I managed to grab some hands on time with the forthcoming Alone in the Dark, which is being developed by French developers Eden Games and published by Atari. The game revolves around Edward Carnby, the character from the first game in the series, which started out on PC and made its way on to the beloved Playstation way back when. There's a big mystery surrounding Edward, as he finds himself in a modern day New York City, having memories only of his time during the early 1900's. What's more, he's not aged one bit and is about to be murdered by some unscrupulous characters (cue lightning, for dramatic effect)during the game's opening scenes. There are other more favorable characters that Edward meets on his travels around the city, but without spoiling too much, the basic plot revolves around an old evil that has been unleashed which is out for blood. An ancient artifact is the key, with Edward being at the epicenter of the carnage, and also the city's savior.
From the offset, Alone in the Dark presents a very cinematic feel, as it puts the player in control of Edward during the opening scene using a first person viewpoint. It's not a new feature, as games like Condemned, Half Life and such like have done this before. However, it does make for a more interesting element than merely sitting back watching a cut scene. I liked this element, despite the relatively slow pacing here, and found that pressing in the right thumbstick to blink every now and then was an neat touch. Don't worry you won't have to do this throughout the entire game, just during moments where you'd expect to - such as getting smoke in your eyes for example. Throughout the gameplay you'll switch between third and first person viewpoints, with players also able to press the Y button to manually switch views. In some cases the viewpoints are forced, such as when shooting guns which auto switches to a first person viewpoint.
Alone in the Dark incorporates several gameplay elements into the one game, and is a distinct departure from its roots, especially the first game in the series. You still have the basic exploration features which are synonymous with adventure games of this ilk, but on top of this, there's an added vehicular option and a free roaming area in Central Park itself. The cars are interesting because during many sections of the game you'll have the option to smash a car window, or try the door first (whichever suits), and then hop in and search for the keys or if all else fails, enter a mini game and hot-wire the engine to get moving. You have full access to the car interior and can move around to the passenger seat, rear seats, honk the horn, turn on/off the lights and even try the radio. The idea here is to search for useful items - something that harks back to the survival horror roots.
The driving itself comes in two forms, with one being part of the story where you'll race through NYC as it gets destroyed by this unstoppable force. Here, you can't really deviate from the set path and have to be pretty precise with your driving. Too many mistakes can prove costly, and result in you having to restart the entire scene again. I found this to be a little unforgiving due to a lack of well placed checkpoints, there were also a few bugs in this code which meant having to restart again, much to my annoyance. I assume the final product will have eradicated these issues. I also had some issues with the camera at times, because it would shift slightly for a more cinematic view making the car appear at the very bottom of the screen.
The car controls in general felt reasonably responsive but not really tight, in the sense that driving is easy. In fact using the interior viewpoint during this stage, proved to be overly difficult due to the control sensitivity - something I was told would not be changed for the finished product unfortunately. There's certainly a trial and error element to this particular section of the game and for those lacking in patience might opt to use the game's skip feature here (more about that later).
The other vehicular element is more open ended, where you are free to drive around central park without the pressure of a menacing time limit. This proved to be a lot more fluid and whilst getting into vehicles is optional, it's a nice feature to be able to move about quickly and relatively safely. Enemies that inhabit the free roaming park will attack the car by jumping on top of it, eventually destroying it if you're not careful. In general, the driving is a worthy addition to the game but to me feels like it needs some tweaking to not be dismissed as a tacked on feature.
Aside from jumping into vehicles, the third or first person gameplay offers a wide range of situations for Edward to navigate. There's some clever touches strewn about the story sections, such as using Edward's weight to trap a dangerous electrical wire out of harms way so he can climb past as he dangles inside a lift shaft. I think the most impressive element I saw in my playtime in the escape from the building scene, was the use of fire. There's several moments where Edward has to find a fire extinguisher to douse troublesome flames so he can get past. On another occasion, he had to actually start a fire to progress. This, I felt was very clever and I assume will be just one of the many options players have further into the game. At this stage (the opening scenes) it was all rather linear, but I'll put this down to it being a tutorial of sorts.
