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Alone in the Dark

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6.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 53 critic reviews
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Based on 103 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Eden Studios

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Survival Horror

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: June 24, 2008

Summary

Taking inspiration from the presentation style and structure of a number of acclaimed and globally popular TV action dramas, Alone in the Dark is split into a number of distinct episodes in a season-style format. With approximately 30-40 minutes of gameplay comprising each episode, the structure of Alone in the Dark is adapted for an audience familiar with the hard-hitting bite-size delivery of contemporary TV dramas, offering easy accessibility whether the player has hours to devote or only wants a quick TV-style fix. Each time the player launches a saved game, the episode begins with a video summary of the previous episode to quickly re-immerse the player in the story, removing the need to remember where they were or what they were doing. Every episode closes with a nail-biting cliff-hanger ending to rattle players' nerves, and if the player is leaving the game a video teaser of the next episode plays to leave them wanting more. Alone in the Dark returns with a heart-stopping survival experience realized through the use of state-of-the-art real-time physics and unprecedented environmental interaction. Delivering an action-orientated experience within a highly detailed, open environment, Alone in the Dark once again strives innovation and excellence within the genre. [Atari]

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What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Games Master UK

Ambitious but inconsistent, frustrating but entertaining. Still an innovative adventure. [Aug 2008, p.62]

Official Xbox Magazine UK

A third-person action-adventure with the beating black heart of a survival horror, Alone in the Dark is a game that needs to be experienced by everybody. Its novel approach of applying shocks into an episodic structure, eight hourly segments in all, is a masterstroke.

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Gamer 2.0

Alone in the Dark proves that with a little time and patience, a good game can be created from innovative ideas.

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ActionTrip

There's quite a lot to enjoy in this game. In most aspects, it stays true to the traditions of the genre, provided you can stomach the unnecessarily lengthy prologue and the aforementioned drawbacks (bad camera, lousy voiceovers, atrocious vehicle physics and so on).

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Xbox World 360 Magazine UK

As much as Alone In The Dark deserves to be criticised for its problems, it equally deserves to be lavished with praise for some outstanding ideas and set-pieces. A gracious failure, AITD should stand as a lesson for other developers to see what they should be striving for.

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GameTrailers

Edward’s trip to the park is no picnic, but suffer through the controls and some aggravation and you’ll be compensated with a lot of unique moments. The game needed more gestation to really iron out the interface issues, but it remains an adventure worth pursuing.

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Edge Magazine

The breadth of Eden’s ambitions may have meant that there’s barely a feature that’s implemented more than satisfactorily, but there’s a generosity of vision here that few games can boast. [Aug 2008, p.88]

Maxi Consolas (Portugal)

A mix of revolutionary ideas and clumsy execution, Alone in the Dark is like a giant with clay feet. The way it marries new concepts with an old fashion control scheme of the character, not to mention some technical flaws, leaves us with a game that is frequently frustrating and only sometimes brilliant. [July 2008]

Eurogamer

You want to love it, but it just keeps letting you down, and in the end that's the impression that sticks to the wall and stays there.

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Xbox360Achievements

Difficult and overly complicated control system.

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Total Video Games

Whilst not as executed quite to the level we'd hoped for, Alone in the Dark remains an original take on the survival horror genre, with its DVD-style structure and environmental interaction worthy of praise.

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IGN UK

Sure, its plot is hugely contrived, it’s occasionally frustrating and really lacking in the kind of polish we expect from big-name games in this day and age. However, it’s also undoubtedly one of the most imaginative, ambitious and exciting titles to hit a console in the last few years.

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Cynamite

The monsters hunt Edward and one idea hunts the other. This game is not perfect but you definitely won’t get bored with it!

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ZTGameDomain

The controls are downright terrible in some instances.

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1UP

Atari's Alone in the Dark is so busy being experimental -- giving players the tools and rules to solve problems on their own -- that it neglects the alluring experientialism of earlier titles in the series, which set a tone and pace that sparked the survival-horror genre off years before "Resident Evil" hit the scene.

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Xbox World Australia

Alone in the Dark has enough innovations to warrant being experienced by most gamers, but is crippled by poor design at the most basic levels.

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PALGN

Reasonably innovative and inventive, Alone in the Dark has some great elements, unfortunately these are hampered by an equal dose of awkward negatives, preventing the game from truly bringing glory back to the franchise's name.

