The 1992’s Alone in the Dark is often referred to as “grand-daddy” of the survival horror genre by paving the way for beloved games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dead Space. Now, almost 30 years after inventing, revolutionizing, and inspiring new ways to impart fear in video games, Derceto Manor once again opens its door to players brave enough to face its dangers. And this time, the game’s elements are heavily influenced from the recent Resident Evil remakes. Talk about a full circle moment.
As a gamer new to the Alone in the Dark franchise, I didn’t know what to expect as the developers at Pieces Interactive intended on calling it a “reimagination” instead of a remake. The game starts with a cut scene of Emily Hartwood (Jodie Comer) and private investigator Edward Carnby (David Harbour) discussing the disappearance of Emily’s uncle, Jeremy Hartwood, as they drive past the lush green landscape of 1920s Louisiana. Upon reaching the famous and inviting Derceto Manor, an asylum for the mentally fatigued and the place where Jeremy was last seen, Emily and Carnby hope to find some answers. But little do they know something far worse is waiting for them behind the doors of Derceto Manor.
After the initial introduction, the players are then asked to choose between Emily or Carnby to continue the story. For the purpose of this review, I played the game as both protagonists and, while the main chapters and puzzles relating to them are the same, certain cut scenes, interactions, and side missions play differently depending on who you choose as your main character. Just like Resident Evil 2, you’ll want to play Alone in the Dark twice (once as each character) to fully experience both sides of the story and find most of the “Lagniappes,” rare collectibles which reveal forbidden knowledge and secrets within the game.
Both David Harbour and Jodie Comer have done a fine job as Carnby and Emily. Though Edward Carnby is a more popular character when it comes to the Alone in the Dark franchise, I still think this game is more of a Emily Hartwood story and playing as her made more sense to me. As I have previously seen some of Comer’s work, it wasn’t a surprise to me that she perfectly captured the spirit of Emily through her acting. And the same goes for Harbour as Carnby too. But sometimes their facial animations in the game looked a bit stiff especially during tense and emotional moments, hurting the game’s immersion.
With Alone in the Dark making the player question what’s real and what’s not, there was a psychedelic aspect to the game, especially with the gothic horror-infused environment of Derceto Manor constantly changing and evolving according to the story. Most of the time Derceto Manor was empty and eerily quiet when it came to exploration, but don’t get fooled by its relaxed atmosphere as there is more to it than meets the eye.
Once a while, you might run into certain NPCs residing within the manor or even meet the other protagonist, and such interactions trigger new developments in the storyline and objectives. However, there was also no shortage for the mysteries and secrets lurking within the mansion, especially with lots of puzzles to solve, safes to open, and collectibles to discover. Most of the puzzles were easy to solve, but cracking open the safes took a painfully long time to figure out. Trust me when I tell you, I did lose some sleep over them.
One detail that I liked was whenever you collect a clue that has any written information on it, the same information is narrated to you by a relevant character’s voice-over. This also applied to the objectives where a narrator reads a summary of what the main character is feeling or doing after certain events or interactions within a chapter. I think more horror games should incorporate this feature and keep it optional.
Firearms and melee weapons can be used to take down monsters in Alone in the Dark. The third-person shooting gameplay is decent enough, but what frustrated me the most was when I got surrounded by multiple enemies. The reloading mechanic was so awfully slow that I had to run around in circles with four monsters chasing me while trying to reload my shotgun. Unfortunately, none of the guns can be upgraded in the game.
Monsters can also be taken down by switching to melee attacks using weapons like a pickaxe, pipe, shovel, sledgehammer, firepoker, and more that can be found around the environment. These weapons have only a limited amount of durability and can break faster when you use them to attack enemies continuously. There were moments while playing Alone in the Dark where I would prefer sneaking away, and sometimes that was the best option to defeat the monsters. This made me wish the game had given me a stealth kill option too.
Thematically and plot-wise, Alone in the Dark does its own thing. Sure, the enemies are creepy looking monsters but, being a short game, there aren’t any flashy boss fights mid-game or humans mutating and turning into giant gross creatures. Instead, the game is more grounded and presents a psychological dilemma that had me questioning, “what’s going on?” after completing every chapter. Alone in the Dark wasn’t overly scary for me, especially compared to Alan Wake 2’s jumpscares that had me sweating and shaking every two minutes. This doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun or it won’t be scary for others as every individual’s threshold for fear is different. And the best thing about survival horror games? They’ll scare you, eventually.
Despite its minor flaws, my 23 or so hours spent with Alone in the Dark further increased my appreciation towards the survival horror genre. On the whole, the game is a love letter to classic horror games. If you grew up playing the original one, I would definitely recommend giving this reimagination a go. Or if you are someone looking to play a scary game but get scared too easily, Alone in the Dark (2024) might be one you are looking for as it incorporates the right amount of balance between both horror and adventure.
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