Alone in the Dark Review

"Shifting Manor"

Campaign

April 7, 2024 at 5:44pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a modern reimagining of a classic horror franchise where you get to choose between two perspectives in order to engage with it. The first is Edward Carnby (David Harbour), a detective with a mysterious past. The second is Emily Hartwood (Jodie Comer), a worried niece looking for what happened to her missing uncle.

You can choose to play as either character, and while the journey is similar between the two the plot does split over the course of the narrative so that you get something unique from either. The idea is to promote an easier way to replay the game, and outside of actual story changes you’ll come across other hidden secrets which are used to make complete collections of items.

I’m assuming most will likely just go through this once and revisit it later on down the road, so it’s really just which character performance you prefer. Harbour brings a more laid back joking style while Comer is sort of calmer in presentation.

The two will cross over occasionally in random ways and that does make the narrative seem ever more odd. It’s a strange game in terms of the way the story is revealed as it feels almost piece like as you jump about, but that does make sense in terms of the frame work for where these two are placed and that makes sense as you play the game.

It’s basically a linear experience where you do light puzzle interactions and the occasional battle against a foe. There’s a neat sense of mystery here to solve and I liked the various characters you’d come across as you travelled across memories. It’s interesting, though not as scary or tonally dark as I had anticipated. The odd jump scare might startle you though I suppose.

Gameplay

The game is presented in a third person perspective with cutscenes that provide more dynamic looks at the characters. The two models capture their actors fairly well and throw them into this particular era that you’re trying to explore. It’s the 1920’s so the world reflects that, as do the various realms that you visit across this journey. There’s a southern gothic charm to the central area as well since you are mostly exploring a shifting manor known as Derceto.

It’s got secrets and the exploration is similar to say Resident Evil from back in the day. You’re visiting new locations, revisiting other ones and generally trying to piece together the mystery. There’s a neat sense of world shifting as you explore which was cool and many collectibles can be gathered that paint a deeper picture of what’s happening. You can also choose how intensive the game is from difficulty to your guidance levels.

It’s fairly straight forward to work through so I don’t believe you’ll get stuck but you can tune it to be easier for guidance or more difficult. The combat aspect is rather cumbersome, it works functionally but doesn’t feel super smooth. I did find the visuals to be fine for the AA space as they captured the atmosphere they were trying to provide and you do visit many distinct locations. The performances matched that, and they were generally solid.

I played this on Xbox Series X where you get two performance mode options. The first is a quality mode which is a dynamic 4k resolution at 30fps. The second is performance mode which provided a dynamic 1800p at 60fps. I primarily played in the latter format which had some fairly rough performance dips at times though being story focused I wasn’t terribly bothered. The visual fidelity looks fine on either.

The Conclusion

Alone in the Dark is a solid reimagining of this classic horror franchise, but it doesn’t necessarily provide a perfectly compelling experience. I enjoyed playing through this finding it to be a decent length at several hours for a first run and then playing again you’ll get more value from it. It features some unique locations and for the scope of this experience I think they generally do a good job with the design of the world.

I enjoyed exploring the manor and seeing it expand over time. I liked the characters and the general feeling of the world. I do wish it were a bit creepier, or had some more shocking moments as it felt straight forward with mostly the mystery keeping me intrigued. This being a horror franchise, I was expecting some deeper scares or a better sense of terror. Particularly with the modern technology capabilities we have now for this sort of game.

The performances were fine, but could have been more engaging. I liked the setting, and I think there’s potential to expand this universe further. It was a good time for me, but I can see how this might not capture everyone. The performance could have been better as well, alongside the combat though for this game I was generally fine with what was present here.

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Alone in the Dark Review on Xbox Series X
Review Code Provided by DeadGood Media

Rating Overall: 6.8