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MS Xbox World

Alone in the Dark is a good game, which falls short of being great based on the severe lack of polish.

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GameFocus

As you play through the game it is annoying at time and at times aggravating, but once you see how the game works and work with the issues the game comes with (camera, controls, gameplay) it is enjoyable.

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Gameplayer

Alone in the Dark clearly had the potential to be something nearer to a nine, or at the very least an eight, but it just didn’t turn out that way. It’s a curio though, and maybe worth picking up if it ever gets released at a more budget price.

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Game Informer

Alone in the Dark can be applauded for its innovation, but it cannot be saved from its dysfunction. Had Eden Games added polish, or dare I say it, play-tested the game, it could have been a welcome addition for survival horror fans.

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GameSpot

If you can endure some vexing technical flaws, Alone in the Dark can be a clever, satisfying adventure.

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Console Monster

AITD is one of the more difficult games to review that I've looked at recently, because it does so much right, but then it also does so much wrong as well. It truly is a hit and miss affair.

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Planet Xbox 360

The controls leave quite a bit to be desired; I think the best way to describe them is awkward.

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Cheat Code Central

Obviously, Alone in the Dark didn't come close to living up to expectations.

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Gamervision

Something just doesn’t add up about it, and the real mystery in Alone in the Dark isn’t what happened in Central Park, but what happened inside of Atari’s offices.

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VideoGamer

It has more than enough good ideas to make a brilliant, must-own game, but features even more bad game design and gameplay issues. As such it's without doubt the biggest disappointment this generation of consoles has seen and a game that's impossible to recommend.

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X360 Magazine UK

We so wanted to like this game but it kept slapping us in the face with bad controls, repetitive puzzles and the annoying inventory. [Issue#34]

Worth Playing

Alone in the Dark is full of potential, but never actually pinpoints and executes it.

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WonderwallWeb

The presentation seems to be the only thing that saves Alone in the Dark from mediocrity, especially in the early parts of the game where the walls are cracking apart and there is a real eerie mood in all of the dimly lit rooms.

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MEGamers

It is almost unplayable with its flawed control scheme.

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IGN AU

Graphically inconsistent, oddly paced and quite unwieldy, AITD is not without its charms - unfortunately they seem to be mostly at the start and latter eps of the game.

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Pelit (Finland)

Great cinematic looks and fresh ideas don't amount to much if they don't serve the game. Clumsy controls and annoying deaths ruin a game that has a lot of potential. Also the constant swearing feels tacked on and childish. [Aug 2008]

Official Xbox Magazine

There’s so much lovely intelligence lurking under Alone in the Dark’s hamstrung, occasionally glitchy surface (unforgivably, we found a few crash bugs in even the retail version!) that it’s hard to let this one go quietly into the night.

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GameDaily

Alone In the Dark controls too stiffly, resulting in an abundance of cheap deaths. In addition, the item interface is clumsy, the third-person camera angles work against you and the driving sequence borderlines on unplayable.

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Gamer.nl

The game can be compared to an agressive puppy without potty-training. You want to keep him so badly, but everytime it seems to go right, it bites, scratches and sh.ts on your carpet.

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GamePro

A frustrating and inconsistent mess that truly disappoints. By the time I reached the seventh episode, which degenerates into a needlessly painful time-sink grind to upgrade Edward with "spectral vision" points, the few things the game had done right had been virtually drowned in a murky sludge of ill-conceived and half-baked failures.

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Gamer's Hell

Ultimately, however, glitchy, leadened gameplay overshadows a fitting, choir-filled soundtrack and an entertaining, cinematic story.

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Gaming Nexus

It's marred by confusing controls, terrible gameplay, abysmal camera angles and, worst of all, a character I couldn't stand.

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Level7.nu

Even though Alone in the Dark shows great potential and a number of interesting ideas the overall experience is a poor one. Basically all parts of the game lack polish, and few of them are any good to begin with. The fact is that Alone in the Dark is a drag and playing through it is a pain. The intent for the game was good, the execution is poor.

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games(TM)

We will reserve praise for the game’s chapter-skip function, however, because Alone In The Dark seems custom-built to tear your patience to shreds. [Aug 2008, p.98]

AceGamez

In the end, the storyline and memorable moments will push most players towards finishing the eight to twelve hour storyline but this will be despite the majority of the gameplay rather than because of it.

