Alone in the Dark Reviews

Alone in the Dark 2024 starts off as a combination of a noir detective story accompanied by Jazz music with Twin Peaks weirdness and the paranormal, then it quickly introduces shifting realities a'la The Evil Within, and eventually Lovecraftian deities. In short, it's almost nothing like the original 1992 version with the exception of Lovecraftian undertones. It's more of a re-imagining than a remake. Ambitious, intriguing, and unique, though not very well told. There's a crapton of text to read, or listen to, as nearly all notes are narrated. Within the in-game journal there's a narrator who literally explains what is happening in the plot. Without them it would be close to impossible to understand what's really going on. The pacing is also very uneven. David Harbour completely phoned it in. He seems so damn bored most of the time. It's especially noticeable around other voice actors since they put much more effort into their work. Dunno much about Jodie Comer, as I couldn't be bothered playing as Emily, but in the few scenes she was present in Carnby's campaign she wasn't much better than him. The game looks and plays like a mid-budget Resident Evil 2/3 Remake clone. Everything is similar, including the interface, but it's janky, buggy, and stutters throughout. Combat is as simple as it can get, stiff animations, and pointless stealth system since you can just either blast your way through or hack enemies with melee weapons. Most puzzles are insultingly simple and constantly re-used, and a few follow a deranged logic only known to the developers. Collectibles are gathered in separate sets and completing each rewards you with either more backstory, access to bonus items, and extra endings. Devs were very close to having something special here. A glimpse of unfulfilled potential. They lacked money, time, and/or talent to properly polish it, though. This could've been a masterpiece with enough story editing, better puzzles, combat, and smoother pacing. What we got is mediocre at best, but despite everything I wrote I still think AitD 2024 might become a cult classic and this is the reason I'm recommending it. None of the drawbacks completely invalidate it as there's nothing egregiously poorly made or written.

I never played the original, but I played the awful 2008 version. This is great and I truly hope they make more. This remake took many great aspects from the Resident Evil remakes which of course is ironic since the original Resident Evil games playstyle was inspired from the original of Alone In The Dark. The actors were good although not needed. I bought this game and didn't even realize they were in it until character selection! All in all awesome game. I liked the simplicity of the inventory and weapons; there weren't any crafting systems or a large amount of items to collect, which was refreshing for modernized games and made it much more focused on the story and the puzzles. I liked the hidden collectibles scattered about, and the puzzles were almost all good; even though some puzzle systems were used a few times. The lighting and tone were great and I enjoyed some of the startling environment changes. It was a bit refreshing that jump scares were not commonplace as a scare tool, but rather the looming sense of dread and loneliness that was present made it much more unnerving. I did not find anything in this game to be visually scary either, which I think was a plus, since so many horror and survival horror games rely on jarring graphics and visual terror to make the player feel scared, and this game did not need that to accomplish similar results. (However, I'm almost certain secondary play throughs will lose this feeling, much like in Resident Evil games). The only downfall of this game was the combat in my opinion. The shooting was enjoyable but the melee was awful and hard to control. I played almost the entire game on hard difficulty, but the ending fight was really just overwhelming on hard. The dodging was a nice thought, but seemed janky and hard to use perfectly. Overall, was a fun game! I hope there will be a sequel with a bit more focus on good combat.

Nos encantó! Lo jugamos en pareja. Es una mezcla entre novela negra y horror con varios guiños a juegos de aventura gráfica y clásicos como RE, Silent hill, The Evil within y Alan Wake. Para nuestro gusto fue espectacular, muy entretenido e interesante. Lleno de misterio y escenarios increíbles y variados! Y ademas los actores fueron geniales! Muy recomendable!! 10/10

That's a really good reimagining of the survival horror trailblazer classic from 1992. Expanded upon and enriched in every way, also takes notes of where previous games in the series fell short when it comes to gameplay (not perfect by any means, but quite the improvement). Pieces Interactive shut down due to this game's low sales. Truly very unfortunate, they were a very talented bunch. Especially after they teased a sequel in this one (with the mention of [spoiler]Hell's Kitchen[/spoiler] in one of the endings).

Bit of a confusing story but enjoyed the gameplay & puzzles. Playing with David harbour was a treat. Fan of him since Stranger Things. Both Emily & Edward Gameplay has different story & different dialogue delivery made me play this game twice. Alone in the Dark weaves a chilling tapestry of psychological horror and Southern Gothic charm, reimagining the iconic game that set the benchmark for the genre. We invite you on a journey into madness, where each encounter could be your last. Step inside Derceto Manor, an asylum shrouded in intrigue, guarding a terrible secret. Emily Hartwood and private investigator Edward Carnby embark on a harrowing quest for answers; Emily to the mystery of her missing uncle, Edward to the toughest case he will ever face, and both to questions they dare not ask themselves. This re-envisioned classic invites you to explore an unforgettable single player adventure rich with suspense, frights, and revelations that will test the limits of your imagination. Overall a okay game to try. Grab it on deep sale.

