Alone in the Dark where have you been? All the way back in '92 I think is when I was hooked with this series. This is a survival horror game a good 5 years before Resident Evil, but as this was a PC series with little budget for marketing at the time, the fan base was small compared to the might of Sony, Capcom and Resident Evil!

 

So I'll start off by saying that we managed to get hold of a very early build of Alone in the Dark on PC and if anyone listened to episode 78 of our podcast you will know that I was not very kind to the game. Now, though I managed to put in a few more hours into the game and have a few more positive things to say.

 

So, when I first played this I was in a rush to try the game as I loved the Alone in the Dark franchise and no matter what some people might say, the game from 2008 for 360, ps3 and PC was a great concept. It played really well but had a few little niggles that prevented it from been a masterpiece that is so clearly should have been.

 

So, from my first play I was shocked at how bad this game was, the movement was so slow and cumbersome just the turning circle was embarrassing to say the least. The enemies were invincible and if they got you cornered you were all but dead. But I decided to give this beta another chance, only God knows why.

 

Anyway, I loaded the game back up and God does it take an age to load, but will not give bad marks for this as it’s just a very early build of the game. Then I thought the game pad was not working very well when I played the last time, so back came the mouse and keyboard. Now, anyone that knows me will tell you I don't play with mouse and keyboard, and man I think I proved it here.

 

The game is so much better with this set up though as it was much faster and more responsive. There were still some little issues but overall the game went from unplayable to a little glitchy but stable. Now, this might also be a little to do with my wireless set up? So benefit of the doubt here I feel. Next up, I had thought that the enemies were invincible as I unloaded a full ammo clip into one and they just stood there and didn't even flinch. But as I worked out there are little light switches all over and even bins that you can ignite to form light, and when an enemy is in light they can be killed with as little as two or three shots.

 

The game that I had originally thought was an over the shoulder 3rd person shooter was now coming back to an action horror game with puzzles or akin to how Resident Evil 4 changed things up. To compare these two games is massive praise as RE4 was one of the best action horror games ever made! Now, with this just been limited to just one character and gun based action, I'm not going to say this is a must have game, but after a very shaky start things have definitely and dramatically improved for the better.

 

So, my only problem is that the game is looking solid at this time but everyone I've talked to about this game they all said the same thing and that’s they never had any idea a new Alone in the Dark game was been developed, never mind coming out soon. But hopefully after getting some feedback on the game, the publisher might be willing to put more of a budget into advertising this as its looking a very solid game to carry on the Alone in the Dark franchise.