Let’s talk about the very brief history of the new Alone in the Dark video game. Publishers, Atari launch the title in June 2008 for the Playstation 2, Wii and the Xbox 360. The initial reception of the game was horrific, critics dubbing it as a next-gen disaster, due to shoddy camera controls, canned free-roam ability, God awful control scheme and combat. As I laughed away at friends who had purchased the title for their systems I heard the announcement that a re-make was already in works, this time launching for the Playstation 3 in later November. Atari and the development team, Eden Games, claimed that Alone in the Dark was now “fixed”, presumably fit for player consumption, so soon enough I had my hands on this so-called polished version of the game, now called: Alone in the Dark: Inferno.

          Never having played any of the games in the series, the narrative completely threw me off balance in the first few minutes. You assume the role of Edward Carnby, a man who wakes up after being kidnapped by a mysterious organisation. As you are led to the roof by them, suddenly an eraged fissure appears from nowhere and drags the thugs straight through walls of the building as it is about to collapse. Having forgotten everything about himself, Carnby races to find a man claiming to be his friend known as Theophile, who reveals secrets about Edward’s twisted past and informs him that Lucifer (the devil) plans to break free from his sacred bonds. The injured old man then hands an artefact to Edward in the form of a key, one that will seal away the devil for another era. Accompanied by Sarah, a stranger who you meet along the way, you all pile into a car and try to escape as the building starts to fall to pieces, but realise that the entire city is in chaos as skyscrapers topple, and huge spike rise from the ground. After a pretty epic drive, you end up in Central Park, where you must find its dark secret and cease the coming of the devil.

          The gameplay in Alone in the Dark can be summarised as straining and unorganised. Inferno added the ability to have complete control over the camera as fixed angles were frowned upon in the original game. However, there are numerous examples of fixed camera angles still being present at intervals. The game itself will have you racing between buildings in the first chapter or so, but as soon as you reach Central Park, you have the freedom to go where you wish, which sounds promising at first, but it’s a small area and is pretty much featureless. There also happens to be a certain survival theme to the game. All your items will have to be picked up or found from enemies, you can combine certain ingredients to make other weapons too, the most common being the Molotov cocktail requiring an empty bottle and flammable liquid. Instead of a health bar you will have to keep an eye on how Edward is moving or whether he is bleeding, if so you will need to use health sprays and bandages to patch him up and advance onwards. Other survival elements will include fire extinguishing, hot-wiring burnt out vehicles, and many other variation puzzles and instances.

          The game will only offer you a pistol as a main weapon, with which you can make custom ammunition for certain instances, but it will completely depend on your fighting style. Combat is a very complicated process within the game, you can either use your gun and other items, or instead adopt a melee weapon. Carnby can just about use anything as a melee weapon such as axes, branches, paddles, chairs etc. but they all serve the same purpose in bludgeoning your enemies to the floor via twiddling your analog stick. The only enemies you will encounter in the game are zombie-like creatures called Humanz, basically corrupted citizens who have fissures growing with inside them, which are the target points to killing them, you can batter them up as much as you want, but the only way to finish off Humanz is by exposing them to fire. The only enemies to offer any variation are the boss creatures, but are all eventually killed combining certain methods with flammable weapons.

          In terms of presentation, Alone in the Dark is a mixed basket. The visuals aren’t too shabby, character design is fair, but enemy design never witnesses any form of variation. The music score is very impressive; showcasing a female choir called “The Mystery of Bulgarian voices” which may sounds like a very strange name but suits the theme of the game perfectly. Voice acting is impressive but when paired with a fairly cheesy script you can go away thinking that Eden Games could have done much more behind the story-telling.

          I had only had a brief rush-in with the original 2008 version of Alone in the Dark for the Xbox 360 which I had many issues with. Hoping the Playstation 3’s revised edition would be a completely new game was a fool’s wish, and has indeed been a disappointing ordeal, but at least scores a fraction higher than the first version.