Alone in the Dark’s influence on the industry has been pretty large, very much pioneering the survival horror and allowing games like Resident Evil to exist. Unfortunately, though it’s a game that has struggled over the years. 2008’s ridiculously ambitious soft reboot “Inferno” could have been a great return, but didn’t hit the mark, with some fundamental problems that put the series on ice. Meanwhile, 2015’s Illumination took the franchise’s core and turned it into a third-person cooperative shooter. Quite the opposite of what the title implies.

Since Illumination, the franchise has been on hold until now. Marking an almost ten year gap between games, 2024’s Alone in the Dark is a hard reboot that is a complete reimagining of the 1992 classic that started it all. On top of this, bringing on some top-tier talent with the writer of one of my favourite video game narratives of all time, SOMA as well as Amnesia: Rebirth. In addition to this, we have David Harbour and Jodie Comer, who take on the lead characters. All the ingredients are there for a great cosmic horror adventure, but unfortunately, Alone in the Dark does not relight the franchise.

Set in the 1930s, you play as Edward Carnby, a hardened detective hired by Emily Hartwood to investigate the Derceto Estate and the disappearance of her uncle, Jeremy Hartwood. Once they arrive they discover a series of supernatural events that shift the very world around them.

At the start of the game, you will have the choice to play as Edward or Emily throughout the entire game. For my initial playthrough, I decided to go for franchise lead Edward Carnby, played by the excellent David Harbour, who does a great job in this role. Disappointingly, these two very rarely meet up, really only ever for brief moments as one character loses their mind.

Thankfully, the story of Alone in the Dark is engaging. A typical Lovecraftian horror tile with the same tropes: deals with cosmic entities, characters losing their minds, and all sorts of weirdness does a great job of pulling you into the game world. If, like me, you are a sucker for this sort of stuff and don’t mind some issues, then I can recommend this title already. Its story engaged me from beginning to end, even though the ending fell flat with a rushed and unsatisfying conclusion. The strong central mystery remains a compelling point. Sadly, it just left a little too much unexplored.

Whilst Resident Evil 2 Remake’s implementation of the dual protagonist wasn’t perfect, it did a great job of making both characters feel different enough. Even though the destination was the same, the route varied in interesting ways. Here though, instead of two characters branching paths through the same environment, one character will be doing their own thing, whilst the other follows the main story. It’s a disappointingly bare bones system; outside of a single mission and unique dialogue, there isn’t anything special about each playthrough. Both characters follow the same path to reach the same destination with little variance.

Much of the game will be spent exploring the Derceto Estate, searching for clues, interacting with the weird residents, and solving some simple puzzles. This is where Alone in the Dark is at its best. The Derceto is a reasonably small area that can feel a bit too restrictive, yet I was enjoying exploring and backtracking. Some of the puzzles themselves are surprisingly creative, having you comb over the environment to look for clues and use a cipher for the passcode. Although, other puzzles are just fundamental puzzle pieces that don’t really provide a challenge or don’t do anything ambitous. However, I will say they still aren’t bad, and somewhat succeed at where recent Resident Evil games have failed.

As you complete puzzles and delve deeper into the Derceto Manor, you  will uncover darker secrets as the environment morphs to your action. I won’t spoil the surprises here, because the shifting environments are seriously creative and a huge surprise as to how it was done and where you go. Both tie into the themes of the game’s story and individual characters’ backstories. Unlike Layers of Fear, where turning around will change the environment every five seconds, Alone in the Dark is much more reserved with this concept, and it’s for the better. Every time a new environment showed up I was hooked.

It very much feels like a return to the roots of survival horror, where exploration was as much of a key component as survival. Unfortunately, that’s where the fun ends and everything surrounding the survival horror aspect just falls flat. To start outside of a few tense situations, Alone in the Dark just isn’t a scary game, with only a few of the game’s scares even coming close to landing. Whilst I can recommend the game for its Lovecraftian mystery, if what you want is a solid survival horror experience, then this is where things get messy.

