81
MobyRank
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
4.0
MobyScore
5 point score based on user ratings.

Description

Jeremy Hartwood has committed suicide in his Louisiana mansion, Derceto. You take the role of either Edward Carnby, a private investigator, or Emily Hartwood, Jeremy's niece, and investigate the suspicious death. The three-floor mansion is reputed to be haunted by its eccentric past owner. Very quickly, you realise that it is. Warped rats, zombies and giant worms are among the foes who are after you, and you must somehow escape.

Alone in the Dark is an action-adventure survival horror game. The action is displayed from a number of fixed viewpoints. The backgrounds are 2D painted images, while the player character, all items and monsters are rendered as 3D models.

To escape the mansion, you'll have to solve a number of puzzles. They usually involve finding an item and using it in a proper place. Apart from items necessary for the puzzles, you can also find books and documents that can be read, healing items which can be consumed to restore hit points, and weapons.

Weapons come in handy, since Derceto is full of various monsters. Some monsters can be killed with weapons, but others are either impossible to kill or require a bit of thinking to take down. Note also that you have limited amounts of ammunition, so you have to use firearms carefully.

Alternate Titles

  • "鬼屋魔影" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
  • "Screams in the Dark" -- Working title
  • "In the Dark" -- Working title
  • "AITD" -- Common abbreviation

Part of the Following Groups


Merchant Title Platform Price  
Amazon
Alone In The Dark (PC - 3.5" Disk) DOS $9.89  
ebay.com
Alone in the Dark    
Not an American user?

User Reviews

Truly a remarkable game Zovni (9205) 3.8 Stars3.8 Stars3.8 Stars3.8 Stars3.8 Stars
An excellent classic game. Period. Yeba (60) 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars
The grand-daddy of survival horror Alan Chan (3712) unrated
What can I say? A game genre in itself! James1 (250) unrated
A landmark arcade adventure which started the survival horror genre. Sycada (177) unrated
Horror, Cthulhiana and great fun Christian Svindseth (2) unrated
Quite good, but far too short Mr Creosote (139) 3.2 Stars3.2 Stars3.2 Stars3.2 Stars3.2 Stars
The House the Lovecraft Built Terrence Bosky Bronze Star Contributing Member (5240) 4.2 Stars4.2 Stars4.2 Stars4.2 Stars4.2 Stars
An okay-game of horror and survival Zsolt Pardi (7) unrated
Great game that spawned a genre cimerians Bronze Star Contributing Member (48) unrated

The Press Says

Abandonia Mar 11, 2004 5 out of 5 100
Absolute Games (AG.ru) Jun 28, 2001 95 out of 100 95
Just Adventure 2002 A- 91
Power Play Jan, 1993 80 out of 100 80
Adventure Classic Gaming Nov 02, 1997 4 out of 5 80
PC Player (Germany) Jan, 1993 77 out of 100 77
Just Adventure 1999 B 75
JeuxVideoPC.com Apr 19, 2005 14 out of 20 70
The Good Old Days Dec 13, 2000 4 out of 6 67
Imperium Gier Dec 04, 1999 6.4 out of 10 64

Forums

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Trivia

Beside the obvious sequels Alone in the Dark 2 and 3, this game also "inspired" two other Infogrames Cthulu games, Shadow of the Comet and Prisoner of Ice. Two books in the game refer to Lord Boleskine and his ill-fated expedition to Illsmouth, which was later used as the basis for Shadow of the Comet's plot. Another book refers to the Prisoners of Ice who are featured in the Infogrames game of the same name.


This entry was contributed by Brian Hirt (9984), Scaryfun (5842) and Dewa Indra? Bronze Star Contributing Member (13206)
 

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