Alone in the Dark (2008 video game)

Alone in the Dark
Developer(s)	Eden Games (Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) Hydravision Entertainment (PS2, Wii)
Publisher(s)	Atari
Director(s)	David Nadal
Series	Alone in the Dark
Engine	Twilight 2
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2
Release	Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2: EU: June 20, 2008 NA: June 24, 2008 AUS: July 3, 2008 PlayStation 3: AUS: October 2008
Genre(s)	Survival horror, Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Alone in the Dark, originally known as Alone in the Dark 5 and Alone in the Dark: Near Death Investigation, is the fifth installment of the survival horror video game series under the same name created by Infogrames.

The game was released on Windows, Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 2 on June 20th 2008 in Europe, with North America's release on June 24th. The PlayStation 3 version has been delayed until "Fall 2008", but this version will be specially adapted for the console and will get exclusive episodic content. The Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions are being developed by Eden Games, but the PS2 and Wii versions are being created alongside by Hydravision Entertainment.

Plot

Set during 2008, the story continues with Edward Carnby, the main protagonist from the original game, looking for answers to strange supernatural and bizarre occurrences while battling his way through the opposition in New York City's Central Park.

The game story centers around rumors, allegations, and suspicions of clandestine activity in tunnels found below the park.

When browsing the official website, there are sections of the site dedicated solely to the mysteries of Central Park. Subjects of investigation include possibly mutated trees, unusual aviary migration behavior in the park, astounding insect invasion problems, as well as the park's value in real-estate; which is stated to be in excess of $528,783,552,000, a finding produced in 2007. In addition, the park's value is compared to the national defense budget, with the park being 26% higher in value than the defense budget in 2007. Also, to further support rumored reports of tunnels found below the park, it is said that the atom bomb was invented by instigation of the Manhattan Project . Conclusively, at the time of writing, there is a historical reference to a treaty between The Dutch and The British in 1667, in which The Dutch gained the island of Run in exchange for the Manhattan Islands.

Alone in the Dark will develop ties between these mysterious aspects of the park, while dealing with supernatural elements as well. Throughout the game, Carnby will be assisted by Sarah Flores, an art dealer, and Theophile Paddington, an elderly man who has knowledge about the weird happenings in Central Park. The main antagonist is another elderly man named Crowley, and is played out in a episodic format, like a TV-show. As a result, the plot will be separated into these episodes.

Episode 1

The game starts off as Edward Carnby wakes up and is forced out of the room on orders by Crowley to be taken to the roof and executed. As the executioner attempts to open a door to the rooftop of the building, he is suddenly attacked by some unseen force (a living scar) that drags him into the wall. Carnby finds that he has amnesia and makes his way to the elevator shaft where he sees Crowley and his assistant enter the elevator with Theophile as a hostage. It is revealed the Theophile is carrying a necklace made of stone that was taken from Carnby and he is expected to perform a ritual before handing it over to Crowley. The living scar returns killing Crowley's assistant and Carnby gets off the elevator before it crashes to the first floor. Edward is forced to climb down the elevator shaft and make his way to the first floor where he meets many people trying to get out of the building. He meets Anna, who is separated from another man, stuck behind a door. After freeing the man by knocking the door down, Anna and the man follow Carnby to find a way out through a hallway as it burns down, with Carnby using a fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames. Carnby finds a way out by jumping over a hole in the floor. Half way across, the man is "eaten" by a living scar and Carnby is separated from Anna. Carnby finds a gun by a dead police officer in front of a room. Carnby enters the room and finds a healing spray, and is able to heal a minor wound he has. Immideately after this, the whole room begins colapsing around him, and Carnby survives by grabiing onto a Gargoyle sticking out of the side of the building. After Carnby scales the side of the building and finds a opening back into it, he finds Anna again. After moving slightly closer to the basement of the building, Anna disappears, seemly eaten by a living scar. With the help of a watchman called Jack, Carnby is able to get closer to the ground floor...And suddenly meets Ann as a Humanz, a mutated human.

