GamesRadar+ Verdict
GamesRadar+ Verdict
A lackluster and fragmented game that never really comes together in any meaningful way. In almost every sense that matters, from story to combat, horror, and atmosphere, Alone in the Dark leaves much to be desired.
XBox 360
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XBox 360
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XBox 360
XBox 360
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Pros+The 1920s Louisiana setting+Satisfying early puzzles
The 1920s Louisiana setting
Satisfying early puzzles
Cons-Fragmented story-Dull combat-Weak horror
Fragmented story
Dull combat
Weak horror
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Fast FactsRelease date:March 20, 2024Platform(s):PS5, PC, Xbox Series XDeveloper:Pieces InteractivePublisher:THQ Nordic
Fast Facts
Release date:March 20, 2024Platform(s):PS5, PC, Xbox Series XDeveloper:Pieces InteractivePublisher:THQ Nordic
Release date:March 20, 2024Platform(s):PS5, PC, Xbox Series XDeveloper:Pieces InteractivePublisher:THQ Nordic
Although even with some other connective tissue to better support and bind it together, I doubt this 1920s-set jumble of Southern Gothic horror, madness, and Lovecraft would fare better. Whether its five-month delay to the original October 2023 release date caused its problems, or smoothed them over somewhat, there’s just so much that doesn’t quite fit together, or feel like it was ever meant to.
The path ahead
(Image credit: THQ Nordic)
It feels like the final game has been pulled together in a way that wasn’t intended. There are things referenced or highlighted that never come back, or others that just sort of stop being mentioned without a clear resolution. I’d struggle to really explain why any of the other world memory locations are relevant, while characters seem to go about their business with little acknowledgment of anything that’s been happening. You can fight a monster in one room, or magically fall from the ceiling in another, and people will just ask how your day’s going as you stand there covered in blood, cuts, and dirt.
(Image credit: THQ Nordic)
Monster mash
(Image credit: THQ Nordic)
Threaded through the story is a lifeless combat system that does little to help. The shooting model is functional, but combined with sluggish movement and restrictive space, means fighting monsters just feels joyless. There’s no meaningful texture to these encounters. Most of the time you’ll just meet a single monster, maybe two, that feels like they were placed just to break things up. Other times, when there’s meant to be some sort of climax there might be a small horde, at which point it’s easy to just get blocked into a corner.
There are odd choices here too, like a melee system that only works if you have one of the many breakable weapons you can pick up - so if you run out of ammo and break the weapon you have left, you literally can’t do anything but wait to die. There are also occasionally small stealth sections, but with no clear way to tell if you’re safe or detected, there’s little point to them. Then there are the odd throwables scattered around that you can only use at fixed locations, initially introduced as ways to distract enemies. You can’t store them, only pick them up which then locks you into an aiming animation until you’ve launched them. The use of a molotov cocktail icon to highlight these objects here is also the only clue you’ll get that some are flammable, because it’s otherwise never mentioned (non-flammable bricks are also marked with a molotov symbol just to confuse things further).
(Image credit: THQ Nordic)
It’s worth mentioning as well that there’s never any real explanation for the monsters either. They just appear at one point, to absolutely no comment from the hero, and are then just a thing that happens occasionally. There are plant tendril-like humanoids, skeleton things, tentacle hulks, monster insects, burrowing wormy things, and so on. However, there’s no clear theme or any narrative justification I can see for any of them, making them oddly divorced from everything else. They almost feel coincidental.
With everything as disconnected as it is, it means what horror there is never really lands in any meaningful way. This is one of the areas where that missing layer of polish or connective tissue could have really helped. It doesn’t take much ambiance to build a little tension, but there’s almost no sense of threat, fear, or danger here. An occasional jarring jump cut to move you between worlds is the nearest thing to a scare the game ever really manages. There’s rarely a sense of building up to anything, just sections to work through.
There are some nice locations, simply because anything with an early 19th century Southern Gothic feel is a goldmine for horror. While a few early puzzles and objectives add a pleasing satisfaction to the detective work needed as you cross-reference notes and other information. And thereisan interesting shape to the wafty fumes of the story that suggest there was something meatier there originally. But the way it all comes together lacks the life or coherence needed to give it any momentum or drive - all too often it simply feels like a sequence of events stacked together to fill out its nine-ish hour run time. (There are minor variations depending on which character you choose, but nothing hugely meaningful from what I’ve played.) The result is a fragmented tale that never really finds its feet, or hits any of the horror high notes it needs to sing.
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More about alone in the darkCyber Monday is almost over, but don’t miss out on this deal for one of the year’s best horror gamesAlone in the Dark is a celebration of the survival horror genre past and present
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Cyber Monday is almost over, but don’t miss out on this deal for one of the year’s best horror gamesAlone in the Dark is a celebration of the survival horror genre past and present
Cyber Monday is almost over, but don’t miss out on this deal for one of the year’s best horror games
Cyber Monday is almost over, but don’t miss out on this deal for one of the year’s best horror games
Alone in the Dark is a celebration of the survival horror genre past and present
Alone in the Dark is a celebration of the survival horror genre past and present
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“Issues encountered during the initial launch are a genuine part of the game’s history”: Wuthering Waves producer on the road to 2.0 and the open-world action RPG’s biggest update yet
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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4Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
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5Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
5
Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”