Now the series is back and developer Pieces Interactive and publisher THQ Nordic have brought us a re-imagining of the very first Alone in the Dark game for modern consoles! Rather than a new game in the series, we’re getting the original Alone in the Dark experience, fully rewritten and redesigned for modern audiences. Of course, it’s not entirely identical to the original, but there are plenty of very clear parallels, starting with the characters of Detective Edward Carnby and Miss Emily Hartwood, the two main characters. This is a southern Lovecraftian experience and while there’s no Cthulhu in this one, fans of Lovecraft’s work will see both the clear influences and direct use of characters and concepts. It’s quite well-executed though and an excellent tale overall.
Detective Carnby and Miss Hartwood are travelling to Derceto, an aging antebellum mansion in the Louisiana bayou to find Emily’s uncle Jeremy after she received a troubling letter from him. Veteran players will know that this already diverges from the original game but the core experience is similar. Once arrived, things start to take a turn for the weird and turn into the horror/mystery game you’re likely expecting. You can choose to play Hartwood or Carnby but aside from individual dialogue and various scenes, there’s not a massive difference in gameplay. The core gameplay and experience is unaffected and irritatingly, Hartwood can carry less ammunition than Carnby. For this playthrough, we stuck with Carnby but both choices are equally good and it’s great to have the option.
There are some interesting surprises in store for players in Alone in the Dark. First is the voice acting. David Harbour of Stranger Things fame voices Edward Carnby and does an absolutely fantastic job the whole way through, adding significant depth to the character. Accompanying Harbour is Jodie Comer from Killing Eve, an excellent actress who makes Emily Hartwood come alive. This duo elevates the gameplay experience in Alone in the Dark, significantly impacting the production value and highlighting the quality of the script.
Speaking of story, there’s a lot more going on than in the original game and Alone in the Dark is a fair bit, well, darker than the original game. Yes, there are monsters. Yes, you’ll be fighting them. But you’re also fighting the demons of the main and supporting characters, both mentally and physically and the existential torture that characters go through in the game as reality is slowly blurred is surprisingly impactful. The narrative here is solid and while the plot is somewhat flawed, the script itself is a gem in the rough, providing movie-quality lines and delivery throughout the game.
Gameplay itself is a bit different. There are two modes, modern and old-school and as you might imagine, the old school one just throws you in with no hints or assistance (hard pass here). Considering how obscure some of the puzzles and hints are, you’ll end up spending a lot more time in that mode. The modern version of the game highlights rooms where there are items or puzzles to be found on the map and gives you hints that tell you what you need to do next. It’s not subtle about it but there’s still some challenge here. It creates a more accelerated version of the game that focuses more heavily on plot than exploration and that’s probably a good thing for most players.
There are two gameplay modes to Alone in the Dark. The first is exploration. Look around, talk to people, find clues, and try to figure out what’s going on. Throughout the game you’ll also find laginappes, a Creole word which means a little something thrown in extra for free with your purchase. They don’t have any bearing on gameplay but each trio of items you find completes a set and each can be clicked on to provide a short description that adds more background to the game, entirely in voiced narrative.
While exploring, you’ll be wandering about looking for anything you can interact with. Interaction points are clear, with circles popping up on screen when you get close and button presses showing when you’re next to an interaction point. That might be some extra ammo, a weapon, or a clue that will help you progress in your investigation. Those clues get filed away in your notebook. Find something that advances the story and you’ll see a notebook icon. Going into the pause menu will show notes on the progress of the story, fully voice narrated and detailing what Carnby or Hartwood are thinking at the time. Eventually, you’ll muddle your way through to areas that aren’t full of clues anymore however.
Once you get far enough, the game’s world shifts to one far more sinister. Whatever is happening in Derceto is slowly warping the minds of those in it and with them, perhaps even the fabric of reality because as you progress, you’ll find yourself shifting between the regular moldering mansion of Derceto and various areas that you’re instantly transported to, full of shambling monsters, rot, and mist. Naturally you’ll have to fight them and this is where things are a little less rosy for Alone in the Dark. Combat is slow and somewhat awkward in the game and it takes more than a bit of getting used to. Unlike other games, you’ve got a hard cap on your rather restrictive weapon repertoire and you can only carry so much ammunition since you’re not a solder swathed in bandoliers. That means a revolver with a couple of reloads or a shotgun with a handful of shells. There are other weapons too but for most of the game, that will be the entirety of your options.