Episode 2

Carnby is forced into battle with Ann, who he destroys by knocking her out with a frying pan, then putting her in fire (the only way to really kill these monsters, which causes them to disappear into black smoke). On his way down another elevator shaft, he meets Sarah Flores, a art dealer, who is stuck in an elevator. Suddenly, it plummets down 22 floors when some Humanz sever the cables to the elevator, and they end up in the Reception Hall. Crowley is there briefly before making a swift exit through a door locked by a control panel. As they attempt to open the elevator door, cops try and scramble through, screaming, being attacked by presumably Humanz. Carnby and Sarah climb through the top of the elevator into the opposite one to enter the Reception Hall, and Carnby picks up a flashlight from a dead cops body. The Hall has no light except for a large fire at the end of it. Carnby then begins fighting Ratz, small spider-like creatures, before fighting another Humanz. He is able to turn the electricity back on, thus being able to go through the door Crowley entered by hotwiring the control panel's wiring. Carnby finds another Humanz down the staircase to the car park and destroys it.

Carnby finds Theophile in the car park in bad shape, and tells him the Ritual sacraficed a large part of his memories, and says that Crowley is behind this chaos, and he forced Theophile to retrieve the stone. Theophile finally says that Carnby needs to follow the Path of Light before "He" swallows up the whole city. They make their way through the destroyed parking lot and the car ends up crushed under rubble. Carnby is able to find another one and they drive out onto the streets of New York City. The whole city is in chaos (as Theophile stated earlier), with a very large living scar tearing through the streets. Theophile then says that he released this wickedness, what was trapped in the stone, and this is what he freed Carnby from. Carnby then realises that now it wants it back. Theophile then tells Carnby to step on it and go to Central Park. Carnby is able to race through New York City as it is destroyed around him, and crashes the car into Central Park. They all get out, and Sarah and Carnby begin arguing. Theophile then points a gun at them to stop them arguing. He then says that he is too weak to go on, and that Carnby must proceed down the path of light without him. Theophile gives Carnby the stone, saying that it is mostly harmless now, and that Carnby is their only salvation. He tells Sarah and Carnby to meet him at the Museum, in Room 943. Theophile then shoots himself in the head.

Episode 3

On the way there, they meet up with a ambulance to heal a wound that Carnby has,. When asked for his name, he rseponds with Edward Carnby. The doctor says that there must be something wrong with the system...As it says that Edward Carnby is a paranormal investigator who last did a case in 1924, and disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1938.

Episode 4

Carnby and Flores make their way across Central Park while being attacked by demons and eventually reach the Museum. Once they are there, Carnby ends up fighting more Humanz and having to pas several lazer security systems. Carnby finds a guard who tells him to take the elevator behind him to get to Room 943 (which the guard noted is only visited by the curator, Theophile). The elevator ends up stopping and Carnby crawls out finding the guard dead and a huge deamon and ends up fighting it as well. They cut off the guards hand and use it to pass a fingerprint access door and find Room 943.

Episode 5

Sarah and Carnby enter the room, and finds a picture of himself and a young boy, written on it "Theo, my pupil and I. 1932.". Suddenly, paranormal events begin happening, where chairs begin going on fire on their own and objects are thrown around the room. The door locks itself, and the lights go off. When Carnby closes his eyes, a ghost of Theophile appears, and points out at different objects in the room which creates a message: "Sarah, I want you to knock him down". Sarah then knocks him out. In his unconscious state Theophile is able to speak with Carnby telling him about a secret in Central Park. Theophile says that when Lucifer was cast down to live with mortals, he created a artefact (known as the Philosopher's Stone) that would allow his soul to travel through time, but as a result trapping him inside it. Theophile reveals that he released Lucifer from that artefact. Once awake he shows Carnby into a hidden room that is part of an ancient machine, accessed by using a lens found in Room 943 with a flashlight onto a symbol of the same shape of the lens.

Features

The game is constructed around a unique episodic format. Each episode will conclude with a cliffhanger ending and, once the player leaves the game, a teaser of the next episode will appear. Every episode will also have video summaries which retell the player about the previous episode when a saved game is loaded, allowing them to quickly remember what objectives they have to complete.

