. The sequences that have gunfire make aiming pure guesswork and hand to hand combat, like Bioforge (a game I reviewed earlier) if you’re not facing the right direction becomes a fumbling mess. Should you decide to check it out, and the game has only one save game slot, be careful. Don’t be too quick to use it. Make sure you can move on or else you could find yourself in a situation where you can’t finish the game. If you are a fan of Lovecraft stories and relish the cosmic horror of the Cthulhu Mythos, the crude 3D models against the beautiful pixel art backgrounds and the fixed camera angle cinematic stylings will blow you away. This is where 3D survival horror started, and it still has a dark power about it that makes it worth playing even today. Alone in the Dark 1is a wonderful, scary, atmospheric classic.

If all you know about Alone in the Dark is the execrable 2005 Uwe Boll film, I know this will be difficult given what a toxic atrocity that movie is, but trust me: 1992s Alone in the Dark is a wonderful, scary, atmospheric classic that shares nothing with the film other the title and character names. If you’ve never seen the film, let me just stop you here: don’t, but definitely play the game. I first played Alone in the Dark on my Amiga 500. Having read a number of Lovecraft stories, I was thrilled to find a game that sought to emulate the cosmic horror of the Cthulhu Mythos. As crude as it all may seem now, the 3D models against the beautiful pixel art backgrounds and the fixed camera angle cinematic stylings blew my mind. I suppose that just as it’s hard to believe that audiences were truly scared by (the wonderful) Browning’s Dracula and Whale’s Frankenstein, playing Alone in the Dark on release was scary – there was a very real sense of playing a horror film. The surprise early monster encounter was a legitimate jump-scare, and the first zombie, arms outstretched, slowly creeping into the room, genuinely frightened me. Certainly, technological progress and games that built upon Alone in the Dark‘s foundation have blunted these experiences considerably, but this is where 3D survival horror started, and it still has a dark power about it that makes it worth playing even today. I never finished it back in 1992. I found it tremendously difficult, and much of that is the limited resources and adventure game puzzles combined with a clunky-even-for-92 interface. Any Resident Evil vet will recognize the tank controls, but that’s not the only challenge. In order do anything, one must navigate a sub-menu of commands and inventory items, and then, press the action button. Aiming is pure guesswork for the most part, and combat is a fumbling mess. Like adventure games of old, there’s places you can just outright die merely by exploring, and you can find yourself in a situation where you can’t finish the game due to expended resources. This is an old game, so one must expect a certain archaic essence. So, yes: sometimes, this game can be a real pain to play. But as I said above, it’s very much worth playing today. It’s still a wonderful evocation of horror and of Lovecraft in particular. There’s a sense of urgency and tension, aided by the early game surprises that can end in death if you don’t act fast. The very first room can result in a death in a minute or less from a toothy, avian nightmare if you don’t take certain actions. Obnoxious to be sure, but also, surprising, scary, a sense that anything can happen, and a subversion of expectations – this is what horror is all about. The music is effectively chilling, and the primitive sound effects are still eerie – I’ll never forget the footstep noises, or the smash of the upstairs window. There’s a number of in-game texts that are pretty darn cool Lovecraftian tales that are still worth reading. Once you come to grips with the game and the interface and as long as you save often, it’s really not that difficult, and if you get stuck, there’s many a walkthrough on the internet to help you out. While Alone in the Dark was certainly surpassed technologically, it’s still a wonderful experience I highly recommend. It’s available on GOG for purchase for a cheap price along with it’s sequels, so if you’re looking for a trip to Lovecraft country, give it a go. It’s one of the best adventure games ever made, one of the best horror games ever made, and it’s also a fascinating stepping stone in the development of survival horror – if you want to see where it all started to come together, this is it.

For anyone that is a fan of Resident Evil, Silent Hill or any other Survival Horror game, you can't go past playing what laid out the path for all these games we have grown to love. While the graphics have obviously aged, the story is still a classic. What starts as a basic mystery soon unfolds to a much more sinister plot which even a fan of Lovecraft would enjoy sitting through this for the lore. The puzzles, action and even movement really set the tone and feel for a lot of games such as Resident Evil and at times can be quite unforgiving. Too many wide shots, footing lost or careless corner taking will see you having to go back and replay many of the rooms again. There is a lot of trial and error with this game but it's worth the trouble. For the price and the fact that you get the sequels included this really should be on the top of your buy list if you haven't already purchased it.

Alone in the Dark (1992) is possibly the most poorly aged game I've ever played, and no, I don't say that because of the early polygonal models, I mean from a design perspective the game is plainly not fun. The controls are very stiff, to run you need to double-tap the up button in a very specific way, there were many times where I would try to run away from a monster but my character would leisurely stroll instead because the game flat out didn't realise I was trying to run. Combat is a pain, you can easily get stun locked by enemies that are faster than you and trapped in a cycle of pain that ends only when you die or reload an old save out of frustration. The game has puzzles of the "What does the game designer want me to do?" kind of variety. Some make sense, like an early puzzle where you find a book about the myth of Perseus and Medusa and you realise you have to place a pair of mirrors to defeat a pair of unkillable enemies. But other puzzles involve things like throwing a statue at an otherwise unkillable suit of armour to kill it, why would anyone think that would work? Speaking of unkillable enemies, this game is full of them, some are justified like giant monsters you areill equiped to deal with, but why are the RATS in the basement invincible? Why would RATS ever be considered a high tier enemy in any game? Was this a bug? The last act of the game introduces jumping puzzles out of nowhere. Sudden platforming on fixed camera angles isn't fun. The game isn't without merit, I like that you can bypass the first enemy encounters by blocking off enemy spawns by pushing large objects in front of them, that's quite clever. And there's some catharsis in taking down an entire room of zombies using nothing but a sword. But honestly if you want an old-school survival horror then I'd say the first Resident Evil did everything this did and much better while making a greater mark on the landscape of video games.

This game is the reason I've been watching GoG for son long! I've bought other games, but my heart was always set on having a really playable copy of Alone in the Dark. Bravo GoG!