Summary

• The new Alone in the Dark game is a modern take on a survival horror classic with puzzles and exploration as its strong points.
• The game features Hollywood talent with David Harbour and Jodie Comer, but combat is sluggish and creatures lack memorability.
• Despite its budget constraints, Alone in the Dark impresses with detailed environments, interesting puzzles, and an engaging setting.

A timeworn classic receives a thoughtful reboot in THQ Nordic’s reimagines 1992’s formative survival horror forebear, studding its homage with references but delivering a modern presentation. Alone in the Dark delivers a fun horror experience with a narrative that gets better as it goes, but its puzzles are mostly simplistic and its combat sluggish to a fault.

The Alone in the Dark IP has changed hands three times thus far, with various studios and publishers exploring their own takes on the action-tinged bayou horror journey. The original release by Infogrames proved to be a watershed moment in PC gaming, even having founded the fixed-camera horror shtick, a standard that would later be used by the likes of Resident Evil and countless others.

In that respect, inspiration has come full circle, with movement and combat here largely modeled after that of Resident Evil 4 (which set its own new genre standards). Furthermore, the new Alone in the Dark’s concept ultimately feels less like a haunted house of ghouls and more a kind of horror dreamworld hub, a space that connects set pieces only periodically grounded in mundane reality.

A House of Secrets

Dereceto Houses a Fun Cast of Characters

Inspector Edward Carnby drives Emily Harwood to Derceto manor, an early-20th-century homespun asylum in the Louisiana wilds. Prompted by the receipt of a distressing letter, Emily is checking up on her uncle Jeremy, whose fits of madness relegated him to Derceto’s supervisory care many years prior. Carnby s her as hired protection, and to bear witness in case anything nefarious has befallen Emily’s dear relative.

While the staging of Alone in the Dark’s introduction acts as a pure homage to that of the original, the narrative sharply diverts from there. Rather than happening upon a house abandoned of people and packed with monsters, the new game introduces a clutch of unique characters at home in Derceto, including suspicious head honcho Dr. Gray, Creole orderlies Baptiste and Loretta, and Grace, a classically creepy horror film child weirdo.

Luckily, Derceto's assortment of personalities are a pleasure to meet, and most of them develop worthy character arcs over the course of the game as their secrets are revealed. They also feature a few lines of unique dialogue for each Alone in the Dark protagonist, meaning that the game technically offers two tracks for anyone eager to return for a second go-round.

Hired Hollywood Muscle

David Harbour and Jodie Comer Are Successful In Their Video Game Debut

As d in the game’s promotional materials, Edward and Emily are gamely portrayed by two familiar Hollywood names: David Harbour (Stranger Things, Violent Night) and Jodie Comer (Killing Eve, Free Guy). As video game voice acting performances go, both are relatively understated and successfully characterful, though the stuttering mocap work and lower-quality facial designs are distracting.

It’s also bothersome that the characters are not on equal footing in their place within the wider narrative. Emily arrives with a direct emotional connection to the plot and her family member is the one who’s missing, which makes learning more about Jeremy’s past madness feel impactful and revelatory. Edward, on the other hand, is just some guy paid to be there. There was hope that this would muster some more interesting interactions, but Edward is primarily one-dimensional, and his arc can feel a little misguided, dull, and drained of purpose, despite some sudden late-game developments.

Sluggish Combat and Forgettable Creatures

Alone in the Dark's Action Core is Lacking

Gameplay comes down to standard survival horror fare: explore Derceto’s map and locked areas to get a lay of the land; rummage for ammo, lore, collectibles, and puzzle keys; and stay at the ready for surprise threats to dispatch. Compared to the original, Alone in the Dark’s combat is reasonably responsive, but Edward and Emily remain slow and stumbly avatars to control, and melee attacks always prove especially cumbersome.