The game has been hailed by the producers and developers to be open-ended and expansive. One such feature is the hot-wiring mini game. In one dire moment, the character may need to commandeer a car by hot-wiring. This will initiate a mini game, where Edward will rip the wires out of the car and try to start the engine. He could either succeed and be able to drive the car, or blare the car horn loudly, alerting enemies to his presence.

The player is also allowed to choose how they want to play the game. For example, instead of using a flashlight in dark areas, items can be lit with fire to traverse through the dark.

The player can also heal their wounds to regain health. First they must use a disinfectant spray on the wound, then bandage it.

The game also has a unique inventory screen, instead of pausing the game during inventory screens like in most games, it continues in real time just like in real life. This makes it harder and more challenging to survive. The inventory also has a combination feature which differs from most games, using sticky tape you can attach objects to other objects to create a few other objects.

Music

The music in Alone in the Dark is scored by Olivier Deriviere, the same person who scored ObsCure and ObsCure II. It also includes the female choir The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices. In this game, Olivier did not use an orchestra; instead he went electronic.

Tech demo

A tech demo was released on February 16, 2008 showing the inventory system and how items and environmental objects can be manipulated, as well as how items may be used together. For example, double-sided adhesive tape can be used to attach a glow stick to a wall, creating a source of light. Another example is the player using a knife to puncture a blood pack, then throwing the blood pack creating a blood trail to lure enemies from one spot to another. A second tech demo was released on February 26, 2008 showing the realistic use of fire with various objects in the game. It also shows how objects are affected when shot. The player is seen shooting a table and subsequently one of the tables legs break off, and shatters. The player then picks this up, and lights it in a fire for a spontaneous torch. A third tech demo was released on April 18, 2008 displaying the attributes and game play mechanics of fire in the game. A fourth tech demo was released on June 3 2008 highlighting the enemies and their characteristics including what they look like and how to kill them. Your inventory is limited to what you can fit in your jacket. Everything in your environment can be used as a weapon and ally against the 'opposition'.

Limited Edition

File:Alone in the dark limited edition.jpg

A limited edition of the game has been announced. It has only been announced for European release; in the UK the Limited Edition is only available through GAME high street stores. Along with a copy of the game, it contains:

• A 15 cm Edward Carnby Figurine
• An art book
• A bonus 'Making Of Alone in the Dark' DVD
• A CD Audio Soundtrack

Reviews

The game has received mixed reviews, ranging from 3/10 to 8/10 : IGN UK awarded the game 7/10 while IGN US rated it 3.5/10. The main issues with the game were that the controls seemed overly complicated for doing simple actions, the many glitches and bugs, the plastic-like, stiff character models, bad driving control, and an unsatisfying conclusion. The fire effects were universally praised, however, and all the reviews agreed that it tries to break gameplay cliches.

Reception

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	B-
Computer and Video Games	7.3 out of 10
Edge	7 out of 10
Eurogamer	7 out of 10
Game Informer	6.5 out of 10
GamePro	2.5 out of 5
GameSpot	6.5 out of 10
GameSpy	4 out of 10
GameTrailers	7.3 out of 10
IGN	3.5 out of 10
Official Nintendo Magazine	64 out of 100
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	8 out of 10
IGN UK	7 out of 10

Pressure on press

After several European websites had given the game average or low ratings, publisher Atari threatened the responsible websites with lawsuits, claiming the reviews could not have been based on the final version since it was not available by the time they were published; Atari themselves had not delivered review-versions to them. The publisher suspected the reviewers to have used illegaly downloaded versions of the title. However, review website Gamer.nl claims that it was in fact sent a legitimate copy of the game prior to its release by Atari executives and, after the review was published, "They explicitly told [Gamer.nl] that they only let high scoring reviews break the post-release embargo date." Gamer.nl still has the offending review posted on the website, despite Atari's wishes. In addition Atari claimed that reviews were not done as demanded by the official product-review standards at all and should be deleted immediately. Most other websites have defended their reviews and refused to delete their articles. So far it is unclear whether or not Atari will decide to sue these websites.

External links

• Official Site
• Alone in the Dark at Gamepro
• Alone in the Dark Game at Gamespot