Alone in the Dark (2024) review

    ALONE IN THE DARK (2024) is a survival horror video game that reboots the seminal horror franchise. The original Alone in the Dark predated even the original Resident Evil and established the exploration of a haunted house with private detective Edward Carnby along with socialite Emily Hartwood. It also incorporated elements from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos before they were as common as black clothing on Goths.

    As a huge fan of survival horror games and the Cthulhu Mythos, I was very excited about this game but am only now getting to review the work. I was also excited by the fact the reboot would star David Harbour as Edward and Jodie Corner as Emily. Really, I think both of them would have been good in a movie version. Certainly, it would have been better than the Uwe Boll version.

    The premise is that Emily has recruited Edward to help bring her uncle Jeremy back from the asylum that he is committed to. She has received a mysterious letter that indicates something sinister is afoot there. Upon arrival, they are surprised to find that the asylum seems to be a warm well-lit location full of lovable eccentrics than some sort of hellhouse. This sense of comfort swiftly dissapates, though, and the pair soon find themselves wandering between pocket dimensions full of monsters as Jeremy attempts to warn them away from whatever dark secret is affecting Decerto manor.

    Essentially, the game functions a great deal like Resident Evil 2. You wander around the mansion picking up ammunition, healing items, and keys inbetween solving simple puzzles. Sometimes you have to deal with the strange monsters that are half-plant, half-zombie. Combat is extremely simple with a pistol, shotgun, Tommy Gun, and melee weapon as your options during it. The melee weapons are breakable and you have a simple dodge button. Honestly, it's all very basic and not terribly difficult to master. The trick is not to run out of ammunition and being able to reload fast enough to take down enemies.

    The real heart of the game is the exploration as you follow the various clues scattered around the mansion before moving to your next room. The puzzles are a bit on the simple side but a few of them jump in difficulty and rely on things like astrology that I have almost no experience with. There's also the quest for forbidden knowledge items that can't be completed on a single run with the total of them requiring you to play the second game as the other player character. There's only two bosses in the entire game and I managed to beat them within a couple of tries.

    If it seems like I'm running the game down, I'm not. I like a light easy experience but it does play into the game's biggest flaw: it's not scary. It's far closer to PG-13 than R and while it does get more menacing in the latter quarter of the game, I feel like it should have probably started there. Too many of the characters are on the cutesy side and the art style doesn't help, being somewhat cartoonish contrasting against the protagonist's scanned faces. It creates an unintentional uncanny valley, though.

    The use of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and the 1920s Louisiana setting, though, really elevates this game, though. It's not just some scattered references to HPL's work here and there but a broad collection of them that tickled me every time I found one. The accents aren't always perfect but the developers made an effort to incorporate history from the Depression, Civil War, Prohibition, and Jazz eras. The characters may be a bit too goofy for a horror movie experience but all of them are memorable and enjoyable to deal with, which is a rare thing in video games. I actually wish the 7-8 hour game was longer so I could interact with them more.

    In conclusion, I really enjoyed Alone in the Dark (2024). It's not a spectacular experience like Resident Evil 2 or Silent Hill 2's remake but it is a fun and immersive video game that I enjoyed. Its biggest flaws are they could have gone harder on the horror and it's a little too easy (amping up the difficulty won't fix the puzzles ease). If you're a fan of 1920s Cthulhu Mythos fiction like the classic Call of Cthulhu, this will be absolutely up your alley.

Available here