In combat, you’ll have to either take down the monsters with guns, pummel them to death with a handy blunt object, or run like hell to get away from them before they grab you and rend you limb from limb. Your revolver only has six shots before you need to reload, but six shots are just enough to take down an enemy…if you don’t miss. The shotgun is double barrelled but takes a long time to reload and once the monsters see you, they start rushing toward you in fits and starts. Miss a shot and you’re taking a hit. Both Carnby and Hartwood move slowly and awkwardly, barely creeping while walking and drawing massive attention while running. You can sneak up on some enemies and get the first shot in but there are no stealth kills and ammo is extremely limited for most of the game, leading to a lot of running away and some hard choices on which ones to kill.
In addition to the awkward movement, there are some other problems with combat. Enemies have clearly set patterns that are easy to time and walk past, making some areas far less menacing. There are set enemies in set spots, most of which are highly predictable. That means very few surprises in this horror game. Additionally, enemies at distant range don’t always jump into an interaction cycle when shot, which means that if you shoot them from far enough away and there are no other enemies close by, you can just pick off the monsters from a distance with your shockingly accurate revolver, bypassing the need for direct combat and risk to life and limb. Finally, enemies occasionally get stuck in environments, clear clipping errors that literally let you walk up to them and execute them gangland style with no risk to yourself. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen, especially with the bat creatures later in the game.
All of these issues lead to a jumbled mess of combat. You’ll still take some damage and have to burn healing items (Carnby is an alcoholic and liquor heals him, unlike Hartwood’s small healing draughts) but there’s not a lot of risk or surprise in the choreographed combat of Alone in the Dark. Running away is not only often an effective solution to preserve ammo and health but it’s also fairly easy to do. Many of the game’s enemies can simply be bypassed and are unable to follow, leaving you dashing through them and closing a convenient door or jumping off a small ledge to safety with no pursuit. Ironically, the end of the game has a particularly nasty boss or two where combat skills pay off and the awkward nature of the combat design are clearly highlighted. Run away enough and it’ll be tough to get the hang of those last fights and switching weapons and reloading are both far too slow for it to be easy.
The focus here is really on the story and the gameplay is really only a support mechanism. Everything in Alone in the Dark supports that approach and if you go in knowing that, it makes the game a bit better. This is not a game focused on fighting monsters even though you fight them. It’s a game that focuses on inner turmoil, occult supernatural happenings, and a cast of characters that are unaware what exactly is going on and happening to them. Everyone has inner demons they’re fighting made manifest by the influences of the things hovering just outside perception and the Lovecraftian design elements of that experience are excellent.
Visually, this is a gorgeous game overall. The design of Derceto, the streets of New Orleans, the bayou and a number of other locations (no spoilers!) that you’ll visit are exquisite and the character and creature designs are quite good as well. The static backgrounds are gorgeous too but leave something to be designed, hearkening back to the PS1 era. Not visually mind you, but walking into a room with almost nothing moving and the background looking great is kind of weird in 2024. The level of detail is so high you’ll have to pay close attention to notice it but there isn’t a lot going on in the background in Alone in the Dark. The overall experience is great though, even if it doesn’t feel like a true next-gen game some of the time. The camera elements are particularly interesting with damp, rot, and even ice forming on the edges of the camera as you play.