Aside from the few available firearms, they can temporarily wield improvised clubs found tucked away in the environment, and throwable items can be picked up to distract or burn the game’s demonic creatures. Note that, for whatever reason, throwables cannot be stored, something which isn't well explained and is frankly illogical. Additionally, the appearance of these items becomes a telltale sign that a monster encounter is close by, which spoils ambushes, and most players won't want to run back to grab one in the middle of a fight.

Creature designs come courtesy of comic artist Guy Davis, who has also done plenty of influential work with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. Sadly, the game’s monster types are meager, and not one of them proves memorable or interesting. They’re mostly just shambling, brainless, body-horror beasts cloaked in darkness, erupting with terrifying sounds on appearance but always going down fairly quickly.

We're Here for the Puzzles and Portal-Hopping

A Beautiful Setting with Puzzles that Are Easy But Satisfying

It’s just as well, as Alone in the Dark stakes a larger claim on its puzzles and exploration, which are stronger design pillars than its clunkier combat. Some puzzles are outrageously simple, though – multiple points in the game feature an obstacle positioned right alongside its solution – while the more interesting ones require careful attention to the scraps of lore and documents collected throughout Derceto and its dreamworld segues.

Early on, players encounter reality-shifting instances where the mansion is suddenly infested with plant life, or a door that normally opens to a hallway becomes a portal to a different time and place. It’s an effective routine that musters Alone in the Dark’s best hook, though it, like the ambushes, can grow predictable. If anything, the uncanniest aspect of the dreamworld-hopping is how quickly the characters become inured to it in the story.

There’s a fascinating setting to explore, this Louisiana bayou plantation-era manse, full of creepy characters hinting at Lovecraftian cult mythos and vodun rituals.

A slew of the puzzles are standard lock-and-key fare, which work just as fine as those in any other survival horror game. There are some light one-use item solves, a few sliding grid puzzles, and a lot of number combinations to discern from notes and journals. While it’s true that there isn’t a single brutally difficult puzzle in the entire game, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and certain adjustable settings will lightly nudge the player to the right answer without being completely obvious about it.

A Gorgeous Bayou Horror Setting

The Devil Lays in Alone in the Dark's Finer Details

Despite its strained budget, Alone in the Dark’s presentation successfully carries a lot of the game. Both Derceto and its dreamworlds are crammed with detail – albeit mostly non-interactive detail – with textured canvas paintings, alternating lighting for different chapters, and impressive little touches to the scenery. For instance, the manor’s rooms all feature domestic servant call bells, a curious inclusion not usually found in other games that take place in this time period.

While it would be much better if Emily and Edward’s adventures were starkly different in practice, there are other aspects that may inspire a second playthrough, like completing sets of its collectible “lagniappes.” Edward also gets a unique lengthy encounter near the end of the game, but it just doesn’t add enough oomph to his story to make it feel as equally impactful as Emily’s.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

3.5/5

The survival horror genre has leaned more into action these days with greater success overall, such that it’s hard to recommend Alone in the Dark for its combat, which feels updated to modern standards when compared to the original but remains significantly lacking. If the creatures were more difficult, the game could become unbearable, but even Emily and Edward can basically deal with anything thrown at them, even the larger action set pieces.

Instead, it might be wise to approach Alone in the Dark more as a walking simulator with much more interactivity. There’s a fascinating setting to explore, this Louisiana bayou plantation-era manse, full of creepy characters hinting at Lovecraftian cult mythos and vodun rituals. Its attention to detail and historic culture, finely written lore documents, and varied environments work together perfectly, even if the monsters that pop up within them are a bit of a bore.

Alone in the Dark’s moments of homage will land more strongly with longtime fans of the original, and the optional director’s commentary in the upgraded PC install is a fun add-on to enjoy; it would have been even better to have included it with all versions of the game. Still, newcomers will have no problem going in cold, as the runtime of eight hours or so for an initial playthrough requires no previous experience with the franchise whatsoever. The value will lie in how immersed one finds oneself in Derceto's intrigues because, besides the personal trauma bubbling underneath it all, its monsters are pushovers.

Screen Rant was provided with a PC code for the purpose of this review.