Alone in the Dark Review

Capcom has become the master of survival horror remakes, giving Resident Evil the reverence it rightly deserves. Alone in the Dark, released in 1992, predates Resident Evil, and, as such, is largely thought of as the forefather of survival horror. Surely it, too, deserves similarly reverential treatment. Enter Swedish developer Pieces Interactive, given the not insignificant task of remaking a thirty-two-year-old cult classic. The result? A shabby, half-baked game riddled with niggling bugs and sludgy combat. Despite being delayed several times, Alone in the Dark emerges as an under-polished, sloppy remake.

It appears that the majority of Alone in the Dark's budget was spent on enlisting Stranger Things actor David Harbour as hardboiled detective Edward Carnby, and Killing Eve's Jodie Comer as Emily Hartwood, serving as the game's dual protagonists. It's a gambit that only raises further issues, as Harbour and Comer's realistically rendered faces look out of place next to a cast of relatively stylised characters. It doesn't fit. The game’s setup sees Emily and Edward summoned to the grand Derceto Manor to uncover what became of Emily’s uncle Jeremy, and the dalliances with cosmic horror that follow certainly prove intriguing. But a procession of annoying glitches and technical shortcomings very quickly put a dampener on proceedings.

There are instances where you'll have to reload a save because you've become snagged and stuck on scenery. The frame rate is prone to choppiness, and the audio sync is dodgy – firing a gun is invariably followed by a 'bang' almost a second later, is but one example. For a new-gen-only release, Alone in the Dark is remarkably unremarkable to look at. Yes, the occasional instantaneous shifts between realities are impressive, and the game is not entirely devoid of arresting sights, but, by and large, it's all a bit of a mess. Often, the terror in Alone in the Dark is derived not from a monster jumping out at you, but from the possibility that the game might crash or randomly remove the ability to use your weapon or interact with anything. The mind boggles imagining what this might have been like had it launched in October of last year, as originally planned. And to think the game's release was moved to avoid competing with Alan Wake II – the two couldn't be further apart in terms of quality.

It's not all bad – the initial atmosphere conjured by Alone in the Dark is quite effective, and some of the puzzles are well put together. There are times when the tension ratchets up nicely, engendering a mild case of sweaty-palmed panic, but then you're greeted by one of the game's unscary monsters, and that tension rapidly dissipates. Combat encounters induce panic, too, but not because things can get intense, but because it's clunky as hell. Another tick in Alone in the Dark's column of things it gets right is the game's setting of Derceto Manor. It's a suitably oppressive place, making unpredictable shifts to other places like swampy bayous, misty New Orleans streets, deserts, and snowy tundra with the opening of a door, keeping you second guessing what might befall you next.

There's actually plenty to like about Alone in the Dark, despite the preceding four paragraphs of this review being an exhaustive list of what's wrong with the game. It's clear that Pieces Interactive has a love for its source material, creating an evocative 1920s Southern Gothic setting with a fair amount of detail and texture. This only makes Alone in the Dark's shortcomings and lack of polish all the more unfortunate, and some questionable design decisions only add insult to injury. Avoiding combat is apparently an option, but the act of sneaking is so painfully glacial that it's not remotely viable, unless you have the patience of a saint. Melee weapons invariably involve swinging blindly until the pipe, shovel, candlestick, hatchet, sledgehammer, or whatever else breaks, or the thing on the receiving end happens to die. There's a glaring dearth of finesse here.

Playing as Edward or Emily essentially presents you with two fairly distinctive playthroughs to experience, as their paths diverge, but the mechanics and systems obviously have the same problems, regardless of your chosen character. An appalling final boss encounter only serves to highlight all of the innumerable niggles with the game's janky gunplay, and by the time you've reached that point, whether it's inside three hours on a speedrun or around eight at a casual snail's pace, you'll likely feel only fatigue and apathy. All capacity for scares is drained by the time you've plodded inexorably towards Alone in the Dark's forgettable denouement.

Alone in the Dark is something of a mixed bag, then. It's a survival horror remake lacking in refinement and polish, despite numerous delays to its release. Puzzles are neatly constructed and Derceto Manor, along with its various flights of fancy to dreamlike places, lends intrigue to the narrative. I really wanted to like Alone in the Dark, as I managed to wring some enjoyment out of its almost endearingly shoddy survival horror journey, but there's a litany of fundamental elements that simply don't hang together like they should, holding the game back. When the bar has been set by the likes of the Resident Evil remakes and Alan Wake II, Alone in the Dark's defects only seem all the more bizarre and unforgivable.