Before Alone in the Dark came out, I was really looking forward to it.  All the previews that I saw showed a lot of promises; for example, making Molotov cocktails, shooting liquor bottles to create explosions, creating a mini-flamethrower using a spray can and a lighter, and using wooden objects near fire to create a deadly weapon for foul creatures.  I mean, how can it go wrong, right? Wrong!

Well when the reviews started to pour in on the game’s release, people wanted to leave this game alone in the dark (lame pun intended =P). Metacritics average score for this game’s around a 5 out of 10.  The bad reviews crushed my hopes like Ronald McDonald slapping a lollipop out of a little girl’s hand.

Then Xbox Live Marketplace released the demo, I had to check it out and I was presently surprised.  Now I had to play the full game.  I couldn’t see where all the hate was coming from.  Well I was wrong. The demo pulled a Rick Roll on me. The game really did deserve those harsh reviews.

I haven’t been this pissed at a game since, well, since those damn Grand Theft Auto missions where you have to keep the car in good condition and if there’s one single dent, you have to start over.  But what happens if there’s a mission like that in Alone in the Dark, but instead of dents, there’s poor game design plus a glitch? There’s a car mission in Alone in the Dark where you had to escape the wrath of evil destroying New York City.  I crashed into a mall heading towards the second floor.  The only opening was to crash through the window, and when I did, I was met up with NOTHING!  So I tried many different routes for this stupid mission.  Later I found out the 360 wasn’t powerful enough to pump out the graphics in time so what you had to do in the mall before crashing through the window was to slowly creep up to it.  Then while driving 0 to 5 mph, could you get to the other half of the city towards your destination. 

More Cons:
-Repetitive driving missions where you have to go from tree to tree to burn it. And if you run out of booze, you have to search Central Park to find some extra ones. 
-You have to really conserve, but I just wish I had more ammo and booze and load it up inside the trunk of the car.
-The way Edward Carnby, your character moves, is so slow in third person, it’s just best to use 1st person view.
-The ending was very very very anti-climactic. I suffered through the mechanics and missions to get this? Booo!

 

So what do I like about the game?

-The innovative way of combining items and weapons to create bombs, flamethrowers, fire bullets, and more.
-The score is really catchy and epic, especially during the car mission where you had to escape the city and into the park.  Olivier Deriviere’s a great composer.
-The cheesy lines and the many F-bombs that are dropped.
-The graphics are really nice, sometimes odd looking, but I am still at awe when I see all of New York crumbling around me.
-The use of shovels, swords, axes, and fire extinguishers to pound the monsters.  Too bad only fire can kill them.
-The story: it can be very clichéd, but it kept me going.

Even with all the pros this game had going for it, the cons beat it down and drenched it with alcohol and lit it on fire.

C-

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