Customer Reviews

Alone in the Dark

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4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Oh dear...this is the lowest score I have given to a PS2 game for a long time. Alone In The Dark on the PS2 fails really glaringly in many ways, and provides a thoroughly unsatisfying game experience.

The game is a kind of action/survival horror story, with you playing as Edward Carnby, trapped in a collapsing and monster-filled New York. Right from the start the controls will baffle you, and they conspire against you having any decent fun at every single opportunity.

Yes it's that bad. The game is almost unplayable due to the terrible, unresponsive and sometimes downright un-useable control system. Nothing works well. In several chapters, Carnby has to climb up and down ropes and swing about to reach ledges. The implementation of this makes it impossible to judge when to let go. Then there are the car driving sections...awful cars that don;'t even drive in a straight line even when you don't push the L-stick at all, and which spin off into instant death at the slightest clipping of any obstacle. Then there's the fighting...a gun that can only be fired in 1st person. Melee weapons that can only be swung in 3rd person. And both with a real time lag. Then there's the camera, constantly wobbling and bouncing around behind Carnby's head. You can't see the scenery or anything very clearly, let alone where you are running. Thank heavens the 3rd person viewpoint actually keeps still. Then there's the inventory...all in your pockets which you have to look in and pick things out of. Then there's the first aid packs and general healing. How does this work? I don't even know. And then there is...eyes-closed mode. Oh my god. Words fail me when trying to describe how terrible this is. You try keeping the R3 button held down without actually tipping it from side to side. And right at the end of the game theres a perilous twisting catwalk with instant death drops at each side to traverse, that you can only SEE in eyes-closed mode. I can guarantee you will be screaming. Screaming for your money back, probably. I'll say this though, the game designers have been fiendish in making you work out exactly what you have to do. There are no clues. Walk into a museum with a couple of monsters in it and there is no way out. Not a single clue. Walk into a factory where the floor is covered with deadly slime. "Use the spotlights" some helpful dame says. How? The panel has no instructions on it. And worst of all is the saving...save spots are at set points, and if you die somehow you often have to go back and do some tortuous skill-based action sequence over and over again, as many of the set-pieces are trial and error based. Hideous.

Now that just leaves the graphics, and these are no champions either. Characters are blocky and awkward. Carnby has this awful gaunt square-jawed hero face that looks really ugly. I have seen better graphics on PS2 games from five years ago! The collision detection is awful, and Carnby was forever teetering on invisible cliff edges or falling off when he should have been standing safely.

But I persevered and played it right to the end, bracing myself for a very uncomfortable finale...but let me tell you though, I was gobsmacked by the feeble winding up of the game. I actually thought I had got the "bad" ending and had missed out an entire final level. But no...a final nail in the coffin. Oh well at least I was happy that I could stop playing it.

Sorry folks, but this game is a stinker. Games are supposed to be about fuin, and with everything that's wrong here. Alone in the Dark is no fun at all.

The Alone in the Dark series goes back a long way (even pre-dating the Resident Evil franchise) in terms of pioneering the survival horror genre, with this new installment kind of being a re-boot for the series. Once again filling the shoes of paranormal investigator Edward Carnby, Alone in the Dark finds Carnby caught in the middle of an apocalyptic event while investigating strange happenings in Central Park. The first thing you'll notice is that Alone in the Dark boasts some wonderfully creepy and spooky environments that drip with eerie atmosphere. In fact, the areas are so well designed (even for the PS2 version) that you'll often find yourself admiring your surroundings while dodging demons and beasts. The game looks good in general as well, despite a few graphical glitches that occur, while the game's solid score adds to the overall survival horror atmosphere. What's really sad about Alone in the Dark is that the game's potential to be something special is marred by technical issues. Namely, just moving around can be a chore. The control issues that present themselves during combat and puzzle solving only add layers of frustration to the game, which is a crying shame, and the game's schizophrenic camera doesn't help make matters any better either. Despite it's flaws, Alone in the Dark does present some innovation in terms of it's item inventory use and some dramatic moments that will jolt you out of your chair. The game's story is intriguing, and there are some great lighting effects too. All in all, Alone in the Dark is a worthwhile trip that could have been something truly great, but in the end is brought down thanks to it's technical issues. Still, for survival horror fans, Alone in the Dark is definitely worth a look.

