Alone in the Dark

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Alone in the Dark (disambiguation) .

Alone in the Dark
Lettering of the game series Alone in the Dark 1-3
developer	Infogrames (1992–1994) Darkworks (2001) Eden Games (2008) Pure FPS (2015)
Publisher	Infogrames (1992–2001) Atari SA (until 2018) THQ Nordic (since 2018)
First title	Alone in the Dark (1992)
Last title	Alone in the Dark: Illumination (2015)
Platform (s)	3DO , Acorn Archimedes , DOS , Dreamcast , FM Towns , Game Boy Color , iOS , Mac OS , PC-98 , PlayStation , PlayStation 2 , PlayStation 3 , Sega Saturn , Wii , Windows , Xbox 360
Genre (s)	Action adventure , survival horror

Alone in the Dark [ əˈləʊn ɪn ðə dɑːk ] is a computer game series by the French company Infogrames (now Atari SA ), which is assigned to the genre of action adventure games and is considered the founder of the sub-genre survival horror . It is about the private detective Edward Carnby, who specializes in supernatural cases.

In September 2018, the Swedish publisher THQ Nordic acquired the trademark rights to Alone in the Dark from Atari.

Computer games

Alone in the Dark

→ Main article : Alone in the Dark (Computerspiel 1992)

The first part, which appeared in 1992 for DOS and in 1994 for the 3DO console, was based on the Cthulhu myth devised by HP Lovecraft , in which the actors are confronted with unspeakable monsters that cannot be grasped by the healthy mind. The player slips into the role of either Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood and starts in the attic of an old mansion , where the artist Jeremy Hartwood committed suicide. After the doors of the house mysteriously locked upon entering, the player explores the mansion. On the search for an escape route from the property, the player encounters various supernatural beings such as zombies and giant rats, against whom he has to defend himself with various weapons. In addition, it is always important to solve various combination, thinking and search puzzles. In various recordings, the player learns more about the background of the property and the supernatural processes.

Alone in the Dark was originally supposed to appear under the title Call of Cthulhu in collaboration with the Chaosium company , which u. a. also published the pen & paper role-playing game of the same name . However, the company ended its collaboration during the development phase, and for licensing reasons it became necessary to change the intended name. The type of graphic presentation was technically completely new in 1992. Unlike most action adventures of the time - but not for the first time - the game-relevant moving objects (such as players, opponents or isolated objects) were designed completely as 3D objects (without textures and with only very few polygons ). This was made possible by the permanently positioned virtual camera ( third-person perspective ). This enabled the image backgrounds to be displayed as drawn flat images that simulated the impression of a spatial environment through perspective coordination with the 3D objects. If the player left the field of vision in the current background image, there was a camera change and thus a new background image with a suitable realignment of the 3D objects.

Jack in the Dark

Jack in the Dark was a short game produced as a teaser for Alone in the Dark 2 that was released in 1993. It was both a technology demonstration and a not entirely serious story for Alone in the Dark 2 .

The girl Grace, known from the second part, is locked in a toy shop for Christmas. The toys are alive and their leader, One Eyed Jack In The Box, has kidnapped Santa Claus. Grace has to deal with the evil toys in the classic style of Alone in the Dark and solve various puzzles.

Alone in the Dark 2

The second part was released in 1993 for PC and later also for Sega Saturn , PlayStation and 3DO . The Sega-Saturn and PlayStation versions were released in Europe under the title Alone in the Dark: Jack is Back and in the USA under Alone in the Dark: One-Eyed Jack's Revenge . The Japanese Sega-Saturn version, however, had no subtitles. The game uses the same technology and gameplay features as its predecessor, but is larger in scope. The course of the game no longer takes place in one location, but leads the player to different, connected locations such as a maze, a mansion and a pirate ship.

In 1924, a year after the events in Derceto, Edward Carnby specialized in cases with psychic backgrounds in his profession as a private detective. When his friend and partner Ted Stryker disappears without a trace while searching for a kidnapped girl named Grace Saunders, Carnby decides to follow the lead. This leads him to a mansion called Hell's Kitchen, in which a notorious gangster boss resides with his followers. Carnby quickly finds out that Ted was murdered, so he sets off to explore the property to find Grace and find out why the gang kidnapped her. He realizes that the gangsters are in reality the physical forms of ghosts of long-dead pirates.

In Alone in the Dark 2 the player mostly only slips into the role of Edward Carnby. The player also takes on the role of the little girl Grace for short, given passages. In this role, the player cannot defend himself directly against attackers, but must primarily avoid confrontations or flee from danger. Furthermore, the opponents are no longer typical zombies like from the 1st part, but ghosts that have taken on human form again. Thus the adversaries are now talking e.g. B. and also resort to firearms.

Alone in the Dark 3

The 3rd part of the series, which was released in 1994, this time only for PC, has the same technology and basically unchanged gameplay of its predecessors. However, the game is set in a western scenario and thus offered an uncommon and uncommon scenario in the PC & video game sector. In 1996 the game was re-released as a CD version for Windows 95 under the title Alone in the Dark 3: Ghosts in Town .

As in Alone in the Dark 2 , the player slips into the shoes of the private detective for paranormal events, Edward Carnby. In 1925, Carnby was commissioned to look for a film crew that had mysteriously disappeared without a trace, including Emily Hartwood, who was known from the first part. This was last seen while filming a Wild West film in the remote ghost town of Slaughter Gulch in the Mojave Desert . Edward soon discovers that the town is under a curse and that ghost cowboy Jed Stone is responsible for the disappearance of the movie people who set Carnby on numerous undead gunslingers. As the game progresses, the player also comes across classic zombies and even radioactive mutants.

