Alone in the Dark

Alone in the Dark is a franchise I remember well. I recall sitting in a dark room playing through the first game with its awkward controls, fighting off creatures of the night. The later installments didn’t seem to live up to the the feeling of the first one, but after a long break the series seems to have reinvented itself.

They seem to be doing a lot of things differently this time around. The game’s engine seems quite robust, and takes a real world approach to many things. Early looks at the game were presented via tech demo’s such as this one about the Fire system in the game:

With the framework in the place, the team divided the game up into a somewhat episodic format. While all of the content is included on the disc, the game’s mission system will be divided into episodes (complete with recap clips of previous episodes). You’re playing the continuing story of Edward Carnby (who bears a striking resemblance to former EGM writer Mark MacDonald). He’s searching for an explanation of the supernatural occurences that have been plaguing Central Park.

The atmosphere of the game seems like something special. Last year we had games like Bioshock and Portal which showed that the single-player only games were still alive and kicking. I think that since Alone in the Dark will benefit in the long run by focusing on single-player.

I plan on picking up the 360 version, but the Wii trailer actually entices me to give that one a try as well.

Alone in the Dark will be available on June 24th for PC, 360, Wii, and PS2, with the PS3 version releasing later this year.

KLind