It's never easy getting hand me downs. But it's even worse if you're a video game developer, and you're in charge of adapting a video game meant for a next gen console to a previous generation console. No matter what you do, you'll never be able to re-create the experience exactly for gamers on the lower end platform, but you still give it your best shot, hoping that you can at least make it fun.

Yet, despite your best efforts, sometimes it just doesn't work.

Alone in the Dark is the PS2 incarnation of the next gen re-boot of the famous survival horror series. Taking the role of amnesiac Edward, you, the player, have to grab a gun, gather your wits, and attempt to survive a hellish night in New York City, where almost everyone is out to kill you. Granted, that happens every night in the big apple, but on this particular night, you've got zombies and demons to deal with. And not only that, you have to figure out exactly what's going on...why are monsters running around Central Park? What are the secrets hidden in your past? And most curiously...why is a group of mysterious individuals after a curious little stone? Sadly, the answers to those questions are buried deep in a game that, while having promise, ultimately gets buried in a mire of problems.

As a survival horror game, Alone in the Dark has all the standard action adventure staples...you run around in third person (being able to switch to first person if you want), gathering items and weapons, fighting monsters, driving cars, and solving puzzles. You've done this many times before in other games, but unfortunately, Alone in the Dark suffers from a control scheme that, at best, is frustrating. You move around with the left control stick while the right controls the camera, but the buttons for everything else is tricky to remember, often involving multiple button presses. For example, if you want to shoot your pistol, you have to press and hold L1, move the right stick to aim, and press R1 to shoot. You'll often to have to move in this mode (so as to avoid the monsters trying to tear your head off), and sometimes you'll have to enter eyes-closed mode (more on that later), which you activate by pressing down on the right control stick.

Sound confusing? Unfortunately, it is. It's not uncommon to be running around pressing all these buttons and trying to keep track of what's happening on the screen. While you adapt to the controls eventually, you never really feel comfortable with them. Driving vehicles, another large part of the game, is generally a pain, with your vehicles going too fast, making it easy to crash, and thus fail the game.

Visuals and sound don't really add anything to the game. As expected, the game looks nowhere near as beautiful as it's next gen parents, but in it's defense, it doesn't look all that bad for a PS2 game. Detailing is fairly high throughout the game, with some areas looking quite spectacular (such as an underground parking garage, as well as a big area near the end of the game), but while the graphics are acceptable, they aren't as good as other PS2 titles, such as Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, for example. The sound affects are acceptable, and the voice actors are the same, save for Sarah, who can really get on your nerves as the game goes on, sometimes to the point where you want to shoot her.

Special mention needs to go to the music...specifically how I think it destroys the mood of the game. While most reviews praise the game's soundtrack, I found it to be acceptable in some areas, but it suffers from being too loud and too present. While the music can build tension at the right moments, more often then not you're running around an empty park while children wail at the top of their lungs in Latin. As a result, any mood the game creates is destroyed by the overbearing music. I actually found it more fun to turn the music off, as the sound of wind, rain, and emptiness creates a creepier mood then the music ever does, especially in the game's third act.

But what really makes Alone in the Dark a painful experience to play is it's complete and utter lack of direction. Aside from a few scattered hints on the controls early on, the game leaves you completely to yourself with no indication of what to do, or where to go. In some cases, this isn't a problem (it's pretty obvious you need to drive a car to escape a street collapsing beneath you), but most of the time you'll be standing around, wondering exactly what you're supposed to do. In one level early on, you're in an underground parking lot. It doesn't take long to figure out that you need to find a car and drive out, but because almost all the cars look the same, you don't know which one to look for. Even worse, the game never tells you how to enter cars, and doesn't prompt you when you can enter them. As a result, I spent upwards of an hour trying to figure out what to do before giving up and looking at an online strategy guide. At another point, you need to reach a bathroom to get some medical equipment, but when you reach said bathroom, you aren't given any hints what to do next (I'll spoil it for you...you have to shoot a door open to get to the vital first aid kit). Sometimes you'll be grappled by monsters and be shown a knife in your hands, but with no instructions on how to use it.

Simply put, the lack of direction, or even hints, is what kills the gameplay experience, making it frustrating and a chore to play. This is a game where it's actually more enjoyable if you have a strategy guide to refer to, rather then trying to figure things out on your own. If the game had put in a hint system, such as the eyes closed mode (you click down the right control stick, and enter an alternate vision mode where you can occasionally see hidden paths), but the vast majority of the time, the game simply abandons you to your own devices, and it's very frustrating.

