Alone in the Dark is a dedicated remake of the 1992 classic that graced the PC platform. Widely considered the godfather of the survival horror genre, the franchise was also the first to use polygonal characters set on pre-rendered backgrounds, which gave it a distinctive look back in the early 1990s.

Despite its innovative spirit, it was unable to escape the eclipsing shadow of the Resident Evil franchise for much of its existence. However, the Alone in the Dark remake is a decent dive into madness that won’t overstay its welcome.

Developer & Publisher // Pieces Interactive Sweden, THQ Nordic

Platforms // PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

MSRP & Release Date // $59.99, March 20th, 2022

Reviewed On // Series X

A Haunting in the Bayou

Alone in the Dark is set shortly after the Great Depression and follows the disappearance of Jeremy Hartwood. He sends a rather unsettling letter to his niece, Emily Hartwood (portrayed by Jodie Comer) who takes action and recruits private detective Edward Carnby (David Harbour) to find her missing uncle.

Jeremy was housed in the Derceto Mansion, a sort of high-end asylum deep in the Louisiana Bayou. He has made a pact with an insidious figure known only as the “Dark Man”. The pact was an act of martyrdom to protect the inhabitants of Derceto from Lovecraftian evil. Both Edward and Emily uncover the truth behind the eerie manor and dive deeper into its supernatural origins.

Sherriff Hopper or Rey’s Mother?

Alone in the Dark allows players to select their protagonist and resultingly, sidekick. Players can choose between Emily or Edward. While both characters will experience the same overall story beats, some diverging paths and locations are unique to each character. Moreover, depending on which character you select, residents of Dercato will react to you differently. However, it’s worth noting that the game is linear and does not offer any dialogue options.

I ended up selecting Emily because I felt most would side with Edward due to Hop’s popularity. Additionally, since Emily is the catalyst of the narrative, I felt that the story beats had a more personal inclination towards Emily. More specifically, since Emily is a direct relative of Jeremy and has more a personal stake in finding her uncle after his disappearance in Dercato Mansion.

Enter Derceto Mansion

Throughout Alone in the Dark, players will investigate Derceto Mansion. Yet, with the blink of an eye or the sudden creaking of an opening door, players will descend deeper into Jeremy Hartwood’s fragile mind through different dreamscapes. Each dreamscape has its own unique setting. From cemeteries to downtown New Orleans and even an ancient Egyptian tomb, these dreamscapes are what link Jeremy’s memories to the “Dark Man”. However, those aren’t the only linkages the game delivers.

Emily and Edward will have their diverging paths and dreamscapes, as they deal with their own internal conflicts respectively. Though their diverging paths are linear and predetermined, they just offer a deeper glimpse into the struggles of the protagonists.

Suffice it to say, the story beats were consistent with a pacing to match. The main protagonists were decently fleshed out as they dealt with their past traumas beautifully in their respective dreamscapes. The narrative was fascinating the deeper I dived into the madness the game presents. Luckily, Alone in the Dark doesn’t overstay its welcome. Spread across 5 chapters, I rolled credits at around 10 hours at a leisurely pace.

Backtrack Blues, No More!

No surprise that Alone in the Dark takes the cues from modern survival horror and meshes into one coherent package. As with any modern survival horror game, expect a lot of backtracking in the Derceto Mansion. Luckily, the game features an intuitive map that highlights key areas of interest such as puzzles and rooms that haven’t been completely searched. It helped keep progress and where to go next in check. If you ever played any of the recent Resident Evil remakes, then you know what to expect.

Combat

Alone in the Dark offers an over-the-shoulder perspective with aim-down sights gunplay. It also features a melee attack system (hold and release for stronger melee attacks).

I was pleasantly surprised with the game’s shooting mechanics. They were competent and felt decent overall after tweaking the aiming sensitivity. Landing melee attacks on creatures was always satisfying. However, since melee weapons break, the lack of melee weapon health bar made the ordeal quite unpredictable and stressful.

There are even randomly placed throwable items you can use to either distract enemies or set them ablaze. However, once you interact with the throwable items you either have to keep holding them down or discard them entirely. You can’t save it for later. When you do hold throwable items the reticle will automatically snap onto enemies for a guaranteed shot.

You can dodge out of the way of incoming attacks. This is especially useful to quickly get out of a tight situation. Moreover, there are even stealth mechanics where you can crouch and hide around. However, the stealth mechanics were quite basic and felt like an afterthought, as you would end up in fights most of the time. A majority of combat takes place in the dreamscapes, but there’s a fair amount of fights at the Derceto Mansion as well.

