I have been looking forward to Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360) for some time now. I played the originals many moons ago and enjoyed them immensely, so naturally I expected the game to be great with it’s move to the next generation.
First of all, let’s start with the good. The game looks fantastic. There is great use of fire in the game and the fire effects are amazing. It spreads like real fire would spread. If you do not extinguish a fire fully, then it will spread again, somehow I can feel the warmth from the fire when I am playing. Although the temperature rise could be from getting over a bad cold.
The game is full of cinematic views. You can be running along and the camera may change to show a different view and something happening, like a bus falling off a ledge or a body seeming to fall out of the sky. Unfortunately the game has a fixed camera though and there is no use of turning the camera yourself to have a look around - fortunately, by pressing the Y button you can switch to first person mode and have free use of the camera.
Talking about the controls here, this brings me to the bad of the game. The controls are awful. I have played hundreds, maybe thousands of games in my lifetime and I can honestly say this has one of the worst control schemes I have ever used. I really want to know what the developers were thinking when they decided to use this control scheme. Were they hungover? Had they never played 3rd person action games before? They really could have done with sitting down with a hundred gamers and asking them if they were comfortable with the controls before the game was finished because I can be pretty sure the answer would be a resounding NO. It is not that the controls do not work properly, they actually work fine with no glitches, it is that the control system just does not work effectively to give a pleasant experience and it just leads to multiple deaths. I am surprised the games testers did not end up in asylums due to having to play it over and over again.
Allow me to explain. You control your character with the left stick, this is perfectly normal for a 3rd person adventure. The camera is static so you cannot control it in 3rd person and the camera moves with you from room to room this is also a common viewpoint (even though I hate it). The problems come in because different actions require switching between first and third person views. As an example I pick up a chair to use as a weapon - these weapons can only be used in 3rd person viewpoint. You use the right stick to swing back your weapon and push it forward to strike. This could be a good way of controlling your swings, except that because you have no control of the camera and the room may have a viewpoint at an angle you could be swinging into mid-air and missing the enemy entirely. Guns however cannot be used in 3rd person and you have to switch to first person. So you can press RB to pull your gun but then you have to switch to first person to use it, by that time the enemy may strike a killing blow.
An even worse example is the use of fire extinguishers. You pick up a fire extinguisher but to put out a fire you have to switch to first person. Thats okay but what if the door you need to get through is locked? You then have to switch to 3rd person again so you can use the extinguisher to bash down the door. It is all very clumsy and frustrating.
The other frustrating point is the inventory system. The developer has made it look really original and instead of having blocks of items on a screen, the character pulls open his coat like a dirty old man selling knock off DVD’s and the items are shown on the inside of his jacket. The problem here is the navigating through the items. The control stick is so sensitive when moving around that it is easy to miss an item because it skips so quickly over them and it is quite hard to be precise. It can be a frustating few moments trying to pin down the item you want because sometimes the left/right buttons do not work and I have to use the stick.
Finally, the driving sections are absolutely atrocious. One mistake and you are toast. Trial and error gameplay is all okay when done well, but its like driving sections in GTA3, most of the time other cars come out at you deliberately and when you hit them you stick to the cars and with little time to manouvre your car again it will result in immediate death.
Alone in the dark could have been an awesome game with amazing graphics and brilliant gameplay which would have seen it sent to being in my top 10 of the best ever survival horrors. Instead all it really turned out to be is a good looking game which ends up being a disappointment with poor controls. It is like getting a fancy box of choccies for Christmas only to find they are mouldy inside.
I will try and continue to play this game because despite its horrible controls, I feel there is a good game in there just waiting to burst out and surprise me.
Good/10 (but has issues).
*UPDATE* I have tried to continue this game but it is just getting worse and is making for a very unpleasant experience to a point where I am actually skipping sections in chapters. When I get a game I do not feel I can play and resort to skipping bits, then that is a failure.
Updated score - Below Average/10. I do not recommend anybody buy this game, its a rent at the very most. The developers should be totally ashamed of themselves. The sad thing is, this could have been an amazing game. The driving sections I can forgive because there are not many of those, but combat is such a big part of the game that it has to be easy to use and as much as I try and play this game I cannot play it and I cannot forgive that.