Even worse however, is the game's ending. Simply put, it's absolutely awful. You think you're getting a cutscene leading to the final boss battle...only to discover that the cutscene is the end of the game. And while there are two possible endings you can choose (though you aren't given any hints that this cutscene is interactive), both of them are bad. I guarantee that when the game fades to black and the credits begin to roll, you'll stare at the screen in shock and wonder if that really is the end of the game. Sadly, it is, and it makes everything you've gone through seem utterly pointless, especially seeing as some of your allies and enemies vanish, leaving you completely in the dark as to what happens to them.

However, despite it's shortcomings, there are some good things about Alone in the Dark. Despite a poor ending, the story is interesting to follow, and does become very interesting as secrets are revealed near the end of the game. Easily Alone in the Dark's greatest strength is the variety of the game play. From the beginning of the game to the end, you'll run, shoot, jump, rappel down numerous steep surfaces, climb up said surfaces, drive cars, hot wire said cars, administer first aid to yourself in first person mode, and even combine and use items. No two parts of the game feel alike, which makes the whole experience feel fresh and unique. The idea of being able to look inside your jacket and see (and select) all your items is unique, and I for one like the idea of the only gun you can use is a pistol...for once, you can't carry around a dozen weapons, and it makes the game feel more realistic. Furthermore, some of the stages are downright amazing. There's nothing like trying to maneuver around the outside of a skyscraper when it's collapsing all around you, or heading through the abandoned subway tunnels of the park, or in the game's creepiest level, spelunking through pitch black sewers, with only a cigarette lighter to light your way. And in the game's best feature, should you get stuck at a certain area, you can use a nifty chapter select to access any level of the game, even heading to the very end of the game if you don't feel like slugging through the rest of it. It's an extremely cool idea that works very well, and I wish other games had it.

However, despite it's unique gameplay, innovative chapter select system, and interesting story, Alone in the Dark's awkward controls, as well as a complete lack of direction or instruction, makes it a frustrating game to play, and it's horrible endings make the whole experience feel pointless. Once you know how to get past all the obstacles and puzzles, as well as adapting to the controls, the game can be fun, but unless you find it dirt cheap (I bought my copy for two bucks), I wouldn't recommend it as a purchase. Perhaps as a rental, but even then, I would recommend going for the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions if you can.

NOTE: PS3 Owners should be aware that if you play this game on a PS3, there's a bug that makes two ropes in the second half of the game billow away from walls as you climb down them, making it impossible to progress if you don't use the chapter select feature.

I have been a gamer for years... 36 years to be exact and this game was filled with innovative promise. I don't even know where to begin on how bad this game is. Woulda given it half to no star but that was not possible.

The concept is there... the gameplay, controls etc. is not. Even the storyline is a bit lack luster. I have worked for gaming companies and know what goes into making a single game... A LOT from start to finish.

Perhaps Atari needs to revamp their development teams or pack it up, go out of biz and take a vacation...

This is the worst game for the PS2 I have ever played and if it were possible to get my money back, I would. I might even ship it back to Atari.

Don't buy it.

A forever gamer, till the day I die.

LIKE I SAID, DONT BUY THIS GAME! IT TOTALLY SUCKS. I WAS ALL HYPED UP AND WAITING FOR THE RELEASE OF THIS GAME BUT I WAS TRULY DISSAPOINTED! THE CONTROLS ARE SO DIFFICULT TO GET USED TO AND THERE ARE SOME PARTS IN THE GAME WHERE IT GETS FRUSTRATING. I THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA HAVE CONTROLS LIKE THE ORIGINAL GAME RELEASED ON THE PLAYSTATION 1. THE CAMERA ANGLES ARE ALSO HORRIBLE. SO PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME OR IF U WISH TO CHECK IT OUT, RENT IT AND SEE FOR YOURESELF. DONT THROW 40.00 DOWN THE DRAIN LIKE I DID AND I WISH I WOULD HAVE NEVER PURCHASED THIS CAUSE THERES NO REFUNDS FOR OPENED GAMES!

Well first let me start out by saying that this review is on the PS2 version of Alone in the Dark. And from what I'm aware of, is completely different from the PS3 version.

Graphic-wise: It's the standard average for a PS2 game. Nothing terrible, but nothing spectacular. I'm assuming it would be better on the PS3 or Xbox360, since they have better graphics.