If Resident Evil 2 Remake is a 10 out of 10 Survival Horror game, then this game is a solid 7 out of 10. I went into this with lower expectations after reading other reviews mentioning how this was janky, and lower budget, it definitely is both of these things, but more importantly this game is fun! At the start I was a little unsure but as the game progressed and more things were introduced in both the gameplay and plot I found myself further and further invested. I recommend giving this game a few hours before you give up on it. The combat is where the jank comes up the most, it's not the most polished experience, especially if you want to compare this to Capcom, or even the Silent Hill 2 Remake, but it is however serviceable, and even tense at times. On the other side the puzzles in this game are excellent in my opinion, they brought me right back to Survival Horror at it's roots, some puzzles may seem a little confusing at first, but I managed to complete this game without a guide, also I recommend playing with guidance hints turned off for a perfect classic exploration experience. I think not knowing what to do or where to go at all times really elevated my enjoyment of this game. Minimal hud, and turning the tutorial off after learning how to play also made for a very immersive experience. As far as comparing this to the original, it's not 1:1 however I think this is a good thing, the original is a very simple game, and I think the changes here were for the best as a modern Survival Horror game. This is the best entry in this series since the originals, and maybe the ps1 title, I would love to see another entry in the future building off this one, but seeing as the studio closed I don't imagine that's likely, a shame really. If you've played every Survival Horror game worth playing, and even some that aren't give this one a try, I think you'll find it's a solid imperfect game with a lot of fun to be had.

Good for what it is on sale. It felt like playing a game from 5-10 years ago, in many good ways. It had great voice acting, and competently emulated the survival horror games of the past, providing an "old-school" experience that I think struck a good balance between hand-holding and frustrating. I thought the puzzles were just difficult enough to require some thinking, but never held up the pacing. It doesn't have the latest lighting enhancements or the slickness of modern productions. The combat is lackluster and makes you wonder if the game would just be better without it. It's quite short and, while the presentation and story is decent, it does nothing unique or particularly noteworthy within the genre. While I do respect that Alone in the Dark was essentially the first survival horror game, and I do really appreciate that it literally has a mode for less modern hand-holding, we have certainly seen the genre progress a lot since then. I think it was worth the $20 I got it for, because I came in with reasonable expectations. If you like this kind of game and think you'd like a mostly narrative-driven story in this setting, I say go for it. It's just not a big AAA blowout of any kind.

Overhated game. Has some awkward dialogue and a couple bugs but its an interesting story that plays out similar to a resident evil or silent hill game, just not as good as them. Decent jumpscares but not scary overall. Short game, if you skip the dialogue you can beat the game in under two hours

[h3]This game could've been absolutely massive and flawless like a Resident Evil Remake...[/h3] Had it had a bigger budget and production value. Too bad that it was forced out prematurely and that the studio got shut down a few months after release when the sales target was not reached. [h3]The Pros[/h3] [list] [*]The story comes on very mysterious and has a twin peaks-ish kind of vibe to it that is sort of intriguing. Where you're like: "Okay, I don't understand wtf is happening, but this is great!" [*]Masterful transition of locations and how the game flows between those. It's almost seamless how well they have done this. It actually feels like going down the rabbit hole of a dream state where you often end up in the most random places and situations chained together that in this moment somehow make sense. So yes, its got very nice pacing. [*]Very cozy soundtrack. It's a vibe. The jazz, noir type of music is really soothing. I love it. [*]Great graphics and art design, if you forgive the game its terrible TAA anti aliasing implementation. [/list] The combat is considered bad by many, but I think the problem is less with how simplistic the combat is, rather than with the targeting mechanics and how the animations don't connect as flawlessly as in other survival horror games. It's just not on the same level as an Resident Evil game and how smooth and juicy all of that feels. I still wouldn't say it's bad, but it's not great. It's acceptable to the point where it doesn't annoy me. [h3]The Cons[/h3] [list] [*]Voice acting sometimes too compressed or not compressed at all and because of that you struggle to understand some things if you weren't exactly reading the subtitles. All in all it's not really balanced audio in terms of dialogue. The main protagonists lines are usually much louder while some side characters or listening to memos appears much lower sometimes. It feels like some of the voice acting is not done great, while also being recorded badly and then mixed badly on top of it. [*]Emily's voice acting isn't done nearly as well as Edward's [*]Notes and clues can be very long and boring. listening to a few minute monologue while tediously piecing together the timelines in the back of your mind. I think they could've cut those a lot shorter for gameplay flow benefit. Maybe more notes and stretching out the content, instead of making notes too long. [*]A larger story separation of path A and B with the different characters would have also greatly increased its replayability. [*]Game has insane UE4 stuttering, because Unreal Engine is already notorious for that anyway, but the devs haven't done anything to mitigate that to any reasonable degree unfortunately. The ingame Pre Shader Loading does not work whatsoever. [*]Terrible looking Anti Aliasing that makes for a relatively blurry looking game if you don't use your GPU driver sharpening to fix it. [/list] I fortunately got the technical issues sorted with a few modifications and had a sharp looking and relatively lag free game, otherwise I actually could not have played it, it was actually that bad before. I wrote a guide on how I did that, for anyone who's interested: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3438109430 [h3]A few words about the story in retrospect[/h3] [spoiler]-Edward's path is much better. I thought Emily's WWII flashback was so boring, it was just a mindless chain of linear pathways. I was glad when that section was over. -In the second half of the game I grew increasingly confused, which was alleviated after the finale, but after playing this game again, I can't honestly say I understood what exactly the story was about and how all of that was really related without meticulously piecing together all of the clues and events that happened. [/spoiler] [h3]Final thoughts[/h3] It seems to me that someone just didn't wanna spend more money on the polish and instead of a 10/10, we just got a 6 or 7/10. Considering the performance issues and blurry visuals on low resolution that the vanilla version has, it's sadly more like a 4/10. And it pains me to say this, because after fixing the technical issues with it, I really liked the game. I honestly feel bad for the devs, because they really made a great game and due to corporate leadership and that the money dictates everything, they had to see their game fail. You can see that the potential is there in everything there is, but that it was rushed out with a lot of edges.

Horrible traversal stutter made it unplayable for me. Not bad but perhaps weird optimization because it seemingly refuses to make ample use of both my GPU and CPU. Looks decent and apart from stutters also runs decent but yeah, stutters. Sad.