The sound quality here easily surpasses the visuals of the game, amplifying Alone in the Dark. The sound team on this game was absolutely spectacular, creating whole vistas of experiences behind the scenes. Various areas in the game have clearly unique sounds and echos, monster effects are beyond creepy with the sound up, and the music rises and falls with the action and plot, mixing modern tracks with vintage-style tunes from the 1920s. Sound effects are key in horror games and Alone in the Dark nails it all. There’s an absolute ton of voice work too with a whole cast of voice actors that clearly throw their all into the experience. Menu explanations are narrated and the voice casting showcases actors that sound remarkably Cajun and authentic. It’s a truly impressive audio experience throughout the game.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of flaws in Alone in the Dark as well. As mentioned before, monsters have clipping issues where they get stuck in walls. So do the main characters. Once, early in the game, Carnby literally got his foot stuck in a flower planter on the ground, forcing a reload of the last save. This sort of thing happens often in Alone in the Dark with background objects trapping characters, characters and enemies moving partway through walls, or even enemies you can shoot as parts of their bodies stick through a wall they shouldn’t. It’s a mess that should have been corrected in beta and something we rarely see on a game with this high of a budget overall. That’s a shame because the core experience is great but it’s brought down significantly when Emily’s head literally disappears through a locked door or Carnby steps wrong and gets stuck in a pile of junk while monsters saunter up and eviscerate him.
That’s not the only problem either. Design-wise, Alone in the Dark fails in key ways as a horror game. The game tries to create open pathways and a feeling of exploration but it’s remarkably linear overall. Walk the wrong way and mist blocks your path with the character literally saying out loud to themselves “I can’t go this way”. These clear guiding pushes limit your options significantly and with scripted enemies, mostly only waste time too. Sure you can find a bit of ammo or a bottle of liquor to heal with once in a while, but a good half of all the searchable containers you find are irritatingly empty, making you wonder why you bothered in the first place. Making some levels a bit of a maze doesn’t work either because you still feel guided to take specific paths in the game, limiting the sense of immersion. The level design outside of Derceto just isn’t that great. At least the dev team used blood instead of yellow paint to mark interaction points.
Finally, there are a number of areas in the game where there are sudden and clear framerate drops, especially on quality mode. You can choose performance mode if you want but it’s always nice to see what a game is capable of and in Alone in the Dark, the further you play and the more complex the background effects get, the more frequently you’ll see sudden framerate dropouts, blurring, stuttering, pop up, and even spots where the character abruptly jumps from spot to spot, tossing you into the middle of a pack of monsters and killing you rapidly. Occasionally, you’ll even have to reload because either the sound drops out entirely, there’s a glitch in the sound effect loop (constant heavy breathing looping is icky), or you’ll just get stuck somewhere you shouldn’t have due to clipping. The performance issues are definitely irritating on a game that moves at the slow pace that Alone in the Dark does. Fortunately, they’re intermittent, not constant but they still suck and they definitely destroy narrative immersion.
There are also some really neat extras that you might miss entirely. There are several modes in Alone in the Dark which allow you to add novelty effects to the game. You can select the original polygon models of both main characters to replace the modern ones. You can even replace the entire game’s visuals with a pixellated horror version of the game! You can also choose different styles including film bordering and sepia tones to manufacture whatever type of environment you’d prefer. There’s a full suite of control options with fully mappable controls too, making for an excellent experience from an accessibility standpoint.
Alone in the Dark is a mixed bag of a game. On one hand, it creates a modern rendition of a classic horror game with a fantastically updated script and amazing voice work and sound that fully immerses the player in its world. On the other, combat is rough and poorly executed and there are a multitude of glitches and problems with the overall gameplay that simply shouldn’t happen, pulling gamers out of the experience they should be engaged in. You’ve got the makings of a great game held back by technical and design issues. Even then, it’s still a fantastic experience, even if the ending isn’t quite as satisfying as it could be. There’s definitely a ton of potential in Alone in the Dark, but it’s a game that holds itself back unintentionally, and that’s a shame because there’s a really great story here, brimming with unspeakable cosmic horror and human interest. Hopefully some patches come that will improve the overall experience because if it can be fixed, Alone in the Dark will be a game that is definitely worth your time. As it stands however, this is an game that you might want to either wait on or temper your expectations for, even though it’s an enjoyable experience overall.
This review is based on a digital copy of Alone in the Dark provided by the publisher. It was played on an Xbox Series X using a Sony 1080p TV. Alone in the Dark is also available for PS5 and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.