There's always a risk when buying games from your childhood that it fails to live up to how you remember it. Alone in the Dark is unique in being a game that I and my brother still quote funny one liners from it to one another even today, 30 years later. This didn't disappoint. I got chills just from the intro sequences. The music, sound effects, and the voice acting really are top notch even by modern standards. I was genuinely surprised by how well the graphics held up for a game this old. Sure, the polygon count on the player character and moveable objects is atrocious, but the rendered backgrounds for the scenery are pretty damn impressive for a DOS based game, and are what really creates that great sense of atmosphere. Gameplay-wise, it's not done so great. Take into account that this was an early 90's series, one that came 5 years before the famed FF7 and 4 years before Resident Evil. Moving is clunky, and having to switch inside a pause menu between searching, pushing, and fighting is also clunky. The odds are, those who load up the original game will likely die within the first 5 minutes to timed combat events that, until you can full grasp the controls, will be frustrating to the max. Saving frequently is a must. What I will say is that Alone in the Dark is not a combat survival horror ala Resident Evil. It is very much a puzzle game first and foremost, and many of the battles can be completely avoided or trivialised once you learn how to manipulate the environment correctly. So those willing to persevere and take the time to learn to play the game will find a rough diamond of a series that took you from haunted demon mansion to ghost pirate ship to undead wild western town. Unfortunately, the fourth installment, while interesting in its own right, never managed to fully capture the voice acting and story elements which made the originals so great, and since then the franchise has sadly been lost to history.
I got Gemini Rue as a bundle package with the Blackwell series. Having played the Blackwell's through, this got left to the side and I only visited it a year or so later. Storywise it holds up. The twist completely caught me by surprise and rates as one of the best I've known. Other reviewers seem to disagree, but maybe they've read more Sci-fi or books than me. In any case, the story had me hooked from about midway to finish. There's a few corny lines, and the monologues at the end are a bit too philosophical, but overall it was an enjoyable experience. I'm not much of a Sci-fi or dystopia fan in general, but I thought the atmosphere and settings were excellent. Gameplaywiise is where it loses a star. It's a clunky game. The shooting sequences didn't bother me as much as it clearly did others--I thought it pretty fun and a nice addition to an adventure game--but the inventory and interaction system leave a lot to be desired. But all told a solid little adventure. Short as many are these days, but for something I didn't even want to begin with I'm very pleased to have played through it.
I started the Blackwell series with the bundle and I'd recommend that for others too. The concept hooked me right from the getgo, even if the earlier games suffered a bit from being short from what I suspect was budgetary and team size restraints. Slowly Dave Gilbert added more ghosts in, and Deception was a truly exquisite title with compelling character storytelling and a rivetting plot. I thought that would be the pinnacle, and in all fairness, I rate Deception slightly better than Epiphany only because it seemed clear that Mr Gilbert wanted to end the franchise with the biggest bang he could garner. Epiphany is everything I wanted, a chain series of ghosts, interweaving stories, and it really pushes the boundaries of this cool psychi/ghost relationship and mechanics built by its predecessors. I see a lot of praise for the ending, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about. On one hand, as a writer myself, I respct that it ties everything up in a nice bow and completes a full circle from the beginning of Legacy. On another the final act pushed the epic that smidge too far to the point where my believabilty broke, and a number of the final events didn't make sense to the point that the bittersweet effort didn't come off as an inevitability I knew I had to accept, but rather disappointment that my spirit saving efforts had come to an end and had ultimately been for nought as the world returns to droll normality. But that isn't enough for me to take a star away, even though I'm notoriously stingy with 5 star points. This is an excellent series if you're into ghost stories and the high quality music and storytelling makes it well worth the money.
I've recently returned to adventure gaming, so I don't know much about AGS, but I thoroughly enjoyed Kathy Rain. The characterisation, settings, and music were all extremely well done. Puzzlewise, I never really found myself stuck, which is good or bad depending on your perspective. Personally, I enjoyed being able to progress logically and got a thrill when that object that had been in my inventory since forever finally had a use. But if you're a fan of ambiguous illogical swerves then this game's unlikely to wow you. There were a couple of complex affairs, mind, but the game provides enough hints through the protagonist to walk you through them. I'm torn on whether I wish there were more of those, because honestly, the few that were there were pretty satisying and well done. Where the game shines is the interesting story and exploration of more adult themes. It's not a long game by any measure, but the cult story mixed with Kathy's own tragic upbringing makes for a tasty dish of drama to consume. Unfortunately, what makes it shine for me is also what let it down, since I found the ending very abrupt, and though the story touched on brave topics like abortion, mental illness, and giving up your children, none of these arcs were ever resolved. *SPOILER WARNING*I felt there should have been something more to do with Kathy's aborted child, and we never found out whether her mum or any of the other afflicted recovered. It was just business as usual, and while the end sequence put Kathy in a position of dealing with her torment, it felt like she never grew from the experience and was, in all essence, the exact same person at the end as who she was in the beginning.*END SPOILERS* It felt like the designers were laying the foundations for a sequel, which was disappointing, where I prefer to view sequels as separate stories building on the foundations of the earlier ones rather than part 2 of a part 1 that was never fully told. So is Kathy Rain worth £14.99? It's difficult to price these things, and undoubtedly a huge amount of work went into its creation. Back in the 80's / 90's I have no doubt it would have sold for £29.99, Nowadays though, not so much. I have to confess I got it on offer at £2.90. That was a bargain for sure. But I probably wouldn't want to pay more than £9.99 for it.
