Developed by: Eden studios
Produced by: Atari
Genre: Survival horror/action
Console: Xbox 360 (PS3 coming soon)
Players: 1
Online features: Bugger all
Age rating: 15+
I don't think Carnby really understands hot seating (sorry that was bad.)
Alone in the Dark hasn't had an easy life. Although coming out before Resident Evil, AITD has constantly been in the shadow of it often being labeled a poor Resident Evil.
So, with this game it was a chance fo Eden Studios to differentiate itself from the Resident Evil series. The good news is they've done just that, the bad news, by creating a far inferior game.
STORY:
The word cliche is thrown around a lot in fact the word itself has become one. But it is fair to call AITD a cliche. The story feels like it's come straight out of a B-Movie with dialogue so obvious you saw it coming a mile off. The story follows the protagonist Edward Carnby as he travels around central park solving rudementery puzzles and swearing. Nearly all the plots turns either seem blatant or just stupid. And back to the subject of dialogue. the amount of swearing spewing form Mr Carnby's mouth is unbelievable every sentence is filled with ever more swear words. (To utter another cliche, if got got a penny every time he swore. Well for starters I'd have a better T.V.) The swearing is obviously an attempt at gritty realism, but it ends up making everything Edward Carnby say seem juvenile, like a child who's trying to sound tough. Another major floor with the game is that I just can't like Carnby every time he says something it makes me hate him a little bit more to the point in which I would happily stick corkscrews in my ears just to distract me away from the game. (Well I would have done that if I couldn't skip some of the cutscenes, thankfully I could and it saved me the pain.) With an easy to hate protagonist and a story line that felt as if it were conceived by a mentally ill chimp. Things could only get better couldn't they? Wrong!
GAMEPLAY:
For all the games faults Eden Studios really have tried to implement some genuinally innovative ideas. The real problem is they haven't done them well. For starters the melee combat is controlled via the right analogue stick, moving it from left to right will cause your character to attack in that direction. This is all well and good until you try to control Carnby in third person and then it becomes infuriating as there is no bloody camera control. (May i just add how weird it looks when Carnby runs. I mean its no Frank West limp, but he seems to flail his arms around like he's lost control of them, which doesn't surprise me looking at the melee combat.) The melee annoyed me further when playing it, as it became practically redundant as the main enemies can't be killed using it. So a whole analogue stick feels wasted when it could have been used for a better purpose. The game feels like it's trying to do to much. Instead of one finally tuned camera view it has a poorly excercuted third and first person, which the game will constantly force you to jump between. For instance when you pick up a melee weapon you can't use it in first person, and pulling out your gun in third doesn't let you use it properly, only in a set sequence. and randomly throughout the game you'll just switch perspective.
The inventory system also doesn't work as well as we hoped. When you hit down on the D-pad Carnby will look down open up his jacket which is full of the crap you've collected. The problem here is that there is not enough damn room in the jacket and you spend most of the game wishing Carnby brought a rucksack. From there you have to mix and match different items to create useful equipment such as Molotov Cocktails, Flares and load of other things that you might use to help you survive.(My current most useless item is a glowstick selotaped to a health spray.) The problem is that once again everything feels unbeliveably clunky and hard to work with as you have to select certain items in a certain order. And you have no idea what you're going to make. And to add insult to injury you can still be attacked in this menu.
So, with this game it was a chance fo Eden Studios to differentiate itself from the Resident Evil series. The good news is they've done just that, the bad news, by creating a far inferior game.
STORY:
The word cliche is thrown around a lot in fact the word itself has become one. But it is fair to call AITD a cliche. The story feels like it's come straight out of a B-Movie with dialogue so obvious you saw it coming a mile off. The story follows the protagonist Edward Carnby as he travels around central park solving rudementery puzzles and swearing. Nearly all the plots turns either seem blatant or just stupid. And back to the subject of dialogue. the amount of swearing spewing form Mr Carnby's mouth is unbelievable every sentence is filled with ever more swear words. (To utter another cliche, if got got a penny every time he swore. Well for starters I'd have a better T.V.) The swearing is obviously an attempt at gritty realism, but it ends up making everything Edward Carnby say seem juvenile, like a child who's trying to sound tough. Another major floor with the game is that I just can't like Carnby every time he says something it makes me hate him a little bit more to the point in which I would happily stick corkscrews in my ears just to distract me away from the game. (Well I would have done that if I couldn't skip some of the cutscenes, thankfully I could and it saved me the pain.) With an easy to hate protagonist and a story line that felt as if it were conceived by a mentally ill chimp. Things could only get better couldn't they? Wrong!
GAMEPLAY:
For all the games faults Eden Studios really have tried to implement some genuinally innovative ideas. The real problem is they haven't done them well. For starters the melee combat is controlled via the right analogue stick, moving it from left to right will cause your character to attack in that direction. This is all well and good until you try to control Carnby in third person and then it becomes infuriating as there is no bloody camera control. (May i just add how weird it looks when Carnby runs. I mean its no Frank West limp, but he seems to flail his arms around like he's lost control of them, which doesn't surprise me looking at the melee combat.) The melee annoyed me further when playing it, as it became practically redundant as the main enemies can't be killed using it. So a whole analogue stick feels wasted when it could have been used for a better purpose. The game feels like it's trying to do to much. Instead of one finally tuned camera view it has a poorly excercuted third and first person, which the game will constantly force you to jump between. For instance when you pick up a melee weapon you can't use it in first person, and pulling out your gun in third doesn't let you use it properly, only in a set sequence. and randomly throughout the game you'll just switch perspective.
