"I'm Alone in the Dark!"
"I'm Alone in the Dark, Too!"
Best quote ever?!
Memes aside, Alone in the Dark was always a series I knew nothing about despite my huge love for the survival horror genre (at least, the old tank control style) and this year I thought it would be nice to fix that. With how much I've heard about it being unplayable """""aged""""" dogshit I figured I wouldn't really get much out of it, but I kinda appreciated it a lot tbh? lol
My favourite aspect was definitely the atmosphere. The fact this shit came out in 1992 is actually uncanny to me. Every single document in the game is voice by various different narrators who are implied to be the writers and it's just one hell of a neat touch. The voice actors simultaneously sound as if they've had a million roles before, and like they're total amateurs. I don't know how else to describe it, the overacting is just godlike.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161553663240716368/AITD.mp4
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1163702809548570725/damned_yankees.mp4
The visuals are so antiquated but I honestly think it only adds to the vibe of the game taking place in a Lovecraftian mansion. It's not the scariest game ever but I genuinely got frightened at multiple moments in the game, including the glass shattering at the very beginning. Like Emily and Edward's models are so pixelated and jaggy (especially in their faces) they look like a living blowup doll with lipstick smeared on and a man made out of triangles, respectively. It's just hilarious seeing them slash equally awkwardly animated pirates to death. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554573090107412/image.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554441854525531/image.png
The music is honestly stuck in my head at this point. The game is about 2-3 hours long and only has like 4 tracks, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't immediately google a 30 minute extended cut of the ending theme the instant I finished the game. But it's the way the music is utilized in the game that truly makes it stand out like jumpscare chords in a B-horror movie; case in point https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161569731229274153/DOSBox_0.74-2.1_Cpu_speed__8000_cycles_Frameskip_0_Program__INDARK_2023-10-11_03-41-54.mp4
The story of course is nothing deep, but I really love how the documents all serve to create a cohesive sense of setting, that the player truly is Alone in the Dark mansion as they piece together puzzle solutions from the aforementioned overacted documents. There are also some books that will kill the player upon reading them which is still something unique to do in the survival horror genre even today.
Also, a misconception to address. Motherfuckers online said there are no differences between the male and female main characters, and I'm here to say that's a load of horseshit. Even without finishing the game as Edward, I noticed that Emily's campaign differed in multiple ways including her intro being different and her monologuing about her deceased uncle upon finding his pictures. Though, frankly, I 99% just played her on account of her running animation not looking like she had a candle stuck all the way up her arse https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554246462877786/run_animation.mp4
Right, the running and document reading....
The gameplay loop is funny as fuck ngl. Cheap deaths are so frequent in the game that I would dare to call it fake difficulty, save for the the player can quick save and quick load multiple files, with my favourite out of left field death being this one: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1052492536125607966/1162324435752202300/AITDeez_nuts.mp4
Hell, I'd go as far as to say that the game WOULD be unplayable dogshit were it not for the quick saving and quick loading. No judgement to anyone who uses them, but I personally never use save states in emulators since I feel like it removes all the fun from challenges to overcome for me and also prevents me from fairly judging a game as it's more akin to repeatedly bashing my head on a wall than improving my fundamentals. Alone in the Dead feels like a game that simply could not exist in a playable state without these save states, and I feel no guilt using them since the game was clearly balanced around them.
An example of this can be found in the gunplay. On top of having BS deaths to worry about, the characters cannot aim for shit with the rifle especially. Readying a gun or sword takes a trillion years and there is no snappy auto-aiming, so smol monsters can and will just stunlock the player until all 50 HP are depleted. It's so egregious!
Thankfully, the player can just as easily stunlock enemies with their melee attacks (which shockingly were much better to the point I actually had fun meleeing the zombies to death) provided their positioning is on point.
Hell, I even kinda liked the gameplay on the whole. Exploring the mansion was pretty fun, it was more compact than I expected and the running was quite fluid despite the lack of a quick turn. I've seen people online post about how the running was super finnicky and unreliable, but a pro tip to all reading who are interested in playing this....
The default GOG config is borked. There, I said it. In DOSbox, increasing CPU cycles makes inputs delayed and less reliable. By using CTRL+F11 and CTRL+F12, one can manually adjust the virtual CPU cycles. Setting them somewhere in the 8000-10000 range should just about serve to make the running animation consistent, definitely something to experiment with.
I'm not sure if the CPU cycles affected the jumping either (I doubt it tho) but with the complaints I heard about the platforming in the final area, I was surprised I managed to perfectly platform across everything first try. It was kinda rad actually.
Fuck it, this is a pretty strong 7.5/10 to me. If the game was better balanced, there was more music, the main characters were fleshed out a bit better, the experience was slightly scarier, and especially if the weapons didn't suck ass to use, this could be a strong 8+/10 game.
However, the fact it was the first true attempt at a 3D survival horror game, yet still managed to have unique ideas for the genre even today, memorable voice acting even if not necessarily for the right reasons, 2 campaigns with minimal bugginess to them, and an otherworldly atmosphere? I just can't help but love it. Truly one of the most important video games of all time, I definitely respect the vision. Happy October!