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Electronic Gaming Monthly

Every good idea here is brought down by bad basic design, including a shoddy third-person camera, a too-slow first-person mode, and bizarre forced switching between the two. [Sept 2008, p.82]

Jolt Online Gaming UK

Alone in the Dark will surely come to be known as one of the biggest let downs of the year. Impressive set pieces and an initially compelling opening are horribly betrayed by a diabolical control system and frustrating glitches that strongly suggest the game would have benefitted from at least another six months intensive development and testing.

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Team Xbox

It’s obvious that a lot of effort was put into certain elements of the game and its presentation. But no matter how nice the car looks on the outside, if the engine isn’t working you ain’t goin’ no place. Alone in the Dark is just that, a game going no place and with no reason in the world to suffer it.

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GameSpy

Alone in the Dark seems to hold open contempt for its players...You've seen survival horror done scarier and better elsewhere. Don't get burned by this one.

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G4 TV

Edward Carnby's return had the potential to be the next Silent Hill. What we ended up with is more reminiscent of Trespasser.

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DarkZero

At the end of the day, the bad points massively outweigh the good ones, and when the credits roll you’ll be left with a feeling that it all could have been so much better. The game also has absolutely no replay value whatsoever, and is consequently terrible value for money.

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IGN

Nice visuals, great fire effects and valiant efforts at innovation don’t make up for boring combat, frustrating controls, poorly designed levels and a hackneyed story.

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Destructoid

The game is boring for long stretches, has an uneven level of difficulty and no worthwhile story.

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Variety

This confused goulash of driving challenges, old-school puzzles, zombie battles, some late-game tomb-raidering and even a bit of “Grand Theft Auto” in the park fails at pretty much everything it tries to do.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Every clever use of objects or fire is counterbalanced by sloppy basic design. Edward's movement is sluggish, and his object control imprecise.

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Gamestyle

Is there anything good about Alone in the Dark? The fire effects are stunning and the music theme is quite good. Other than that though, nothing.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 103 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pawel K gave it a6:
This game could use some more time in production, especially to improve the controls and camera which are not good to say the least and have made me curse many times. Graphics are good and the story is also interesting, I wish it was branched more and evolved, because it could have been really good. The game ending is _terrible_, a total disappointment and I wouldn't be surprised if some reviewers have lowered the overall score just because of it. I read that Edward does not stand a chance in combat with the crippled controls, but this is not the case depending on who plays. The controls may indeed pose a serious problem to a casual player, but any experienced gamers should be able to overcome them. All in all, I actually enjoyed this game and would rate it 6.5, but since there's no such score on the scale I will round it down this time. This may not be a hit title, but it's still worth picking up and seeing through. I'd like to see a more branched and evolved story, more puzzles, more cinematic cable climbing (!) and better balanced weapons/items (I used 3 combinations for the whole game, usually even 2...).

jason d gave it a5:
I was pretty excited about this game when I first heard about it. The tv series approach was very creative for a video game. It is too bad that the game is not at all fun. Terrible controls, poor graphics, and slow/boring gameplay make this game one that needs to stay in the dark.

conor c gave it a10:
If you liked resident evil 4 you will love this you never know whats going to happen and it feels like your playing a movie its an excitting action/horror game you truly feel like your fighting survival all the way to the end of the game and when combining items you never know what could happen (some combinations) a must buy for me and if your havin trouble you can skip scenes (i didnt skip scenes but my friend did) great phisics a LOT of fire fun to pick up things set them on fire and go crassy on a few monsters/objects but fire burns object up not as fast as real life but a bit to fast im telling you this because its the only way to kill the main monsters i loved the helcopter scenes (you dont control helicopters) monsters can hit your car and it will lift of ground but when they hit you its like fighting normal people despite small flaws its a MUST BUY for me you can play some parts in first person view blinking unnecissery go get it NOW.

