Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
- Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001 on Game Boy Color)
Description official descriptions
Edward Carnby, private eye of the paranormal, is back.
Carnby's best friend, Charles Fiske, has been found dead near Shadow Island, a mysterious island near Maine. It is your duty to take up the investigation and find out the secrets of Shadow Island. But you're not going alone... your companion will be a redhead by the name of Aline Cedrac who has her own reasons for tagging along. Aside from being a woman and inexperienced in the world of danger, she is the only one with the knowledge for translating the ancient Abkhani tabloids which may hold the secrets behind Carnby's friend's death and the disappearance of Aline's father.
Upon arriving on the island, your plane has been shot down by the things unknown, and the heroes have no other choice but to jump with a parachute, thus separating them on the island.
Now you choose the character to play with, either as Edward Carnby or Aline Cedrac, as they explore the mysterious and gloomy island with all its secrets and parallel stories that contain different locations and tasks for different characters, thus adding the level of replayability in a different experience - Carnby's story is more action oriented while Cedrac has more puzzles to solve.
Just like in the predecessors you move your characters through pre-rendered backgrounds while the camera perspective switches around. You collect various items and books which are used to solve puzzles. Many situations can only be solved with violence which means you'll have to use guns to get rid of your foes. Aiming is manual and especially when playing Cedrac ammo is scarce. Saving a game uses up a save medallion which can be found during the game.
Spellings
- Alone in the Dark 4: По ту сторону кошмара - Russian spelling
- アローン・イン・ザ・ダーク新たなる悪夢 - Japanese spelling
- 鬼屋魔影4 - Chinese spelling (simplified)
- 鬼屋魔影4:惡夢之夜 - Taiwan spelling
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Credits (Windows version)
210 People (186 developers, 24 thanks) · View all
An Infogrames Production presented by | |
Thanks To | |
"Alone In The Dark" (written and produced by) | |
"Alone In The Dark" (Music produced and composed by) | |
"Alone In The Dark" (Drums, bass and keyboards performed by) | |
"Alone In The Dark" (Recorded and Mixed by) | |
"Alone In The Dark" (Guitars performed by) | |
"Alone In The Dark" (Vocal performed by) | |
"Alone In The Dark" (Assistant to Mr. Copeland) | |
Special Thanks | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 77% (based on 70 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 119 ratings with 12 reviews)
The Good
In a way, The New Nightmare closes a full circle. The original 1992 Alone in the Dark game developed by Infogrames for DOS was a major source of inspiration for Resident Evil, the 1996 PlayStation game that defined and popularized survival horror. By that time Infogrames had already squandered their potential with two rather bad AotD sequels and didn't seem particularly interested in revisiting the franchise. When they eventually did, they outsourced the console-oriented reboot (developed for the Dreamcast and PlayStation) to Darkworks, a relatively new studio which decided to base it on... Resident Evil games.
The similarities are obvious - while the very idea of a predetermined, cinematic camera system was an innovation of the original AotD, The New Nightmare definitely looks and feels more like the first four Resident Evil games (the last of which, called Code: Veronica, was released just 1 year earlier, also for the SEGA Dreamcast). To make the Capcom inspirations even clearer, TNN opens with an RE- or DMC-style intro movie and the game's title being read by an evil-voiced narrator. It's worth noting that Darkworks would later go on to rip-off Resident Evil to much better results with Cold Fear, released in 2005 as Ubisoft's answer to RE 4.
Overall, the Resident Evil influences combined with more experience of the action-adventure genre as a whole definitely do AotD 4 some good. The game looks really good, controls a bit better than the original PC trilogy, it doesn't allow you to softlock yourself or require you to leave items on the floor for the lack of inventory space (then again, it doesn't limit your inventory at all, which goes against the spirit of survival horror).
The Bad
Unfortunately, The New Nightmare is much sloppier and less polished than classic Resident Evil. Interactable objects usually require you to stand at a very specific angle to activate them, the hitboxes of both background objects and enemies are very awkward, as is the aiming system. The puzzles, while not quite as unintuitive as in the original trilogy, can still be pretty cryptic and leave a lot to be desired. In many areas enemies are either located just in front of the entrance or spawn right next to the player character, which is simply unfair.
Alone in the Dark 4 brings back the idea of two protagonists from the original game, except this time - like in Resident Evil 2 - both characters' routes are actually different, although they do share a majority of locations. It's an okay way to pad the game's length without becoming too repetitive, but unfortunately the two paths are pretty uneven. You can tell that a lot of the visual and atmospheric creativity was kept for Edward's playthrough, while Aline's is not only less impressive, but also more unpolished, with more technical hiccups, an annoying timed section, and an absolutely terrible final boss fight.
Plot-wise, Darkworks bring back two classic Alone in the Dark themes - Lovecraftian horror of the first game and Native American magic from the third one - and pits them against each other. On the one hand, the themes of fascination with otherworldly shadow creatures and trying to use them to improve humanity work really well, but on the other hand, the worldbuilding in the game is rather shoddy. Native American deities having names clearly taken from Greek, Latin, and Mesopotamian cultures is an especially blatant blunder.
