The reboot of Alone in the Dark will inevitably be compared with the first parts of the Resident Evil series, and this comparison, on the one hand, is logical, but on the other hand, it is not entirely correct. The fact is that the first parts of “rezik” themselves took inspiration from the classic Alone in the Dark, released back in 1992, so many similar aspects remained in the new product. But at the same time, it is obvious that the developers were to some extent guided by the Resident Evil 2 remake when creating a new product. This mainly concerns the camera and combat system. Otherwise, the game follows exactly the original concept and even uses the same characters.
My first encounter with the series came with the release of Alone in the Dark in 2008, which had little in common with the original source. The game was criticized by many, but it offered truly unusual gameplay features even by modern standards. In the reboot, of course, there is no inventory under the hero’s jacket and the ability to blink his eyes, but the game tries to convey the spirit of those same survival horror games and successfully copes with it.
As in the very first game, the main characters of Alone in the Dark in 2024 are Emily Hartwood and the private detective she hired, Edward Carnby. At the beginning you can choose who to play as, and this choice has a fairly large impact on the narrative (but not the plot itself). Not only do characters often react differently to the same things, but some events happen differently. Although personally, playing as Edward Carnby still seems canonical to me, since it looks a little strange that Emily hired a detective for herself, but at the same time does everything herself. However, let’s attribute this to gaming conventions designed to justify the choice of the protagonist, allowing you to look at the story from different angles.
From a gameplay point of view, everything is done in the style of classic survival horror games. For the main part of the game, you will walk through locations, solve puzzles and look for items needed to advance further or open access to a blocked place. The map immediately highlights the areas that you have visited and fully explored – this is very convenient, since you will know exactly where there is no point in returning. In addition, in the settings you can enable the display of important points on the map, which significantly saves time. For example, having found a key, you will immediately see on the map where it can be used. However, no one is stopping you from turning on the “old school” mode and playing without any help.
As expected, Alone in the Dark is full of notes scattered throughout. However, unlike many games, these are often not useless texts that you want to quickly skip. Here they perform not only the standard function of expanding the lore, but are also an integral part of the gameplay. They often store details about where the next key or clue to a puzzle is located. You won’t miss important information because it’s always highlighted in white, so even if you don’t like reading notes in games, you won’t have to spend a lot of time reading them. The puzzles themselves are well thought out and sometimes make you think a lot.
An interesting detail about the collectibles that immediately stood out to me is that all non-questionable items are divided into sets. By collecting everything from one set, you can unlock something interesting – mainly “lore” information that is not necessary for the task. By the way, it will not be possible to find absolutely all the items in one playthrough, since some can only be found by certain characters.
There is also shooting in the game, but, according to the canons of the genre, there is not so much of it here. From time to time we have to kill different types of monsters or run away from them, since we can’t stock up on ammo for everyone. Close combat can help out in such a situation, although this is also not a panacea, because weapons quickly break. Stealth mechanics, perhaps, turned out to be boring, but, fortunately, there is very little of it. In general, the balance is maintained – there is no overkill with the action, and you don’t get tired of the constant running.
The plot of Alone in the Dark turned out to be interesting and at the same time a little confusing. The premise is simple: Emily Hartwood asks private detective Edward Carnby to accompany her to the Derceto estate after she receives a disturbing letter from her uncle Jeremy Hartwood. However, upon arrival it is discovered that he is missing. The search begins with a regular search of Jeremy’s room and goes all the way to traveling between different creepy places and even eras… But I won’t go too deep into this topic so as not to spoil anything important. I really wanted to follow the story to find out what happened.
Looking at the screenshots and gameplay videos, you couldn’t help but notice that Alone in the Dark looks quite dated, especially when compared to the same remake of Resident Evil 2. So if technical innovation is extremely important to you, then you might want to pass this game by. On my own behalf, I’ll just say that the graphics didn’t disappoint me, and the plot, atmosphere and gameplay more than compensated for this shortcoming.
I completed Alone in the Dark twice with different characters. The first playthrough took me 9 hours, while the second time I finished the game in more than half that time. To be honest, regarding the gameplay, replaying the campaign most of the time was a bit boring for me – I already knew the solution to all the puzzles and the location of all the necessary items. But at the same time, it was interesting to look at the same story for a different hero and learn something new about the plot. In addition, at the end of Chapter 4, the missions for the two characters are completely different and take place in different locations. These unique missions are really cool and hide a layer of plot behind them, without which you will miss something important.
Alone in the Dark is a worthy reboot of the classic series that laid the foundations for the survival horror genre. The game offers interesting gameplay, alternating exploration and puzzles with combat scenes, as well as a captivating story that makes you want to follow.