Soundtrack: This is perhaps the only positive feature this game has. It had some beautifully composed moments in some scenes.

Gameplay: I found the game anything but entertaining. It felt more like a chore trying to get through levels where most of the time your obstacles are just booby traps or exploring through dark-lit locations. There are monsters here and there but they don't exactly add anything to the game. They felt more like extras. Even the boss fights consist of shooting like crazy until they fall--you'd think there would be a strategy involved since nearly all the levels have strategies you need to develop to get by them.

There was nothing unique about the game that I saw made this game Alone in the Dark. It felt like an average PS2 action game you'd pick up on the shelf. Or leave on the shelf for that matter..

Story: According to others, the PS3 version of the story plays out very differently. But the PS2 version is anything but entertaining. The game starts off on an interesting note but then the storytelling just goes downhill after that. The characters do nothing to move the story along and were far from interesting and became boring/annoying very quickly.

The story dragged on for me. The levels and obstacles you had to get through to get answers and continue the story was not worth the time. The story is also very confusing where the ending didn't make much sense.

Technical Issues: A LOT! When they say "Alone in the Dark" they aren't kidding! The levels are so incredibly darkly-lit. Even when I turned my television brightness up, it hardly made a difference. The game did not have a brightness control either so for the entire game I was running around very much blind.

There were places in the game where the sound just dropped a few levels. So I constantly had to turn the volume up.

Overall: Weighing out everything about this game, it's not worth the time or money. The only reason it's survival-horror is because of how incredibly bad this game was made.

My suggestion, avoid the PS2 version of this game at all costs!

This is PSN ID GremDude here with my first PS2 review. I rarely play the PS2 but this game is one that I have wanted to try for a while. I loved the PS3 version(see my review for that one) and I have always wanted to give the PS2 version(which was released at the same time as the flawed XBox version) a chance to see if it was as bad as everyone says. Unfortunately it is. It is really horrible!!

First problem--the platforming. It is almost as if the developers wanted to see how many people they could get to rip the disk out of the PS2 and toss it out the window!! I have not seen platforming this bad since Sonic Unleashed The camera is always too close and sometimes they pull back the camera and you literally have no clue about distance, which way to go. Sometimes, the game actually expects you to use trial and error as you cannot see the area where you are supposed to be jumping to!! I am currently in the last area which has a ton of this type of platforming and I seriously have my doubts that I will have the patience to finish the game.

Then we have the driving! My lord!! I hated the driving on the PS3 version(which many say was an improvement over the XBox version) but the driving here is atrocious. Especially the last driving sequence which is sheer torture!! If you bump into anything, you are restarting the checkpoint. To make matter worse, the checkpoint has you doing the stupid mini game to jumpstart the car while this annoying kid is constantly yelling in your ear. Believe me when I say that in both driving sequences, you have to turn the volume down or go to the setting the turn off voices. It is again like the developers were trying to tell the buyers of this game how much they hate us!! That girl in the first driving sequence bi^*&s the whole time!! And you WILL have to do that one at least 10 times before you get it right!

It is really a shame as there were parts of the games I liked. The story and the setting. There were several moments that make you jump. THe boss battle in the ambulance was very cool(and they even gave us a checkpoint halfway through the battle which is nice.

Overall, the frustrations way outweigh the fun factor so I am going to have to say DON'T BUY THIS GAME AT ANY PRICE!!

THis is the worst game in the franchise i ever plated, new nightmare on pc was way better, first of all the graphics are terable and the controls are clunky

I think this is the lowest rating I've ever given any game. No matter how many times I attempted to play this game, I ended up dying, stuck, or just plain frustrated and bored. The sad thing is, is that I can see how this could've been a good game.

For example, the player should have the opportunity to save whenever and where ever he or she feels compelled to do so. This way, dying wouldn't feel so emotionally painful. Also, being able to free roam without being attacked would have been nice and could've saved the game for me.

The best feature of this game is the "Chapter Selections" option. But, that's not saying much when all you do is either stand there like a jack a** out of confusion or die over and over again. Shucks. Like I mentioned above, you can't even free roam in peace.

For those of you who can handle it, AITD could possibly be a fun game to explore, but as for me, I don't have the patience to keep dying over and over again only to be resurrected to the same old senseless death or even worse, feeling a bit confused for not always knowing what to do next.