The inventory system also doesn't work as well as we hoped. When you hit down on the D-pad Carnby will look down open up his jacket which is full of the crap you've collected. The problem here is that there is not enough damn room in the jacket and you spend most of the game wishing Carnby brought a rucksack. From there you have to mix and match different items to create useful equipment such as Molotov Cocktails, Flares and load of other things that you might use to help you survive.(My current most useless item is a glowstick selotaped to a health spray.) The problem is that once again everything feels unbeliveably clunky and hard to work with as you have to select certain items in a certain order. And you have no idea what you're going to make. And to add insult to injury you can still be attacked in this menu.
Could AITD 6 feature a useable rucksack? We hope so.
Eden Studios have also tried to put too much into one game. just to list the different types of gaming style you will see in AITD, there's a third person bit, there's a first person shooter bit, there's a platform bit (which can be done in both perspectives), there's a driving bit and there's are a whole heap of annoying non scensical puzzles. Most of which can solved by shooting something causing a rope to appear so you can climb up it. (let me just say how many random ropes there are in the game, and luckily Carnby can climb them all. YAY.)
The driving sections also seem ill conceived with the car been weighted so bizzarely some driving sequences just become obscure, (a bit odd coming from the developers of test drive unlimited.) If the driving wasnt bad enough (oh and it is.) The actual driving levels are terrible. The amount of times I had to restart the sections was unbelivable. Not just because I fail spectacularly at most driving games but because of weird things, for instance the A.I drivers. Well one in paticular a police car (one of the 3 cars available in the game) boxed me in so I was stuck and unable to move.
So from one poorly implemented A.I to another. The main ememies referred to as Humanz (yes Humanz, as you progress through AITD you will find a lot of enimes with a 'z' at the end of their name.) These humanz you see have unbeleivablely simple A.I, which pretty much is this, run at Edward Carnby and then try and kill him. They don't run for cover the don't flank they just run. This made the enemies so predictable that they never really felt like the challenging and crafty foes they should have been.
For all it's gameplay issues there is one genuinely brilliant part of Alone in the Dark, the fire. The way the fire propagates is fantastic often the fire will lick to wall to suberb effect, if a peice of wood is caught on fire it visullay change but will also break.
The fire is used in many of the games more satisfying puzzles and can be used to light your way in dark places. My only real issue with the fire is that it is the only way of killing Humanz (granted there are lots of ways of producing fire.) But this does make you feel more limited as a player.
Oh, correction they jump at you too.
VISUALS:
For all it's flaws (and there are a lot.) AITD is a beautiful every thing looks magnifcent. The lighting is some of the best in game and the water realistically ripples around Carnby's feet. the mood is captured perfectly in the surrounding. One of the most memorable being cental park, which looks like it's plucked straight out of a Tim burton film.
If there is one gripe i have with the graphics is Edward Carnby himself. Why does the man have to look so ugly? He looks like a crudely drawn face on a sole of a shoe. (I mean if there is anything in the game that's scary it'd be Carnby's face.) I know he's a hundred but that doesn't mean he has to look nothing like he does on the case. (unless that's an entirly different person who never appeared on the game. We just don't know.) But apart from my little moan it's safe to say the graphics are top notch.
SOUND:
In any game sound is important, But in a horror game it's crucial. The right sound at the right time can send shivers down the players spine. But the wrong sound kills the tension all together. Although it pains me to say it but the Alone in the Dark's sound is more of the latter than the former, which is a real disapointment as I really wanted the game to have that scare factor.
The game would often randomly start playing music before anything had happened which and then a monster would appear or something. So that the player would realise that when the music started to play something was bound to happen. The real problem with that is that it gives the player a chance to ready themself instead of being caught of guard. (If you really want to play a scary next gen title play condemned 1 in the dark with head phones. Scary stuff.)
LONGEVITY:
Lets get one thing straight Alone in the dark is a short game. Taking up no more than 9 hours to complete. There is also very little insentive to play the game again (unless you're an acheivement junkie.) Most of the levels are very linear and the ending can easily be loaded up again if you wantto ed play it out differently. In fact if anything I'd say that it seems as if Eden Games are encouraging you to shorten the life of this game. With it's eposotic T.V. program like structure you are able to skip entire parts of the game. In theory this makes sense if you're stuck at a certain bit you can skip a level. But like a T.V. program you'll want to stick it out to the end making the whole episode bit seem somewhat pointless.
As ever Carnby is taking the diplomatic approch.
ALL IN ALL:
Poor poor Alone in the dark where did you go wrong? In a way you feel sorry for Eden Studios as there are some genuinely brilliant ideas at play here, but often implemented very badly. Along with the clunky controls and the fact that it's just not that scary a game this makes for a very lackluster title. A disaponiting end for a game that started out so promising.
our rating
5
out of ten
We recommend you RENT IT. But for God's sake don't buy it!
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