"I'm Alone in the Dark, Too!"
Best quote ever?!
Memes aside, Alone in the Dark was always a series I knew nothing about despite my huge love for the survival horror genre (at least, the old tank control style) and this year I thought it would be nice to fix that. With how much I've heard about it being unplayable """""aged""""" dogshit I figured I wouldn't really get much out of it, but I kinda appreciated it a lot tbh? lol
My favourite aspect was definitely the atmosphere. The fact this shit came out in 1992 is actually uncanny to me. Every single document in the game is voice by various different narrators who are implied to be the writers and it's just one hell of a neat touch. The voice actors simultaneously sound as if they've had a million roles before, and like they're total amateurs. I don't know how else to describe it, the overacting is just godlike.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161553663240716368/AITD.mp4
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1163702809548570725/damned_yankees.mp4
The visuals are so antiquated but I honestly think it only adds to the vibe of the game taking place in a Lovecraftian mansion. It's not the scariest game ever but I genuinely got frightened at multiple moments in the game, including the glass shattering at the very beginning. Like Emily and Edward's models are so pixelated and jaggy (especially in their faces) they look like a living blowup doll with lipstick smeared on and a man made out of triangles, respectively. It's just hilarious seeing them slash equally awkwardly animated pirates to death. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554573090107412/image.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554441854525531/image.png
The music is honestly stuck in my head at this point. The game is about 2-3 hours long and only has like 4 tracks, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't immediately google a 30 minute extended cut of the ending theme the instant I finished the game. But it's the way the music is utilized in the game that truly makes it stand out like jumpscare chords in a B-horror movie; case in point https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161569731229274153/DOSBox_0.74-2.1_Cpu_speed__8000_cycles_Frameskip_0_Program__INDARK_2023-10-11_03-41-54.mp4
The story of course is nothing deep, but I really love how the documents all serve to create a cohesive sense of setting, that the player truly is Alone in the Dark mansion as they piece together puzzle solutions from the aforementioned overacted documents. There are also some books that will kill the player upon reading them which is still something unique to do in the survival horror genre even today.
Also, a misconception to address. Motherfuckers online said there are no differences between the male and female main characters, and I'm here to say that's a load of horseshit. Even without finishing the game as Edward, I noticed that Emily's campaign differed in multiple ways including her intro being different and her monologuing about her deceased uncle upon finding his pictures. Though, frankly, I 99% just played her on account of her running animation not looking like she had a candle stuck all the way up her arse https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1161554246462877786/run_animation.mp4
Right, the running and document reading....
The gameplay loop is funny as fuck ngl. Cheap deaths are so frequent in the game that I would dare to call it fake difficulty, save for the the player can quick save and quick load multiple files, with my favourite out of left field death being this one: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1052492536125607966/1162324435752202300/AITDeez_nuts.mp4
Hell, I'd go as far as to say that the game WOULD be unplayable dogshit were it not for the quick saving and quick loading. No judgement to anyone who uses them, but I personally never use save states in emulators since I feel like it removes all the fun from challenges to overcome for me and also prevents me from fairly judging a game as it's more akin to repeatedly bashing my head on a wall than improving my fundamentals. Alone in the Dead feels like a game that simply could not exist in a playable state without these save states, and I feel no guilt using them since the game was clearly balanced around them.
An example of this can be found in the gunplay. On top of having BS deaths to worry about, the characters cannot aim for shit with the rifle especially. Readying a gun or sword takes a trillion years and there is no snappy auto-aiming, so smol monsters can and will just stunlock the player until all 50 HP are depleted. It's so egregious!
Thankfully, the player can just as easily stunlock enemies with their melee attacks (which shockingly were much better to the point I actually had fun meleeing the zombies to death) provided their positioning is on point.
Hell, I even kinda liked the gameplay on the whole. Exploring the mansion was pretty fun, it was more compact than I expected and the running was quite fluid despite the lack of a quick turn. I've seen people online post about how the running was super finnicky and unreliable, but a pro tip to all reading who are interested in playing this....
The default GOG config is borked. There, I said it. In DOSbox, increasing CPU cycles makes inputs delayed and less reliable. By using CTRL+F11 and CTRL+F12, one can manually adjust the virtual CPU cycles. Setting them somewhere in the 8000-10000 range should just about serve to make the running animation consistent, definitely something to experiment with.
I'm not sure if the CPU cycles affected the jumping either (I doubt it tho) but with the complaints I heard about the platforming in the final area, I was surprised I managed to perfectly platform across everything first try. It was kinda rad actually.
Fuck it, this is a pretty strong 7.5/10 to me. If the game was better balanced, there was more music, the main characters were fleshed out a bit better, the experience was slightly scarier, and especially if the weapons didn't suck ass to use, this could be a strong 8+/10 game.
However, the fact it was the first true attempt at a 3D survival horror game, yet still managed to have unique ideas for the genre even today, memorable voice acting even if not necessarily for the right reasons, 2 campaigns with minimal bugginess to them, and an otherworldly atmosphere? I just can't help but love it. Truly one of the most important video games of all time, I definitely respect the vision. Happy October!
DeemonAndGames
6 months ago