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

→ Main article : Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

In 2001 the fourth part of the series was released for PC, PlayStation , PlayStation 2 , Dreamcast and Game Boy Color . Unlike the three previous titles, The New Nightmare was no longer developed by Infogrames itself, but by the small French developer Darkworks . He had developed his own game engine for the game , which made it possible to correctly calculate the light of the flashlight, which plays an important role in the game, for the 2D backgrounds. In addition, the 3D models such as objects and characters were textured for the first time in an alone-in-the-dark part.

In 2001, Edward Carnby, the "Detective of the Unfathomable," worked for the secret FBI Investigation Division 713, which investigates paranormal activity. Carnby's best friend and founder of 713, Charles Fiske, was found dead on Shadow Island, a mysterious island off the coast of Maine . Carnby discovers that Fiske was looking for three ancient tablets belonging to the ancient Abkani tribe. Carnby flies to Shadow Island with the young university professor Aline Cedrac. But the plane crashes shortly before landing, Carnby and Cedrac are separated from each other when they jump with the parachute. First left on your own, set out to explore an old manor house.

As in the first Alone in the Dark , the player has the choice between two characters (Carnby or Cedrac) and experiences different gameplay. In the course of the game, the player comes across numerous supernatural creatures, as usual, against which he has to defend himself with the help of various weapons. There are also various puzzles. The most important innovation here is that relevant objects in dark corners are not immediately visible. To do this, you first have to use the flashlight that the protagonist always carries with him to illuminate the appropriate places so that they can be recognized. To do this, the player can explicitly hold the flashlight in different directions (top, top right, bottom left etc.).

Alone in the Dark (2008)

→ Main article : Alone in the Dark (Computerspiel 2008)

The 5th part of the series, which appeared in June 2008 and was simply titled Alone in the Dark , was released for Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 and Wii . The game was developed by Atari's French developer Eden Games . With this title Alone in the Dark finally made it completely into the 3rd dimension. In addition, some basic gameplay elements were changed, so that the classic survival horror had to retreat a little and the game became much more action-heavy. In contrast to the earlier parts, the player no longer only experiences the events from fixed camera perspectives, but sees the events from a third-person or first- person perspective . This gives the game a much more action-oriented gameplay. It is also possible to short-circuit and drive cars in order to cover longer distances and explicit driving passages. The entire game is divided into eight chapters, each of which tells a completed subplot and ends with a cliffhanger , similar to a television series. The player also has the option of “fast-forwarding” and skipping passages at any time, as with a DVD film. A further development of the Twilight engine was used for the game, an in -house development by Eden Games, which was already used in Test Drive Unlimited . The Havok physics engine was integrated into this . B. allows fire in the game to realistically expand to other combustible objects and destroy them at different speeds depending on their mass and nature. The PS3 version came out later than the rest of the versions and was released on PlayStation Network under the title Alone in the Dark: Inferno .

Alone in the Dark: Illumination

→ Main article : Alone in the Dark: Illumination

In August 2014, Atari announced a sequel to the series developed by Pure FPS at the PAX East trade fair . Alone in the Dark: Illumination was released on June 11, 2015 exclusively for Windows and includes a cooperatively playable campaign for up to three players. The game received very bad reviews from the press.

Adaptations

Comic

• Hubert Chardot & Carnby (plot), Lazzario Suerte (drawings), Pierre-Yves Fourrier (colors): Alone in the Dark ( One Shot ), Vents d'Ouest 1994 (today Glénat ). ISBN 2-86967-314-0 .
  A free retelling of the plot of Alone in the Dark 3 ; Created in connection with a comic about the Adventure Prisoner of Ice, also by Infogrames .
• Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier (authors), Aleksi Briclot & Matt Haley (drawings): Alone in the Dark: Life is a Hideous Thing , Semic Comics 2001 (France) and Image Comics 2002 (USA).
  Prehistory to Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare , with a story about Edward Carnby and Aline Cedrac in search of the lost city of Aggartha in Tibet and the crown of Genghis Khan . The title corresponds to a quote from HP Lovecraft.

Film adaptations

• In 2005 the film of the same name appeared shortly after the fourth part of the game series, Alone in the Dark with Christian Slater as Edward Carnby in the leading role. The director was Uwe Boll, who specializes in filming video games .
• In September 2008, Alone in the Dark II was released as a direct-to-DVD production . This time the directors were Michael Roesch and Peter Scheerer , Uwe Boll was only a producer. Ralf Möller can be seen in the main roles .

influence

Not only the presentation, but also the type of scary plot and atmosphere was copied in a number of games. Alone in the Dark is considered to be the founder of the subgenre survival horror . The genre finally became known primarily through the Resident Evil series. To this day, most survival horror games are essentially the same as the first part of the series in terms of gameplay and user interface .

In 2006, Frederick Raynal, together with Michel Ancel and Shigeru Miyamoto, was the first game designer to be named Knight des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres , the highest cultural award in France for special merits in the artistic and literary fields.

Web links

• Alone-in-the-Dark series at MobyGames (English)
• Alone in the Dark - Review at Abandonia
• (German) average rating at Critify

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Alone in the Dark" and "Act of War" go to THQ Nordic on gamesmarkt.de (accessed on September 20, 2018)
2. ↑ Edge editorial team: The Making Of: Alone In The Dark ( English ) In: Edge (magazine) . Future plc . May 11, 2010. Archived from the original on May 15, 2012. Retrieved on May 3, 2012.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Hardcore Gaming 101: Alone in the Dark
4. ↑ Electronic Arts crée une branche Comics et BD numérique
5. ↑ author page
6. ↑ PC Retroview: Alone in the Dark
7. ↑ France awards medals to game designers