 Overview
Edward Carnby is back! The supernatural detective finds himself trapped on an island surrounded by creepy crawlies (what’s
new?) and facing what could be his most dangerous investigation yet. This time Carnby teams up with anthropologist Aline Cedrac in what starts out as a mission of revenge.
It seems Carnby’s longtime friend Charles Fisk has taken a case against his better judgment and ended up as worm food. Carnby, angry at his friend but burning with vengeance, loads up his double-barreled pistol and heads off to a mysterious
island where Cedrac hopes to decipher and study some ancient Indian tablets (she’s also on the hunt for her
long-lost father). But before they get to the island, their small plane is attacked under
cover of night and both must parachute to safety. Carnby lands on the grounds of a sprawling estate while Cedrac lands on the roof of a huge mansion.
And so the game begins... Play as either Edward Carnby or Aline Cedrac
and enter a world of survival horror, trying to escape the ancient evil that has lain dormant for
centuries -- until now.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
Which came first? Alone in the Dark or
Resident Evil? The answer is
Alone in the Dark, of course. Debuting on the PC in 1993, the original was an international success, relying on innovative gameplay and a scarier-than-hell plot (well, it was scary back then). But does
Part Four tap into the same fearful places? In this reviewer's opinion, the answer is both yes and no.
The ground floor rules of any survival horror game, of course, is that you get the bejeebers scared out of you.
AitD is no exception. I made it a point to play only at night with the lights off for full effect
-- and boy, did that work. I felt the little hairs stand up on my neck as the game progressed.
My 80-pound dog sleeps at my feet when I’m on my computer; when he stood up and brushed my leg I literally had to turn off the computer and quit playing for the night. Of course, I really enjoy being
scared; if you don’t, play it during the daytime. Along with that, the disturbing tomes you
must find and read add to the overall creepiness of the game. The readings aren’t quite as effective as the ones from
Clive Barker’s Undying, but they do add an extra element to the
game, not to mention the clues found within their pages. This is not a game for someone who doesn’t like to read.
As you progress through the game, it becomes more and more evident that
AitD and Resident Evil are close cousins. The puzzles are never very difficult and usually involve getting a key of some sort (especially in the
early puzzles). I must admit that the challenges were never very
challenging -- find a collection of ancient Indian statues scattered around the house in order to help the last shaman of a long-dead
tribe conduct a ritual that will stop impending doom.
This is a tired and often used formula. On a positive note, each character comes equipped with a
flashlight -- and in some cases, items and clues can only be found by pointing the flashlight in
a general area. Sometimes this means turning off the lights in the room you are
in, a welcome and pleasant addition.
Alone in the Dark (AitD) features the same fixed camera
angle as the Resident Evil series. Each location your character enters is viewed from some quirky angle that has always reminded me of Sam Raimi’s
Evil Dead movies. One location has the camera looking down a long hallway where your character gets smaller and smaller as you walk, while another is viewed from a bird’s-eye view. I have always liked
these visual angles, as they seem to fit well with the subject matter.
It’s important to mention the movement controls: while playing, the forward
button always makes your character move forward, whether it’s straight at you or walking to the right of the screen.
I played this game using the Microsoft game pad. I recommend using some sort
of game pad to play, as it is much easier than using the keyboard controls.
 I
was
disappointed with the game's combat factor. As with ALL games of this type, there is never enough ammunition to deal with the monsters that appear in the game. But unlike
Resident Evil, when you kill a bad guy in AitD, it respawns when you exit
and re-enter the room. I found this unacceptable. Of course you can always run from your enemies, but
most of the
time running is not an option -- which brings me to another point. The weapons used in
this game do not do the type of damage they should. Case in point: while exploring, you eventually find a triple-barreled
shotgun. Three shells are fired simultaneously each time you squeeze the
trigger. Think about the kind of damage a regular shotgun does, and triple it.
Now imagine having to have to shoot a zombie three times with this weapon in order to stop it. Three times three is
nine -- nine shotgun shells fired at a zombie from a distance of no more
than 10 feet. In real life this firepower would chew a polar bear in half,
but in this
game it barely dispatches a six-foot zombie. I don’t care if it’s infused with pure
evil; not even zombies can walk if they’re blasted into two separate parts. This aspect of the game was really
frustrating. Don’t even get me started on the grenade launcher.
Continuing on, there are a number of cut scenes with Carnby and Cedrac that help the
flow of the narrative; sometimes they automatically call each other with handheld radios, and other times you can select the radio in your inventory
and make a manual call. This brings me to my next point. The first part of the game involves Carnby finding and freeing a trapped Aline
Cedrac. Aline calls Carnby several times, clearly scared out of her mind --
but when he eventually finds her, the first thing she wants to do is split up again to explore what is clearly a monster-infested house. I don’t know about you, but if I
were trapped in a house filled with monsters and zombies, I wouldn’t leave the side of the only
person carrying a gun. But I guess you can’t do that, since it breaks the predictable rules of all survival horror games. Just once, I would like to see a game of this
genre portray people reacting as they would in real life -- cowering in a corner, running like an Olympic sprinter, picking up a chair and bashing it over the bad guys' heads. Sadly,
AitD is just more of the same.
Finally, the game had a lot of short load times such as when walking from room to
room. It was certainly nothing I couldn’t handle, but it started to irritate me after a while. This, and the several freeze-ups I experienced while playing, left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth. I hoped there was a patch, but could not find one.
Graphics
Alone in the Dark features some of the best graphics in the horror genre. Locales look creepy and the whole flashlight aspect of the game comes across
sharp and clear. As far as the monsters go, I’m split; some looked really good and genuinely freaked me out, while others were the same old crap seen in other horror games.
Audio
I’ve spoken with a few other people who have played the game, and while some really enjoyed the twisted synthesizer sounds that pierced through the speakers, others couldn’t handle
the soundtrack. I personally liked the music as it added a disturbing element to the game and made some scenes almost unbearable (remember, I played this game at
1:00 a.m. in an empty house). The monster sound effects never really creeped me out and the voice acting was
mostly tedious.
System Requirements
Windows 95/98, Pentium 266 MHz or higher, SVGA graphics card 4X or
faster, 32 MB RAM, DirectX 6.1.
 Bottom Line
Alone in the Dark was made for die-hard fans of the series and those who are new to the
genre; casual survival/horror gamers will be hard-pressed to find anything new as far as gameplay goes. I wasn’t overly impressed with the weak storyline and drab voice acting, but I must give kudos
to any game that scares the hell out of me. If it weren’t for that, this game
would easily rate a 65. If you like getting scared and have a game pad
(very important), this is the game for you. It's rated Mature -- not for younger players.
Review Posted On 6 September 2001.
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