Alone in the Dark Review

Highlights

Campy story with amusing ending but lacking in scares and replay value.
Exploring Derceto is enjoyable, but generic enemies and weak combat.
Bland performances, annoying bugs, easy puzzles, and short length detract.

The original Alone in the Dark is quite simply one of the most important video games ever made. It laid the groundwork for 3D survival-horror that games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill built upon, and without it, it's hard to say what shape horror games would have taken. Unfortunately, subsequent Alone in the Dark games have mostly failed to live up to the original, with one disappointing project after another in the 32 years since the first game's launch. The 2024 Alone in the Dark game doesn't break that trend.

Instead of a remake, the new Alone in the Dark is a "reimagining" of the original. It once again features Derceto mansion as its setting, and it once again puts Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood in the starring roles. The plot itself echoes the original in ways that we can't discuss without venturing into spoiler territory, but it mostly tells an original tale. Suffice it to say, Carnby and Hartwood find themselves dealing with supernatural horrors upon their arrival at Derceto, most of which take the form of generic skeletal blob things.

Giving the player the choice between two protagonists is a survival-horror trope that dates back to the original Alone in the Dark. The idea is that it injects the game with some replay value, as there are scenes and gameplay sequences unique to each character. This is true for the new Alone in the Dark, but it's not worth playing through the game twice. There are dialogue differences and a couple of unique gameplay sequences depending on if one picks Carnby or Hartwood, but the game mostly plays out the same, with players solving the same puzzles, experiencing the same plot beats, and fighting the same enemies. The choice between Carnby or Hartwood isn't a meaningful one beyond deciding who is featured in the cutscenes.

Carnby and Hartwood are represented by so-so character models, with Stranger Things' David Harbour taking on the role of Carnby and Killing Eve's Jodie Comer playing Hartwood. Their performances are nothing special and a far cry from what they pull off in film and television projects, with a lot of line delivery coming across like their hearts weren't really in it. To be fair, the writing is subpar, with a silly plot that doesn't give Harbour or Comer much to work with.

Alone in the Dark is a hilarious game, though it's unclear if this was the vibe the developers were going for. Jazz noir music plays in the background during scenes, and the game is littered with B-movie schlock that is amusing far more than it is ever scary. In fact, Alone in the Dark doesn't even seem like it's actively trying to scare the player. There are a couple of effective jump scares, but for the most part, the story is a collection of bizarre character interactions that culminate in a laugh-out-loud ending that at least ends things on a high note.

One character that is somewhat scary in the new Alone in the Dark is The Dark Man, a mysterious entity that chases Carnby and Hartwood at specific moments and can spell instant death. The first encounter with The Dark Man is unnerving, with blaring music and his tendency to turn his head and look directly at the camera and at the player. This trick only works once, though, and The Dark Man is easily avoided in subsequent playthroughs.

On the first playthrough, Alone in the Dark players may try to be stealthy, especially as the game encourages it in certain sections by offering throwable bottles that can be smashed to distract enemies. However, this has no real advantage, and the best course of action is to barrel through everything. The claustrophobic level design means that most enemies have to be killed anyway, unlike other survival-horror games that reward players for dodging threats. Still, there's enough ammo that players should have no problem killing everything they come across.

Alone in the Dark's combat is nothing to write home about. The game takes its cues from the Resident Evil remakes with a third-person over-the-shoulder camera and a dodge button, but the enemies are boring and pose virtually no threat. There are only a couple of boss fights, and they are both extremely underwhelming and dated.

Like other survival-horror games, combat isn't the main focus of Alone in the Dark's gameplay. The game is mostly about solving puzzles and exploring Derceto mansion, and that's where it actually shines. While most of Alone in the Dark's puzzles are super easy (oftentimes a missing key item is sitting in the same room), they're still satisfying to solve, and it's a thrill to figure out how to reach a previously inaccessible area of the mansion. This is lost in the second playthrough, as players will know the solutions to every puzzle.

Instead of keeping things in Derceto, Alone in the Dark occasionally transports players to alternate worlds filled with monsters. These sections offer a change of scenery, but they are designed to tunnel the player forward and don't have the same rewarding exploration and puzzle-solving found in Derceto. It's also disappointing that most of these are the exact same regardless of the chosen character.

And that is perhaps Alone in the Dark's biggest problem: it's short, and there are so few compelling reasons to replay it beyond hunting down the collectibles and looking for the secret ending, which we admittedly didn't come across in our two playthroughs. Our initial run through Alone in the Dark took a little over five hours to reach the end credits, and that was without rushing. The second playthrough was a little over three hours, so it took about 8.5 hours to beat the game twice. Horror games often benefit from short runtimes, but they typically make up for it by being loaded with replay value, something that Alone in the Dark lacks.

While Alone in the Dark runs smooth for the most part, some annoying bugs will frustrate players, including a recurring one where the character suddenly can't use their weapons or interact with anything. A couple of other times, Carnby and Hartwood got stuck in walking animations as well. All of these instances require players to reload their latest save, but the good news is the game auto-saves frequently.

Playing on Standard difficulty, I completed my first playthrough of Alone in the Dark in a little over 5 hours. My second playthrough took a little over 3 hours, for roughly 8.5 hours total.

The 2024 Alone in the Dark is a deeply flawed game, but at least it's never boring. The first playthrough is fun despite its issues, mostly thanks to the campy story, and exploring Derceto is rewarding, even with the simplistic puzzles. The second playthrough is where it becomes apparent that there isn't much to the game. At best, it's an incredibly basic and generic survival-horror game that's stuck in the past, and at worst, it's buggy and doesn't justify its $60 price tag.