You Carnby Serious!

It's strange for the series that created the Survival Horror genre, but Alone in the Dark, much like its amnesiac main character, is searching for identity. Seven years after The New Nightmare, Eden Games have gone to great lengths to ensure this franchise rebirth stands out from anything else on the market.

Resident Evil 4 raised the bar for Survival Horror, but also threw out exploration and puzzles in favour of linear progress, over-the-shoulder shooting and adrenaline-pumping set pieces. Alone in the Dark copies the third-person camera at certain points, shifts to old-style fixed views at others, retains traditional Survival Horror hallmarks of puzzles and exploration, and does its shooting a little differently through a first-person viewpoint.

Conflicted

In the broader strokes of the Action Adventure genre meanwhile, you have Assassin's Creed, which received criticism for simplifying control, to the point where the game almost played itself. Alone in the Dark is the anti Assassin's Creed, bamboozling with a wealth of impressive gameplay interactions and real depth, but via an ungainly control scheme that takes some getting used to.

Resultantly, Alone in the Dark is constantly at conflict between ambition and execution. There are some thrillingly innovative ideas here, alluding to a developer with its own distinct direction for Survival Horror, but the reality will surprise and frustrate in equal measures.

At its height, Alone in the Dark is the most original, open-to-interpretation take on the genre. Physics, fire, intuitive inventory and common sense combine to make Alone in the Dark the thinking man's Survival Horror, a world away from the run-and gun of Resi 4; protagonist Edward Carnby the MacGyver to Leon S. Kennedy's more straightforward action hero.

You ooze, you lose

Early in Alone in the Dark you're faced with passing an oil-like ooze which sucks you into the floor. It's repelled by light, so you're advised to use your torch. Finding the battery depleted – potentially a gamebreaker in other titles – you'll soon adapt, setting aflame and carrying wooden palettes as a makeshift light source.

The same real-world smarts go for smashing doors with fire extinguishers, counter weighting a see-sawing bus with corpses at one end so you can reach the driver's door, and fashioning explosives with a handkerchief and gasoline bottle, or a flamethrower with a lighter and aerosol. The latter are improvised in Alone in the Dark's inventory, seeing Carnby look into his jacket for stored items; far more immersive than any pause menu.

But also more frustrating. Alone in the Dark's inventory and healing are accessed in real-time, which is more realistic, and presumably done to heighten tension, but it damages gameplay. Enemies can only be dispatched using fire, so you'll frantically fumble around in first-person creating a petrol bomb or fire bullets while taking damage – meaning more standing still while you spray or bandage yourself up. A shortcut system helps, but it still leads to lots of unwanted deaths. Not fun.

Alone in the Dark also insists on switching up viewpoints and interactions at every opportunity, to the detriment of control. Third-person movement lacks a fully controlled 3D cam and feels cumbersome; swinging weapons with the right analogue stick is rigid; cars handle like hovercraft; and why first-person shooting was favoured over Resi 4 style third-person aiming we'll never know.

Inspired but flawed

It's a shame, because Alone in the Dark is a game of such enormous aspirations. Visually it's up there with MGS4 as a next-gen spectacle; aurally it's evocative and impacting; the sheer scope of the Central Park gameworld is breathtaking; and the episodic structure, DVD-style Chapter Select and TV-style catchups will have you wanting to see the demonic story through to its gripping conclusion.

A game we dearly want to love, Alone in the Dark sadly falls short of greatness. Innovative yet irritating, inspired but flawed, its contradicted nature promises a brave new direction for Survival Horror that may never come to pass. Not everyone will take to it then, but Alone in the Dark is a release that cerebral gamers and Survival Horror developers alike should certainly take note of.

GAME's Verdict

• Enormously ambitious physics and fire propogation, intelligent puzzles and a whopping combination of gamestyles.
• Innovative DVD-style chapter structure, impressive TV-esque presentation and wonderful next-gen visuals and audio.
• The sheer scope and detail of the Central Park gameworld is breathtaking.

• The combination of gamestyles and constantly changing viewpoints damages the game's controls, which often feel cumbersome.
• Real time inventory management and healing leads to a LOT of frustrating deaths.
• Why oh why is there no third-person aiming?

Review by: Mark 'Survivor' Scott
Version Tested: Xbox 360
Review Published: 02.07.08