Once I had met up with some of the building's inhabitants and the main story characters there was an option to drive through the garages to escape. I spent some time on foot instead of using the obvious vehicles. I'm not sure if you are able to ignore the cars entirely like you can in the Central Park area, but I assume so, as there were plenty of usable items to pick up and use against the ever present enemies. My only real gripe in this section was the fact that I got stuck due to the pathway not being overly clear. There is a vague element to proceedings, but I guess this encourages players to explore.
Onto the game's combat and management of items; I must say is rather hit and miss, especially the combat with melee weapons. I had real issues with the auto switch to third person viewpoint when using melee weaponry, because I found it real hard to hit my targets effectively due to the camera. Alone in the Dark uses a similar mechanic to the game Fahrenheit, where actions on the thumbsticks translate to the character. So, moving the stick up and down makes Edward thrust his weapon forwards; where as moving the sticks from side to side swings his weapons. A lock on feature would have been useful here, or the option to use first person. I hope the finished game makes the melee combat feel more fluid.
Using guns, the game switches to first person and feels more conventional, except, the game does not provide you with loads of bullets, so you are going to have to get used to using melee, makeshift weapons and firearms if you are going to make it through encounters in one piece. Fire works well against the human type enemies in most circumstances, with regular bullets having little effect. With the pistol, combining flammable liquid with the bullets created fire based bullets which had more of an effect on these enemies - there's obviously a lot of preparation work required, so you're not caught out in a fight, although you are able to run away. It's interesting that to kill enemies you have to hit the fissures in the skin that appear once they are damaged. I'm sure this isn't the same with all enemies, but is an interesting way to spice up the combat. You are also able to drag downed enemy bodies and place them into fire to kill them, otherwise they will get up and start attacking you again! I found the enemy AI to be unusual in the open areas as they would give up the chase a bit too readily, so I hope this is fixed for the final game.
Alone in the Dark offers the chance to use a number of items and combine them to make new weapons as seen in the showcase movies Atari has released. This aspect is where players can really experiment and tackle enemies in their own way. The inventory screen is handled by Edward opening his jacket like a spiff and then being able to cycle through various items. If you are being attacked, then doing so isn't advisable because the game doesn't pause. So preparation is key to success as you hunt for items in every nook and cranny of the game world. Luckily there is an option to configure combinations and store them, which can be accessed a lot quicker for those very close encounters.
Alone in the Dark offers a very cinematic experience throughout but with a definite interactive element. However, the interaction doesn't stop at you being a part of some scenes which could have been cut sequences, because the start menu has a DVD feature. This allows you to skip to another chapter or episode at will. This is great for casual gamers who get stuck on certain points in the game, but the penalty is that they miss out on valuable items and won't get the full game ending. You can't skip the game entirely from the offset as you do have to fulfill a prerequisite before being able to skip forward. For the more hardcore of gamers, the skip feature is going to be useless and something that will largely be ignored. The only instance of it's use is going back to replay a section to get more items. It's inventive of Eden to add this feature, and understandable that they would like all gamers to finish their game. But I can't help but feel its inclusion is somewhat counter productive. Either way, it's an optional gameplay mechanic and an interesting one at that and one that's I'll reserve full judgment on until I get the final game in my hands.
Alone in the Dark offers gamers a chance to engage in a gripping, dramatic tale set in modern times, that should keep you on the edge of your seats from start to finish. Although I've had some gripes from my playtime, I can say that I am really looking forward to the finished product. It seems to offer something different from the norm, and whilst similar games, like Dead Rising presented an open house with loads of zombies; Alone in the Dark seems to offer a more free form approach with an more intelligent feel. There's certainly a steep learning curve here, and perhaps this is the reason for the skip feature, but I can guarantee, that those players who spend the time to fully immerse themselves into the hellish recreation of NYC, will have the ultimate roller coaster ride. Alone in the Dark is released on 20th June 2008 and should be a welcome addition to the Xbox 360 library of games.
Preview By: Robert Cram
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