IT’S arguable that horror games are better than they have ever been, with recent titles releasing to rave reviews.
Both Resident Evil 4 and Alan Wake 2 were nominated for Game of the Year at gaming’s biggest award show The Game Awards.
With the popularity of horror games on the rise, it makes sense that another classic horror series would make a comeback.
Alone in the Dark was originally released in 1992, and was seen as a genre-defining moment in gaming.
While you will look at it now and wonder what all the fuss was about, you have to remember that games were very simple back then.
Now we have a lot more memory to work with and so many technological advancements have been made that it seems the right time.
The story is split between Emily (Jodie Comer) and Edward Carnby (David Harbour), a detective hired to find Emily’s missing uncle.
As they independently explore each area of the haunted mansion, they soon realise that something supernatural is happening.
The main game stays true to the original in terms of the story and also in staying close to the original gameplay.
Alone in the Dark was a point-and-click adventure, a popular genre at the time, where players collect objects to solve puzzles and explore the area.
However, in updating it to the modern era, it has fallen foul of common horror tropes which hinder its originality.
Seeing the success of the Resident Evil series, there are a number of third-person shooter sections that feel like padding.
These aren’t fun to play through and bog down the tension, making it feel generic.
If it had stuck to what Alone in the Dark does best instead of trying to mimic other games of the genre, it would have come off more strongly.
Comer and Harbour’s performances improve this remake from the original alongside the modern graphics, but the shooting sections feel unnecessary.
The puzzles and the environments are as exciting as they were 30 years ago, and didn’t need anything extra to make the game special.
While it is understandable that the team would want to add something more to a game this old, the original’s uniqueness and innovation were lost here.
It’s not a bad horror game, and will give you some great moments, we were just left wanting the director’s cut without all the boring combat.
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