Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

Written by Arthur Hughes  on June 07, 2001

First Impressions: Please try to refrain from wetting your pants

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I'm not sure how many of you remember the first Alone in the Dark game, but all of you Resident Evil fans should be thankful it exists. The horror survival genre might not exist if it wasn't for Alone in the Dark, and now the fourth one of the series is hitting the DC, and it will be scaring the pants off all of you soon.

The basics of the game are pretty simple. A single hero is up against hoards of mutated zombie like people and animals. He has to explore creepy environments and solve numerous puzzles, as well as try to stay alive. The game features two main characters Edward Carnaby and Aline Cedrac. It seems that the name Edward Carnaby has certain uniqueness: Every 40 years a child is born with no mother or father and is named Edward Carnaby. These children are raised to be modern-day knights, who spend their lives hunting the evil and exploring the creepy.

The game begins with Edward Carnaby looking for the reason why his longtime friend and co-worker, Charles Fisk, was killed. His friend was found washed up on the shore of Shadow Island, where the story takes place. The other character, Aline Cedric, is a female adventurer who's not only good with a gun, but also a brilliant thinker with an awesome memory. I have yet to find out why she is on Shadow Island, but she is kind of sarcastic and does not like the idea of teaming up with Carnaby. She feels that she does not need his help in order to survive the islands' killer creatures.

The first thing you will see in the game is the ingenious lighting system. The game plans to focus on suspense and fear of the unknown, pretty much the same as most of the games in the horror surviving genre. However, from what I saw, most of the game focuses on exploration, which is done mostly with your handy-dandy flashlight. Each of the 1,200+ pre-rendered rooms will have two different lighting sets, and as you shine your light, you will solve just a little bit more of the mystery. The effect thus far is very creepy, and the backdrops are amazing. The only down side is the main character's animation, and if they can clean this up, the game will be almost flawless.