Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360)
Alone in the Dark is another in the series of survival horror games dating back to the early 90s on the PC. Edward Carnby is the protagonist, and he’s really ugly. But that’s okay, because the game is so damn dark you won’t be able to see him, or much of anything else, for that matter.
This game is buh-roh-ken. The controls are quite possibly the most unintuitive controls ever in the history of video games. Even something as simple as picking something up and putting it down requires separate buttons. Combat generally involves moving the right thumbstick around wildly hoping you actually do something right. And then there’s the inventory screen, in which moving the left thumbstick only vaguely corresponds to what you intend to select onscreen. It would help if the onscreen tutorials weren’t so hard to see that you can’t tell what button you’re supposed to press. Often, picking up an item means you unequip whatever you’re holding, so you have to dig out your flashlight for the hundredth time.
Using the gun isn’t too bad, but it’s kind of pointless since the enemies are hardly affected by bullets. I think I unloaded about a dozen shots into one monster before he dropped to the floor. For about ten seconds. See, you have to burn enemies to kill kill them, which generally means grabbing a flammable object, lighting it on fire (incidentally, the fire effects in the game are nice, one of the few good things about it), then chasing them down until you can touch them with it. Exciting! This all makes moving Jill Valentine around in Resident Evil seem like a ballet in comparison. And the much-vaunted MacGuyver method of cobbling together weapons never actually took off, because by the time I gave up on the game, I still hadn’t collected enough items to make anything.
The one thing I like about this game is the presentation: it’s set up like a DVD (the game has eight chapters, akin to TV episodes, even beginning with a “Previously On Alone in the Dark” recap), so you can skip ahead if you want. I find that an incredibly clever idea and I wonder why nobody else ever thought of it first. The only problem with this is, if the game is so bad you have to skip forward to continue playing, why play it in the first place?
1 out of 5
Alone in the Dark is another in the series of survival horror games dating back to the early 90s on the PC. Edward Carnby is the protagonist, and he’s really ugly. But that’s okay, because the game is so damn dark you won’t be able to see him, or much of anything else, for that matter.
This game is buh-roh-ken. The controls are quite possibly the most unintuitive controls ever in the history of video games. Even something as simple as picking something up and putting it down requires separate buttons. Combat generally involves moving the right thumbstick around wildly hoping you actually do something right. And then there’s the inventory screen, in which moving the left thumbstick only vaguely corresponds to what you intend to select onscreen. It would help if the onscreen tutorials weren’t so hard to see that you can’t tell what button you’re supposed to press. Often, picking up an item means you unequip whatever you’re holding, so you have to dig out your flashlight for the hundredth time.
Using the gun isn’t too bad, but it’s kind of pointless since the enemies are hardly affected by bullets. I think I unloaded about a dozen shots into one monster before he dropped to the floor. For about ten seconds. See, you have to burn enemies to kill kill them, which generally means grabbing a flammable object, lighting it on fire (incidentally, the fire effects in the game are nice, one of the few good things about it), then chasing them down until you can touch them with it. Exciting! This all makes moving Jill Valentine around in Resident Evil seem like a ballet in comparison. And the much-vaunted MacGuyver method of cobbling together weapons never actually took off, because by the time I gave up on the game, I still hadn’t collected enough items to make anything.
The one thing I like about this game is the presentation: it’s set up like a DVD (the game has eight chapters, akin to TV episodes, even beginning with a “Previously On Alone in the Dark” recap), so you can skip ahead if you want. I find that an incredibly clever idea and I wonder why nobody else ever thought of it first. The only problem with this is, if the game is so bad you have to skip forward to continue playing, why play it in the first place?
1 out of 5
posted by Cole at
12:37 PM
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