Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

Good atmosphere and nice gameplay, Do not expect to be like RE series.

New Nightmare is not a perfect game, it has its flaws, certainly on the technical front. The music compared to the Dreamcast/PS1 versions of the game seems horribly compressed for no good reason, the game has re-spawning enemies which can make the early manor section a chore at times. There's gameplay problems too, boss fights arent exactly intuitive since they can range from bullet sponges to "What should I look for in the environment to end them?", the final boss fights being more frustrating than they should for this reason. I could talk more about some puzzles left me stumped and wandering around the environments, but thats just something I had with this series since its more complex in terms of puzzle solving than arguably Resident Evil was. Yet in spite of that, I enjoyed my time with the game, even though it is not a perfect title. The environments are absolutely gorgeous, and I love the use of native american imagery used throughout. The mansion itself genuinely exudes a creepy atmosphere, and the scares in this game still hold up. While combat can take some getting used to, it's still fun and never too frustrating outside of bosses, and though the puzzles can be confusing there's some really neat ones when it relies on the light for example. The story itself though cheesy at times, genuinely had me interested in seeing how it would unfold, and I loved piecing together what happened on Shadow Island. Not my go-to horror game as it lacks replay value and the PC conversion isn't great, but still a decent horror title that, like the rest of this series, is sadly underappreciated and forgotten by time. Definitely worth picking up on sale at least.

The graphics are not working on modern hardware. It looks like textureless boxes from Blender. Unplayable.

While the 1992 original is a pioneer of survival horror games, this 2001 reboot is the first modern game in the series. The story, characters, setting and atmosphere are all on point and very engaging. The game has serious flaws though like re-spawning enemies, some very confusing & cryptic puzzles, and the boss fights were at times confusing and frustrating to handle as well due to their puzzle-like sequence. Even so, I enjoyed New Nightmare for what it is, and it was suppose to be the beginning of another trilogy, but those plans got scrapped, which is unfortunate. I feel the series would've been in far better shape had they just proceeded with the New Nightmare reboot trilogy. The 2008 game and 2015 Illumination were so bad, they virtually killed the series. So, it's an amazing miracle that Alone in the Dark 2024 got made which is now possibly the best game in the series thanks to modern gameplay & graphics, and being a faithful & respectful homage to the 1992 original.

This is easily one of my favorite games growing up. I played it on my YouTube channel. https://youtube.com/live/dvD4XZKxXqw?feature=share