Fine Tune The Sensitivity

For some strange reason, Alone in the Dark defaults to an 8/10 on the aiming sensitivity. This is not a twitch shooter, you don’t need that insane level of sensitivity when enemies lurk and lurch around. Resultingly, I turned it down to around 5/6 and the immediately improved the feel of the movement and gunplay.

Puzzles, Puzzles, Toil and Trouble

The other important part of Alone in the Dark’s gameplay loop is its puzzles. Most of them come in the form of using ciphers to break different locks and safe combinations. There are even some jigsaw-like puzzles that will have you tasked with moving and rotating pieces to complete them.

However, many of Alone in the Dark’s puzzles involve your handy Talisman that acts as a key to open different dreamscapes. The Talisman consists of three interlocked circles with numbers for each level, and often times you will have to rotate it to unlock certain number combinations to open new dreamscapes.

The game offers both Old School and Modern puzzle modes, where the former will not highlight any tips at all. Nor will it show which number when turning the actual Talisman. I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzles. They offered just enough challenges to work your brain and provided a satisfying eureka when completing them.

Alone in the Dark Graphics and Art Style

Alone in the Dark is built using Unreal Engine 4. While the game looks decent overall, it’s not exactly bleeding edge, nor is it trying to be. But its semi-photo-realistic look of 1930s America looked consistent. The mansion looked convincingly haunted as each room looked spookier than the other. Especially the room that housed the little girl that was filled with creepy 1930s dolls. Luckily, none of them came to life and attacked me.

The creatures you will face have distinctive features between them. One creature looks like a slim Swamp Thing. While others are reminiscent of traditional Lovecraftian abominations with tentacles and sewn-together monstrosities. There are even smaller flying insect-like creatures that will pester you. But in all, each creature model looks consistent with the art style the game is going for.

Most of the biome diversity comes in the form of the different dreamscapes players will travel to. As mentioned before, players will travel to cemeteries, ancient Egyptian tombs, and more. This diversity helps break up the creepy Derceto Mansion interior. There was even one section of the game that paid homage to the OG Alone in the Dark, where the camera was set in a corner similar to the original game.

It’s safe to say that both Emily and Edward’s facial mocap are the most impressive aspects of the game’s graphics. Both actors’ faces were immaculately rendered and their facial expressions truly brought their respective characters to life.

Sound Design

The sound design in Alone in the Dark was on point for the most part. The game owes a lot to its eerie ambiance and its sublime soundtrack. The tracks beautifully add to the uneasy tension felt when traversing the Dercato Mansion and the various Jeremy Hartwood dreamscapes. Then, all of a sudden, the strings ramp up to accompany the game’s tension perfectly.

Sound effects overall sound well recorded and resonate well in the game. However, when shooting off pistol rounds, the first shot or two would produce a noticeable delay both through my headset and TV speaker. Then it would normalize after that initial audio glitch.

At first, I felt that both Jodie Comer and David Harobour’s voice performances were off-putting. Perhaps that was because they’re so recognizable beyond video games and seeing them in my favorite medium was awkward at first. But as I progressed deeper into the game, their voice work and mocap were particularly on point. Line deliveries were solid and their facial expressions brilliantly complemented vocal performances.

Alone in the Dark Technical Performance Review

Alone in the Dark offers two graphical options for consoles: Quality, and Performance modes. Where the former prioritizes higher resolution and the other defaults to 60 FPS with a dynamic resolution. I tested the performance mode and for the most part, the game held 60 frames pretty well.

There were some drops here and there, especially in heavier fights, but for the most part, the game maintained its targeted frame rate. There were some other glitches worth mentioning. Floating corpses were common in the steamboat dreamscape. While there were a few moments where my character would awkwardly glide around during combat.

During my playthrough, I only experienced one crash to the dashboard. I would also notice that after manually reloading a save file, my health would slightly deplete for no reason. However, the developers did relay that they will release a hefty day-one patch will should address several technical issues. But on the whole, these issues weren’t detrimental to my experience.

Final Thoughts on Alone in the Dark

Despite a long hiatus, the Alone in the Dark remake is a solid offering in a long-dormant franchise. It does borrow heavily from modern survival horror titles but still manages to create its own distinctive experience. It’s clear that a lot of attention went into rendering both David Harbour and Jodie Comer into their characters. Fortunately, that gambit paid off well in a concise package with decent gameplay and story beats to match.

Note – a key was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

The post Alone in the Dark Review – Descend into Madness appeared first on Lords of Gaming.