Alone in the Dark - Review
In 1992 we saw the debut of the title that would create a genre. The original Alone in the Dark hit people’s homes and the MS-DOS classic would change the landscape forever. 32 years later we return to Derceto Manor and get to experience a modern-day reimagining of the grandfather of survival horror.
Alone in the Dark 2024 isn’t just a remake of the original 1992 title. Whilst it aims to encapsulate the aspects of that title and present them in an accessible modern-day format. It is also a new vision for the title as well as a brand-new way of telling this iconic story. In fact, the best way to look at the modern version is that this is a love note to the original. Changes were made to keep the story their own, but to homage to the standard set by the original title.
There is a lot to love here with this title. David Harbour lends his likeness for Detective Edward Carnby, as well as his voice. David Harbour famously playing Sheriff Jim Hopper in Stranger Things. Alongside him is Jodie Comer as the voice and face behind Emily Hartwood. The woman who hires Edward Carnby to help her investigate Derceto Manor. Just between these two characters there is enough star power to make the average person take note and see what the development team wanted to achieve with this title.
Playing through the game with the developer commentary on my second playthrough, it was interesting hearing the developers talk about the game. About design decisions, admissions of doing something because they thought it was cool, and not for some elaborate theoretical reasons. This is a project of passion, and it’s clear through both the easter eggs, throwbacks, and the giddiness of the developers themselves that this title isn’t just a game to them.
Key differences exist between the 1992 version and this 2024 one. There is a cast of characters, people you’ll talk to and interact with at Derceto Manor. On top of that, there was a conscious decision to make this version far more akin to a modern survival horror title. That being, with the use of guns and the like as a means of survival and protection. It also means that instead of the rare, life-threatening encounters that the original title had, we get repetitive and somewhat lacklustre encounters with copy and paste enemy types. There are maybe four or five different enemy types throughout the entirety of the game, and only two “boss” type encounters that occur right at the very end of the game. Which in of themselves are kind of janky.
It may have actually benefitted the developers to go a non-combat route, or a route far more similar to that of the original. There is something of that ideology here with breakable melee weapons. But a sledgehammer feels a bit out of place at times. For the most part, combat is fine. Enemies don’t feel too much like bullet sponges, even on hard difficulty. The final boss encounters are serviceable if not a little bit too easy considering the gravity of them. There is an overall Lovecraftian theme to Alone in the Dark which could have been played up more but isn’t capitalised on enough. There is almost an over reliance on the player having extensive background knowledge, rather than giving that knowledge in world, outside of walls of text in lore documents.
You’ll be able to play through the story with both characters, and unlike in the original, there will be variations to the story progress and interactions that they have with other characters at the world. Making each playthrough, eerily familiar, but unique in their own way. Though both characters are interesting in their own right and get a unique chapter exclusive to themselves, gameplaywise there isn’t much difference between the two. The upside to this is that going to the other character after playing through the first one won’t feel any different. The downside being that it feels strange for Edward Carnby to play exactly the same as Emily Hartwood.
The story beats for the most part are interesting. A decision was made to include what is essentially teleporting travel, rather than keeping you confined to Derceto for the entirety of the game. An interesting twist, and it does allow for greater environmental storytelling. A hidden temple in a desert, a snowy alien mountaintop, the confines of the French Quarter of New Orleans. Whilst it might have been far more interesting to expand upon Derceto Manor, the decision to add a world outside of it is a good one, and one of the far more interesting changes that the team made with this remake.
The cast of characters that you interact with throughout the game are interesting enough. They are all somewhat off, and they come across as unthreatening but also subtly off-putting. Between Edward and Emily these characters will also interact differently with you, resulting in different views on the greater cast depending on which character you play as. Edward Carnby’s interactions seem more on the measure of the weird cosmic horror aspects, whereas Emily Hartwood’s seemed to make her out to be the crazy one. Maybe a subtle reference to the ideology of mental illness in the 1920’s. Regardless, there is enough nuance between the two, that it makes it hard to tell exactly what the nature of the cast of characters truly is. Maybe the real truth lying somewhere closer to the middle.
Interestingly the collectibles you’ll pick up throughout the game cannot be 100% completed by just a single playthrough. Each character has a set of collectibles unique to them, and to complete all 15 sets, you’ll need to experience both stories. The game itself isn’t overly long, so you’ll be able to play through both characters in around twelve to fifteen hours. Frustratingly there appeared to be a bug when starting a third playthrough, that completely wiped the collectible progress and had all the progress reset. Loading to an end game save on my first character showed 12/15 complete, but I was stuck at 0/15 complete every time I started a new game or loaded a save file for the second character. Hopefully this is a bug that will be fixed, as it seems ridiculously unfair to assume players will find all fifteen sets of three items in just the two playthroughs.
There is also something to be said about the set ‘rewards. Beyond one that very clearly unlocked a weapon, none of the other rewards really seemed to matter. ‘Secret Objectives’ and ‘Dark Knowledge’ are fun, but they didn’t seem to actually mean anything. One set was meant to give a new memory to explore, but that didn’t seem to trigger and no matter what I did, it just never happened. I’m unsure if these are bugged here too.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only bug I experience in my playthrough. I was clipped out of bounds and unable to clip back into bounds at times. After the final cutscene before the final boss fight, my character model just decided to float out of the Manor entirely and then be unable to come back to Earth. Parts of the map would show themselves as uncleared, despite the fact that room had 110 per cent been cleared of all items. As a title that was expected to release in October of 2023, that saw two delays due to rather poor reasoning, it’s unfortunate that the game is still in such a buggy state. Nothing is particularly game-breaking, and besides a crash that occurred after a boss fight, that made me have to redo the boss, most were somewhat non-consequential. It’s just unfortunate the frequency and the ease of which these bugs and glitches occurred, considering the passion of the team, and the two delays that didn’t at all imply a development issue.
Alone in the Dark is a lovely little gesture to the original title. Taking core elements and expanding upon them. Changing the story and adding things that were physically impossible in the original iteration. There is a passion from the development team, and a solid game exists as a result. There is an array of bugs that still need to be fixed, and it is very unfortunate how short the game is, even with two characters stories to play. Not enough was done to differentiate the two characters, even with the unique interactions and specific chapter, and a lot of players may not find themselves wanting to go back for another three or four hours. It is unfortunate, as this is clearly a passion project. There just is something lacking to really tie it all together. Almost too much respect given, and not enough done to make a great game.
The Score
7.0
Review code provided by THQ Nordic
The Pros
David Harbour is great as Edward Carnby
Developer Commentary is fascinating to listen to
The uneasiness of the other characters is the most terrifying part.
The Cons
Still littered with bugs
Collectibles Set rewards are seemingly inconsequential
Combat is bland and not at all threatening
