Finally,
I made it out of the underground parking garage. Finally! If you’re
one of those who played the X-box 360 version of Alone in
the Dark, then you know of what I speak and can sympathize
with my frustration. Suffice it to say though that the PS3 version
of the game has corrected what had been a frustrating and cumbersome
control system.

There are two surefire
ways in this industry to determine if a game is in developmental hell.
First, it misses the original release date given at the E3 and this
game missed the date by two years. Second, if the game is released
somewhere along the time that the E3 is actually happening. This is
an old trick by publishers eager to dump off bad games during a time
when they will receive minimal coverage (and in the process maybe
increase their sales as there will be less negative coverage) as all
attention will be focused on the new games paraded shamelessly at
the E3. The Xbox 360 Alone in the Dark more than
met both of these criteria.

Atari
also seems to want to distance themselves from the 360 fiasco as much
as possible, thus the subtle, but also very telling, name change from
Alone in the Dark to Alone in the Dark: Inferno.
Also, for the PS3 version, the control system has been made much more
user-friendly and the storyline has been tightened as some needless
and overly complicated scenes have been eliminated.

I
had played most of the 360 incarnation of Alone in the Dark,
but daren’t write a review for various reasons. First, there
is an option in-game to fast forward to the next scene, as if you
are watching a DVD, if you are stuck and I had used that option almost
exclusively thanks to the poor controls, so rather than actually playing
the game, I had spent most of my time watching it unfold. Secondly,
the Alone in the Dark series is one of my most favorite
franchises of all-time and it just wasn’t in my heart to blast
the game, even though it richly deserved the criticism.

The original Alone
in the Dark from way back when (1992) is widely considered
to be the father of both survival horror and the action/adventure
genre. It was also the start, for me, of some lifelong professional
friendships with talented artists like designer Frederick Raynal (Relentless:
Twinsen’s Adventure, Fade to Black,
Twinsen’s Odyssey) and writer Hubert
Chardot (Alone in the Dark 2 & 3, Prisoner
of Ice, Shadow
of the Comet).

Inspired
by the writings of H.
P. Lovecraft, the original Alone
in the Dark featured Edward Carnby, a private detective
hired to investigate the suspicious suicide of Jeremy Hartwood in
his Louisiana mansion. Set in the 1920’s, it combined 3D characters
with hand-drawn backgrounds, an innovative procedure for the time.

After two sequels the series
remain dormant for a few years until resurrected by Infogrames in
2001 with the immensely underrated Alone
in the Dark 4: The New Nightmare and then in 2005 for
unknown reasons was handed over to the infamous movie director Uwe
Boll who, along with the abysmal Tara Reid, did their best (or worst)
to destroy everything good about the series (may your eyes explode
in their sockets if you watch it).

Now,
sixteen years later, the series has returned to its roots with a storyline
that could have been penned by Lovecraft – giant fissures that
seem to emanate from the heart of Central Park are tearing apart the
infrastructure of Manhattan – and again starring the ageless Edward
Carnby, whose appearance almost seventy years after his last case
is an integral part of the mystery..

The game incorporates almost
every imaginable scenario. You’ll be driving cars, scaling crumbling
buildings, utilizing the environment to solve puzzles, leaping from
ledges, performing C.P.R., combining inventory items to create weapons
and occasionally even firing your gun, though not as much as you would
imagine.

For
those who are adverse to games that subsist on gunplay, Alone
in the Dark: Inferno does not have the usual compliment of
ridiculous weapons unfortunately common in too many action/adventure
games. Instead, your ‘arsenal’ consists of glow sticks
or flicking your Bic to turn a can of mosquito repellent into a blowtorch.
Yes, you have a handgun and later a magnum, but it was rare that I
used either to actually kill anything until about halfway though the
adventure when I discovered that fire bullets – created by pouring
flammable oil over your bullet shells – could stop some of the
monsters rising from the fissures. For the most part though, the gun
was used to create Molotov cocktail explosions or to ‘encourage’
automobile gas tanks or fire extinguishers to explode. Also – and
for me this is the most important feature – once you open your jacket
to access your inventory, you have ample time to choose your course
of attack without fear of backing out of the inventory screen only
to be surrounded by enemies. For a slow, methodical player like myself
this is usually the deciding factor as to whether I continue playing
or throw up my hands in desperation

Of
equal importance is learning how to use your flashlight to ward off
spreading darkness, or igniting wooden chairs to fend off and turn
creatures into crispy critters. The learning curve is very forgiving
and there were times when I would discover a new course of attack
that probably could have been used many scenes previously to make
progress easier, but I always seemed to stumble upon these new approaches
just at the most opportune time.

There are also some wonderful
puzzles incorporated into the game and one area in particular –
the discovery of a secret room in the Central Park museum –
was for me one of the highlights as it just felt like it was something
that would have been done by the developers of the original game back
in 1992 if they had had today’s development tools.

The
graphics – keeping in mind that I played on a 32” HDTV – are
often stunning and there are numerous images – such as the Vampirz’
bats nest or the unbelievably photorealistic view of New York City
from atop a crumbling building – that make a lasting impression.
Not all is perfect though as something as simplistic as Carnby’s
bobbing hair has a strange, claymation dreadlocks look that would
be better suited to Gumby. In fact, considering how amazing some of
the scenes of the city are, close-ups of many of the main human characters
are a major let-down. Sarah, the female lead character, is very unappealing
and Carnby looks as though he is a mannequin come to life.

Also problematic is voice-acting
that is a tad bit melodramatic topped off by an Edward Carnby who
sounds like a constipated Clint Eastwood in search of some Ex-Lax,
do…you…know…what…I…mean? Thankfully,
Edward is a man of few words. The other main characters fare a little
better, but that’s sort of like being the winning contestant
in a prettiest pit bull with lipstick competition.

There
are eight episodes altogether and each is broken into between three
and five segments. Whenever you return to the game, you are greeted
by an announcer’s deep voice, ‘Last time on Alone in the
Dark,’ followed by a visual recap all of which is very evocative
of episodic television shows such as Lost. This helps to not only
heighten the suspense, but also the immediacy of the situation. As
also does a soundtrack that is perfectly in tune with pushing the
action forward and packing just the right punch when needed.

So if you’re an adrenaline
junky, then hold on for dear life because if guiding a screeching
taxi cab through the streets of New York City as busses are twirling
overhead, while burst underground pipes shoot geysers of water skyward
and the erupting roads chuck cement slabs towards your windshield
doesn’t have your heart pounding through your chest, then you’re
in serious need of a defibulator my friend.

If
you are an adventure gamer who isn’t afraid to occasionally
dip your toes in the churning waters of action/adventures, then Alone
in the Dark: Inferno is a must play, much more so than games
like BioShock
or Half
Life that are primarily first-person-shooters. But if
you are an adventure gamer who is on the outside looking in when it
comes to this genre, then let the PS3 Alone in the Dark: Inferno
suck your point-and-clicking soul over to the dark side.