Alone in the Dark

This video game had plenty of potential and was even the most awaited Horror-Action game in 2008. Was it worth the wait? My sincere answer, with all the pain in my heart is no.

I'm a huge fan of the original PC games because those were extremely interesting and mixed creepiness with inventive and fun game play. You didn't get tired of them.

With the new millennium consoles you might think that graphics, game play, and plot should be spectacular, awesome in terms of quality... ...this game tried too hard but failed on all aspects.

The worst thing about it is the tedious, exasperating game play. You just don't get used to the controls because in some important moments you need to put in practice your survival skills in video games but with such complex button combinations and joystick action; you just don't get into the game's atmosphere.

The plot is surely interesting and gives plenty of territory to explore for the gamer. I thought it was as great idea of driving into the city and exploring the most bizarre places on it but things tend to get repetitive and boring after a while.

The graphics are spectacular and make justice to the new consoles but remember, graphics and powerful sound do not assure a great game overall.

This game tried too hard but failed big time. There's nothing else to add.

I'd never played any of the previous four AITD video games so I figured I'd be lost an unable to keep up with this one, but the previews looked good so I added it to my wishlist, where it remained until the price came down.

You play as Edward Carnby, a man who has lost his memory. Edward wakes up in a crumbling Central Park West apartment building. A supernatural force is ripping through the walls and turning the inhabitants into mutated killers. A huge earthquake rips Manhattan apart and on top of that there are ugly monsters spawning all over the park. It's all part of a prophecy (yawn) in which Edward must prevent Lucifer from entering into the world.

The plot is mostly mumbo-jumbo. But the main strength of the game is the oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere that turns a supposedly safe environment bustling with people (Manhattan island) into a lonely, apocalyptic nightmare. As a survival horror it's not as good as the Resident Evil series, and it doesn't have tension that made those games so good. I never felt scared to look around a corner or felt fear of what was lurking in the darkness beyond the character's view. But it's fast moving enough and gives you plenty of monsters to shoot at (though it's never satisfying enough and totally bloodless). It's also the 86th game in a row I've played that features Central Park.

Despite my complaining, I never got bored with the game or felt it was hard to control (I played the PS3 version, which improves on the Xbox 360 release). Though when driving around a shrub or a bush is completely impenetrable to a two-ton car and it's kinda infuriating. The fact that trophies are handed out left, right and centre makes up for it.

The ending hints at a sequel, which has yet to materialize. But AITD is a fine way to spend a few bucks and a few days playing.

Graphics B+ Sound B- Gameplay B Lasting Appeal B

A good few years before the release of the playstation 3 i remember seeing the trailer for the new alone in the dark game. I was excited it looked really good, simply because we haven't seen an alone in the dark game for a long time so it would be a welcome come back.

I got the game on offer for £25.

This game is so awful i didn't even bother to finish the damn thing. I'll tell you why this game is so bad. Firstly, the whole game is a gimmick. When we were shown tech demos the only thing they seemed to demonstrate was the games fire effects. Yes OK the fire effects are very nice and fire spreads realistically and fire weapons all work very well. But the fire is a gimmick because the only way you can kill enemies in the game is with fire. It's practically forcing you to always use fire and there is never much variety. The second gimmick is the DVD skip feature. This feature like the name suggests means you can skip difficult levels and play the next "episode" and then keeps you up to date with the story with a "Previously on Alone In The Dark" opening scene. The back of the box suggests you don't even need to play the game and you can see the ending, this is a lie because it doesn't even let you see the end because of lack of skill or power etc. Another thing wrong with it, well the most spoken of problems with Alone is the CONTROLS. I got this game for xbox and it may have a chunky controller but c'mon. You can switch between third and first person. First person is easier to work but you have to blink constantly ( yes i said blinking i thought it was stupid too) by pressing the thumb-stick down. In third person you can only control Carnabey with the one left stick which is sometimes difficult to manuvere considering you can't work with the right stick too. Clunky controls cause problems with combat, particularly because this joins in with the fire gimmick. attacking with a melee weapon is controlled by swinging the right stick but this is so tedious and the melee weapon must be on fire for the enemy to die. Then there's inventory and healing. The whole quick view change to the inside of Carnabeys jacket to see the inventory is all well and cool but its kept in real time and you can be injured while going through your inventory which take you right out of it. The inventory is all very messy and sometimes un-useful objects take up too much space. then there's healing. To heal yourself you go inside your jacket and pull out medical spray (resident evil 4 anyone?) or bandages then press down and use the analogue stick to select the part of the body you wish to heal. Why couldn't you just select the medical appliance and then just let that add on health rather than friterring away by doing a stupid medical mini-game. Writing and story. Oh dear the story. Well Edward Carnaby has amnesia and Satan is trying to take over earth.....something like that. The writing is the worst part because the story is so simple and clichéd that it just had to have bad writing to make it whole. Most of the dialogue is like a teen horror movie with just a horrendous amount of swearing. The other Alone In The Dark games were intelligent with good writing so why does this one resort to cheesy, corny vulgar dialogue? Then there's driving. Driving is just sooooooo tedious. Hit a pebble and your car will swerve off course and some times a tiny nudge on your movement stick and your pulling off drifts and the big pushes on the movement stick seem to cause you to turn corners slowly. I gave Alone In The Dark 2 stars and thats because of the driving mission near the start of the game. Although i hate the driving the whole scenario was very well presented, the graphics were very sleek and the musical score in the sequence was exceptional. If you've played it you'll know which scene i mean. Worst Game Of All Time Or Worst Game I've Ever Played

I was just as excited for this game as you guys were hearing all the hype on how the fire will play out sounded like a pretty cool idea, i bought the game about a week it came out only read 2 reviews about it which one said it sucked and the other said it was great so i decided to see for myself...

Heres the thing, the graphics are extremely well played out think of Dark Sector if any of you played it, the fire looks and plays amazing looks very realistic the acting isn't bad but it isn't great, the writer was going for a more new york type tough guy with the main character, so every now and then you might hear him bleep out the F bomb when not needed seems like the character is hiding behind the word a lot but the language also brings realism with huge monster, zombie like creatures running around there's a sense of fear in the characters so the (F) word plays well with it.

Now i gave this game a 7 out of 10 because the controls absolutely suck, your controller has 2 analog sticks but unfortunately only the left one moves your character the right one only makes the camera move up,down,left and right. The fighting system is weird to, you cant fire your gun unless you switch to first person which can get annoying also another thing that has its pros and cons are the enemies you can only kill (the zombie creatures) with fire for me its a cool concept because it brings a sense of panic because knowing i cant kill this enemy without a certain element but to others it might come annoying which is understandable.

i wouldn't suggest buying the game, but if you want to ill say its worth it but i would highly recommend to rent it first! after your done there is no replay value...its just done. Good Job!

this game i was waiting for release it i just found it in the market yesterday and ofcaurse i buy it whatever! the game is nice specially the sound tracks and the secrets are easy but the end of the game is very bad its have no meaning i was about to cry when i see the game credit its not cool end. any way this game mixed its have some parts like prince of Persia and some other times like tomb rider beside its like silent hill. anyway i give this game rate 5 because the control is not very good beside its give the player high tension and drive inside the game is not cool at all. advice to you if you going to play this game don't be very xited just play it for fun i mean come on i finish it in just 6 hours. good luck players i hope somebody enjoy it:P