David H gave it a9:
"Alone in the Dark" is the next evolution of the Survival Horror genre! Nour Polloni and everyone at Eden Studios have created a wonderful gaming experience. After 4 1/2 years in the making, their efforts prove that a small team with a little budget can compete with the larger developers. What really makes this unique is that it is so ambitious and ORIGINAL! Especially in this day and age of sequels and remakes. With the Survival Horror genre being so scarce in this generation of gaming, this sleeper hit should be on everyone's "must buy" list, especially if you love horror games. The TV-style presentation is great, ending with cliff-hangers that really make you want to continue playing just to see what happens next. The first 6 episodes are a roller-coaster ride of thrills, with driving sequences on par with "Stuntman: Ignition". Although mostly linear at first, the player can easily get used to the controls. When the game does open up in Central Park, you really can go anywhere and do anything you want. Similiar to "Bioshock", you can get very creative in killing the various monsters. Early in the game, there are a lot of huge Hollywood-style action scenes that are fantastic. Later, in Central Park the atmosphere becomes creepier like "Silent Hill". The story is good, with believable dialogue and acting. Sound effects are atmospheric, but what really stands out is the fantastic music from the composer of "Obscure" and it's sequel. The graphics look really good too, with a lot of attention to detail, although some areas it looks like there could be a few more textures. Unfortunately, there are a couple of programming bugs that still need to be fixed with a downloadable patch. A couple of times, the game froze up, so I had to re-load my previous save. When you do continue your game, you'll get to see an episodic TV-style "Previously on 'Alone in the Dark'..." recap of the last few sequences to remind you of what happened in the story so far. Sadly, with all of the great presentation and everything, "Alone in the Dark" really isn't all that scary. It doesn't have a lot of jump-out-of-your-seat moments, but it is a very intense and moody game that's fun to play. After playing this game, I kept thinking, "Wow! How is 'Silent Hill: Homecoming,' and 'Alan Wake' going to compete with this!" It's so original, innovative and fresh, just like the first "Forbidden Siren" was. And, just like that game, this one is a little rough around the edges. What a great experience though! Someone please give these guys a bigger budget!

[Anonymous] gave it a5:
This game has an enriching storyline that takes you to the end. Also, if you get stuck at a part, they have a unique chapter selection feature that lets you skip it and come back later. Plays like a tv show with reviews of what has happened previously on Alone in the Dark. The fire in this game will leave people awestruck and is very realistic. Except, although this game has many ups and good ideas, most aren't thought out that well. Many glitches in the game and 1st person view being horrible on responses. Even though the title is Alone in the Dark, you are followed by another character who is so annyoing that I wish I was alone in the dark because, like F.E.A.R. has shown us, some things are scarier alone in the dark. Also, some ideas were good thoughts, just weren't used right. Like the inventory system being way too small and half of it is taken up by items you need to have throughout the game making the small inventory system even smaller. And batteries that die out too quickly. Also mid-way through the game, you have to kill a bunch of "roots" (not telling you why or else it will destroy the story for you), but it makes you kill a lot of them and it gets VERY repetetive. The driving system in this game is very fun and when you get onto New York driving, it is one of the most fun driving scenes in a video game I have ever played. I really would love to give this game a higher rating than 5 out of 10, but with this many flaws and poorly executed design choices, I can't. Let's hope that when Atari brings a new patch to the game, it will hopefully fix some of these glitches.

Jeff L gave it a10:
This game is my all around favorite, i love how everything is realistic and i love the story to it and i love the limited space of carrying only 6 things cause then it wouldn't be so real u can usually hold 6 things like that with that sort jacket and pockets and such cause unlike other game where u can hold like 12 or even more is just gay but still fun but I've been waiting for a realistic game and that's what has come.

William H gave it an8:
Holy crap. I was really looking forward to this game and after seeing all the negative reviews I was completely turned off on it. But today I said what the hell and rented it. Well... I lost track of time and played it all night. The controls aren't that bad, you get used to them pretty quick. The driving is awesome, the cars control pretty similar to GTA4, so I have no clue why there is all the negativity towards them, you don't see GTA4 being given horrible scores with one of it's main complaints being the driving. The fire/light elements are amazing, best I've ever seen in a game before. Inventory system could use a few more spots to hold items, but I guess it adds to the whole 'survival' thing having to make sacrafices on what to keep and what to toss. The story's pretty neat, nothing ground breaking, but it has kept me entertained. The game is a solid 8, not worth the full $60, on sale for anything less then it's a good buy, and as a rental, it's great.

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Alone in the Dark

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