Alone in the Dark (video game)
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| Alone in the Dark | |
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| Developer(s) | Infogrames |
| Publisher(s) | Interplay |
| Designer(s) | Frédérick Raynal |
| Release date(s) | 1992: DOS
1994: 3DO |
| Genre(s) | Survival horror, Action, Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Mac OS, 3DO |
| Media | four 3.5" floppy discs, 1 CD-ROM |
| System requirements | 16 MHz Processor, 640K RAM, 5 MB free hard drive space |
| Input | Keyboard |
Alone in the Dark (1992) is a survival horror video game developed by Infogrames (now Atari). The game has spawned several sequels, as part of the Alone in the Dark series, and was one of the first survival horror video games, after the 1989 Capcom game, Sweet Home. Alone in the Dark was also the first game to use 3D characters, and set the standard for later survival horror games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. In 2005 a film adaptation (by Uwe Boll) was released, which did very poorly at the box office.
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[edit] Plot
Jeremy Hartwood, the owner of the legendary Louisiana mansion Derceto, has committed suicide. His death appears suspicious yet seems to surprise no-one, for Derceto is widely reputed to be haunted by an evil power. The case is quickly dealt with by the police and soon forgotten by the public. The player assumes the role of either Edward Carnby, a private detective who is to find a piano in the loft for an antique dealer's shop, or Emily Hartwood, a woman who also is to find the piano only for her because she believes a secret drawer in it has a note on which Jeremy explained his suicide, and either character goes to the mansion to investigate. As they enter the house, the doors mysteriously slam shut behind them, but they just continue up to the attic and nothing else seems to happen.
In the attic, however, after a short while, strange, evil things start happening. The player is attacked by a rat-bat hybrid creature (often described in walkthroughs and reviews and such for the game as a "rat-thing") jumping in through the window, and then by a zombie coming up through a trapdoor. It is clear that there is indeed something sinister going on at the mansion. The player must then progress back down through the house, fighting off various creatures and other hazards in the house, including more zombies and rat-things, nightgaunts, a Chthonian, an animated suit of armour, ghosts (which in the game have the form of mysterious figures which when touched turn into spining balls of ectoplasmic energy which chase the player and kill with one touch), a dimensional prowler, an undead pirate, rats that sound like cats, a giant worm, Deep Ones, a spider-rat hybrid creature, both baby and an adult Leng Spider, insectoid flying creatures that might be Byakhees, rotted floorboards, possesed paintings, books which kill their reader, a smoky ash tray, collapsing bridges, and falling boulders, and somehow find a way out.
It is eventually revealed through documents found throughout the game that the house was built by an evil occultist pirate named Ezejial Pregzt and his crew, and beneath the house are caverns that were used for dark rituals and other evil doings. Though he was killed by gunfire while soldiers where bunking in the house, his body has been preserved and his soul contained in an old tree in the caverns, and in order to regenerate to wreock his wrath upon the world, he needs a living body, E.G... Jeremy Hartwood, who committed suicide as said before to prevent this from happening, and now The Player. The player journeys into the caverns, fights off the remnants of Pregzt's hordes of minions, and finally destroys Pregzt by setting his tree on fire with an oil lamp and causing it to explode. The caverns start to shake and destroy themselves, but the player escapes and finally makes it out of the house just as the sun rises and things return peaceful. They get into the car waiting for them, but then the driver turns around and reveals itself as a zombie. It laughs, and then the car drives off and the game ends.
[edit] Gameplay
Players are given the option of choosing between a male or female character (Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood), and are then trapped inside the haunted mansion of Derceto after dark. The player character starts in the attic (the place of Jeremy's suicide by hanging), having ascended to the top of the mansion without incident, and is then tasked with exploring the mansion in order to find a way out while avoiding, outsmarting or defeating various supernatural enemies including slave zombies, giant bipedal rat-like creatures, and other even more bizarre foes. Though starting with no weapons except fists and feet, the player character can find weapons appropriate to an old mansion, such as firearms, kitchen knives, and swords.
However, combat only plays a partial role in the gameplay. For example, the total number of slave zombies throughout the entire game is only about a dozen, and many opponents can be beaten by solving a particular puzzle rather than a straight fight - indeed, a significant number of opponents cannot be killed. Much of the game involves exploration and puzzle-solving, and searching the house for clues to advance the story and learn more about what happened before the player arrived.
The story is revealed to the player through an extensive series of books and notes found throughout the game, and is heavily influenced by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The occult tomes found in the mansion's library include the Necronomicon and De Vermis Mysteriis, both taken from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Other mythos references include books that feature the narrated history of Lord Boleskine, a direct reference to another Infogrames Cthulhu Mythos based game, Shadow of the Comet, and the last name of player character Edward Carnby, a reference to John Carnby, a character in the mythos tale "Return of the Sorcerer" by Clark Ashton Smith. Several of the supernatural opponents are recognisable creatures from the Mythos, including Deep Ones, Nightgaunts and a Chthonian.
[edit] Sequels
The game managed to produce several sequels.
- Alone in the Dark 2 (1994)
- Alone in the Dark 3 (1995)
- Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001)
- Alone in the Dark: Near Death Investigation (TBA)
The first game is generally considered slightly superior to at least the first two sequels, for having non-linear gameplay throughout (the second and third games are entirely linear), greater emphasis on story, survival and investigation as opposed to combat, and for its use of the popular Cthulhu Mythos - the other games do not reference the Mythos directly, and contain no characters or creatures from it except in references to the first game.
The 2001 sequel bears comparatively little resemblance to the first three games, notably because the main protagonist, though sharing the original name of Edward Carnby, is effectively a different person - in age, appearance, backstory and behaviour.
[edit] Movie
- In 2005 a film adaptation was released called Alone in the Dark. It was directed by Uwe Boll and was a complete box office flop, costing $20,000,000, which was not recovered although it made a profit on the DVD market. An Unrated Director's Cut was released in Germany, France and Australia and was #1 on the German DVD market for three weeks. The movie shares its inspiration from the original series and is a sequel of sorts to the 2001 game Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare.
[edit] Comic Books
An Alone in the Dark comic book entitled "Life is a Hideous Thing" was published by Semic Comics in 2001 in France, and translated by Image Comics in the U.S. in September 2002. It was also translated and published in Italy and Spain.
This comic book was written by Jean-Marc Lofficier and drawn by Matt Haley & Aleksi Briclot. Its story took place just before the Alone in the Dark 4: The New Nightmare game. It starred Edward Carnby and introduced Aline Cedrac, both on the trail of a mysterious conspiracy in Tibet.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Alone in the Dark - Adventure Classic Gaming Game Information & Screenshots
- Imdb
- gameFAQ's
- MobyGames