The combat is where things truly start to fall apart and begins to feel more like a budget Resident Evil title. Moving to an over-the-shoulder perspective, if you’ve played any of the recent remakes, you should know roughly what to expect. The problem here is that the scenarios you encounter, the threats you face and the core mechanics are just very boring. 

Throughout the game, you will gain access to a pistol, shotgun, and a Tommy Gun (as well as another weapon briefly at the end). They all feel somewhat competent for a budget title, but are lacking in any impact. Don’t go in expecting the shotgun to shred pieces of your enemies; it just feels floaty and unresponsive.

Emily and Edward will also be able to pick up a vast array of melee weapons, such as hatchets, oars, and pipes. Using these simply aren’t very satisfying at all as you swing them wildly in the air. They are also very weak, breaking after just a few hits, but are found extremely frequently throughout the environment. The last part of the gameplay loop has the throwable items scattered throughout the environment, such as rocks, which can be used to distract enemies if you want to do some stealth or stun them. You can also find Molotovs to do some damage over time. However, these are also really clumsy to use, and not being able to store one for later does feel like an oversight.

I found the best strategy for taking out enemies is to hit them once with a gun to stun them, melee a few times, dodge their attacks, and repeat. Doing this most of the time will get you through the game and outside a few enemy types like the crawlers will do the trick. There are also some very light stealth mechanics, but it’s not worth the extra effort. The levels are too small and it just feels too sluggish to get through with stealth. it’s probably better to just play this like a really bad shooter.

Play the game on the hardest difficulty with survival horror settings turned on for the most true-to-form experience. There’s little handholding, which made the puzzles all that much better. Unfortunately, the difficulty of the game just isn’t there. Resources are still plentiful all out and with a wealth of melee weapons, I never found myself running dry on ammo, nor health supplies. Most encounters can be completed with a simple combo of shooting an enemy to stun them, spam melee, dodge, and repeat, whilst many other encounters can be skipped.

There are very few interesting combat encounters and the few boss fights are some of the genre’s worst. My few deaths throughout my six hour journey as Edward were the result of shoddy hit detection. To make matters worse, death doesn’t have any consequences because of generous checkpoint placements, and in fact, can be a benefit. If you run to a checkpoint and die you can end up skipping combat encounters. It’s disappointing as the core combat mechanics bring down a reasonably solid exploration and puzzle experience.

The visual side of Alone in the Dark is also very interesting. There is an undeniable amount of atmosphere dripping in the game’s shifting environments and quieter moments. However, weak enemy designs and rough edges make the game feel ugly and rushed.  To make matters worse, playing on PC there are semi-frequent stutters, especially when moving in the environment. Thankfully, this does not occur in combat.

David Harbour is wonderfully cast as Edward Carnby. In fact, I can’t imagine any other big-name actors who I would like to see in that role. Meanwhile, Jodie Comer fits in wonderfully as well. These two actors play off each other well for the few scenes they have together, and I was really hoping for more from them. Elsewhere, the cast does a decent enough job adding to the creepy vibes, as well as a pretty solid soundtrack that is pretty era-appropriate.

Alone in the Dark had the potential to be a truly great game; I was really rooting for it. All the ingredients are present for a great cosmic horror story with interesting characters and a horror environment that could have been one of the best in years. If that’s all you want, then I would recommend picking this up on sale. However, the lacklustre gameplay, bugs, and weak horror segments bring this experience down. Maybe this franchise should be left Alone in the Dark.

 

Graphics: 6.0 Some great designs and at times dripping in atmosphere, but technically rough around the edges and lacks ambition.	Gameplay: 4.5 Solid puzzle and exploration can’t save the rough gameplay.
Sound: 8.0 David Harbour and Jodie Comer carry a solid narrative.	Fun Factor: 5.5 Alone in the Dark has a compelling central mystery that doesn’t manage to reach its full potential.
Final Verdict: 5.5

Alone in the Dark is available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070 and Ryzen 5 5600X. Installed on NVMe.