Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

The Good
The first half of the game --from the great intro sequence to the first 'boss-fight', right before they prompt you to switch CDs- is a quite scary and inmersive experience.

There are lots of "bink" cut scenes all over that add a great deal of interest to the whole package.

The scenario graphics! The game has an ambient like few others. Specially the forest under the rain and the manor levels. If you have a powerful video card, using the 'high-detail' shadows will add a lot of effect. The lights will go off every now and then, and some creatures just flash before you to disappear in the blink of an eye, which will make you jump on your seat a few times and draw your weapons and flashlight, aiming to nowhere all confused. The sound effects add a lot to the ambient, and although the music is kind of weird and does not sound quite 'musical'; it doesn't bother nor add much. Just tags along fine.

One would think that in the times we live in, a game with 'fixed-backgrounds' is kind of retrograde. Well, AITD4 not only shows that is not the case, but even makes use of some really attractive camera angles that would not be possible with the 'moving' kind of background.

The first half of the game really fills in with the 'horror' thing.

The Bad
The second half of the game seems to be the 'survival' part of the package, and resumes itself to a mainly 'run-n-shoot' type of game. Sadly, the control interface doesn't match with the idea; you find yourself dealing with a clumsy character that will have lots of trouble answering to your commands.

Suddenly, all the "bink" animated cut-scenes start being replaced by still images; and while at the beginning there was an animation every 5 minutes, somewhere in the game you start getting this still pictures where you have to imagine what happened.

The game prompts you with a 'yes/no' every time you need to do such silly things as climbing a ladder, which is quite annoying. If I press 'action' on a switch it clearly means I want to activate it, you don't need to double-check asking if I'm sure; it's not like I'm asking you to format the hard drive or something.

Everyone complained about this one, but here it goes again: the 'hot spots'! You will find yourself several times running in circles over an object or a door, while asking yourself 'am I doing something wrong or maybe this this a bug and it will never work?'

The monsters --not being the zombies, which are pretty good- are awful. There are just a few 'breeds', and they're very poorly designed.

The storyline isn't as nearly as attractive as it was in the first AITD. No other AITD had the strong plot the first one had, but in this one you can smell all the intention on recreating the kind of plot that the first had; sadly not being able to accomplish the task. It's a pity, since the ambient is all there for a well-driven strong story; and I think a good plot would have helped the 'second part' issue.

The 'downs' on AITD4 (specially the technical issues) are specially bad since this is the 4th chapter of a saga. One would expect a more robust and polished product by now. Instead, this looks like a first try.

The Bottom Line
A typical Horror/Survival game. Alas, the separation between 'horror' and 'survival' is too clear, which is not good for the final product.

The first half of the game is the 'horror', while the second would be the 'survival'. Sadly, the second half of the game is quite boring and frustrating, bringing down all the great atmosphere created on the first half.

Nevertheless, I think the game deserves a try, if only for the first half. Despite the poorly designed monsters and the clumsy interface, the atmosphere is really scary. Those of us who enjoyed the first AITD, this is how we would have liked that awesome game to look like.

The Good
This game is frightening, and for that I love it. I do not scare easily and this game makes me jump out of my skin. The game has a very eerie atmosphere which gives you the sensation that something is lurking in the shadows and is going to grab you.

That's because it is... and it's when you least expect it.

The game is well designed from ground up, and it's quite obvious from the start that you are playing a quality game in which the developers didn't rush through the production. Every detail is very well thought out and executed. The use of atmospheric horror music (more of a horror sound-scape than music) and the storyline contributes to the effective creepiness of this game, as do the graphics and graphical effects which are extremely intricate.

The story, too, is very well written. It's a progressively challenging game, employing the usage of puzzles, but is not ridiculously bogged down with them; and they're not extremely complicated. The puzzles are less complicated than trying not to waste your ammunition or first-aid kits by the end of the first disk!

The controls and cameras are perfect, and if you're using a dual-shock joy-pad (recommended) you can swing around a flashlight in 360 degree angles. There's plenty of horrific landscapes, monsters and other audio visual treats. The game is complete horror mind candy.

It completely surpasses the older Alone in the Dark versions for Macintosh and PC. As a matter of fact, it doesn't even resemble them. The New Nightmare is completely authentic, and extremely realistic (as compared to the older versions which had cartoon type monsters).

This is an amazing work for the Playstation platform (and other platforms) which should not be overlooked.

The Bad
I don't like how little ammunition and first-aid kits there are, but at the same time I love that there's just enough. It adds to the realism of the game.

The only thing I don't like about the game is that there isn't more of it to play.

The Bottom Line
An intoxicating, twisted horror game which encapsulates you into it's atmosphere, forcing you to become part of the game. You'll feel as if you're living inside a horror movie, complete with the horrific sound-scape, landscapes and psychology to complete your nightmarish world.

The Good
I have had the opportunity to play this game on Dreamcast as well as PlayStation 1 and even the Game Boy Color version. Alone in the Dark is one of the original Survival Horror franchises, released many years ago, and before even Resident Evil was a gleam in it's creators eye. The plot and storyline from this game was recently sacrileged in a disastrous Hollywood game-to-film by the notoriously inept director Uwe Boll.

The game itself is a very atmospheric yarn following one of two selectable characters, each with unique aspects, and a slightly different path depending on which one you chose. There are many different locations and subplots, including mansions, sewers, observatories, and a wide away of weapons including a lightning gun! You can spend hours puzzling away and musing over the expansive areas, which if you're familiar with Resident Evil, you will have no trouble finding yourself at home here with. In brief, all a Survival Horror game should be, but make sure you choose the Dreamcast version, which has better graphics and gameplay.

The Bad
The slowdowns between angle-changes is appalling (some are several seconds long), and the quality of graphics is diabolical, even by PS1 standards. The controls are also very unresponsive, sometimes the character moves randomly around the screen! This PS2 version appears to be a lame direct port of the PS1 rendition. All in all, the Dreamcast version has better graphics, better speed and better playability than both PS versions.

The Bottom Line
Alone In The Dark 4 is a great atmospheric Survival Horror game, but just don't play it on PS2 - get the Dreamcast version instead! If you like Resident Evil, you'll love this.