The Bottom Line
The New Nightmare, borrowing a lot from the Resident Evil series, ends up being an improvement over Alone in the Dark 2 and 3, but it's a still an uneven and unpolished experience that leaves a lot to be desired. 5/10
[played in an emulator]
Dreamcast · by Pegarange (296) · 2023
The Good
The Alone in the Dark series has offered a very early and interesting shot at action adventures. It always focused on the creation of a dense atmosphere and so does its newest addition. The graphics are dark and you will often have to find your way using your character's flashlight.
The game offers two different characters, which leads to different gameplays depending on your choice.
The Bad
The graphics are surprisingly low-res and remind me of Playstation games. Additionally the designers failed to correct one of the most nerve wracking gameplay errors ever. In all Alone in the Dark games it has been a great hassle to find the "hot spot" for a pick up item. That's the area where the game actually recognizes what you would like to do. So you will find yourself often walking from left to right in front of a door, feverishly trying to open it.
The Bottom Line
The game is a horror adventure with good atmosphere, a relatively high replay value (because of the two different characters) and nerve wracking keyboard control.
Windows · by Isdaron (715) · 2002
The original survival horror giant is back but with more Chris Redfield than Edward Carnby.
The Good
Those who have parosed the MobyGames sections for the original AitD games at any length will know that I am an old school Alone fan since the first game came out. I have been dying to get my hands on this title and now that I have I can safely say that I'm glad I did.
The atmosphere is very dark in this one. The use of the flashlight is very nicely done with the light passing realistically over walls and objects. There are some good puzzles which are reasonably thought provoking and much better than the bog standard fare in Resident Evil. The books are very well written and are interesting to look through. They help shed light on the well crafted story that sits behind the game.
You can play as 2 different characters in a similar fashion to Resident Evil 2, however in AitD4 the paths for each character are very different in both story and gameplay. So much so that aside from the overall story and setting it's much like having 2 unique adventures. It's not until you start to get fair way into the game with the 2nd character that you start to realize just how well the game fits together. The questions that you had at the end of the first time through are answered with the 2nd character and it's also nice to see that unlike the 2nd scenario in RE2 which saw you performing many of the same tasks that you had to in the first scenario, AitD does not make you do the same puzzles again, instead you have entirely different ones which not only makes sense logically but also means the replay value is such that you haven't really finished the game until you've played through with both characters.
The Bad
My interest in this game is not without reservation however. It's a shame that Darkworks decided to push more towards Resident Evil than Alone in the Dark and as a result, a lot of alone fans may feel they've been slightly short changed. Some of the puzzles are more akin to a harder version of the RE variety rather than Alone 1, 2 and 3, seemingly dumbed down for a more mainstream audience.
It's also a real shame that the game has an unfinished feel towards the end where much of the polish covering the earlier half of the game is absent as the game is reduced to more of a run and gun situation. This also extends to a few continuity issues where we are expected to fill in the gaps with a few things that we shouldn't have to.
The Bottom Line
One of the better Survival horror titles to date, marred slightly by the half-hearted final section of the game. The 2 different characters are completely different to play thorough the game as so there's hours of entertainment to be had. It's a lot of fun but the few of you out there who are fans of the original Alone games who don't like Resident Evil may want to give it a try before they buy. However, I for one will be standing in line for my copy when the next title in the Alone in the Dark saga is released.
Windows · by Sycada (177) · 2001
Trivia
4X movie compression
The 4X movie compression technology is only used in the Dreamcast version of the game.
Comic Book
This game had a cross-promotional "prequel" comic book, featuring Carnby and Aline Cedrac investigating in Tibet, published by Image Comics in September of 2002. The story was written by Jean-Marc Lofficier, while the illustrations were by Matt Haley and Aleksi Briclot.
Edward Carnby
Edward Carnby is the name of the protagonist in all of the Alone in the Dark games, yet AitD4 is set in the year 2001 whereas the original 3 titles were set in the 1920's. Carnby is also visibly younger in the forth title. The explanation on the game's official website (see links) is that every 40 years a man is awarded with the name Edward Carnby and that man will be destined to fight the forces of evil and darkness.
Engine
Developed with Terminal Reality's Nocturne Engine.
References
The name of one of the characters in Alone in the Dark: TNN is De Certo. This is a reference to the name of the ominous mansion in the original Alone in the Dark title, which was also called Decerto.
Information also contributed by n-n, Pseudo_Intellectual Sciere and Scott Monster
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Related Sites +
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Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
Official Site -
Hints & Tips for Alone in the Dark 4
Instead of walkthroughs, which can spoil a game for you, use these question and answer type hints to nudge you along. -
Walkthrough by Tami Meyers
Complete solution for Alone in the Dark 4 -
Wikipedia: Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
Information about Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare at Wikipedia
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Matthew Bailey.
PlayStation 3, PSP added by Sciere. PlayStation 2 added by Xoleras.
Additional contributors: Macintrash, Unicorn Lynx, Sycada, JPaterson, Jeanne, JRK, Klaster_1, DreinIX, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Zhuzha.
Game added May 29, 2001. Last modified January 27, 2024.