| Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare Alone In The Dark is the franchise that created the horror genre, but with this genre so greatly evolved, can the fourth instalment give us anything new? The story revolves around 2 characters, Edward Carnby and Aline Cedrac, they both are on their way to Shadow Island for personal reasons but also the same goal...which is to recover a set of stone tablets! As soon as you set foot on Shadow Island you will instantly compare this with past horror games including Resident Evil, Dino Crisis and Silent Hill, out of the 3 mentioned, Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare mostly resembles Silent Hill, but on the other hand, parts of it are very similar to Resident Evil...but more about these comparisons later. The game begins on a very dark winter night in the pouring rain...as Edward Carnby you start in the woods and as Aline Cedrac you start off on a big house roof...with Carnby you will have to walk a longer length to reach the mansion then you do with Cedrac..going through the woods with just the torchlight and a custom made colt to aid you..while on Cedrac's game the mansion is infiltrated almost instantly through a window on the roof...but at first she only has the flashlight to protect her! The graphics are amazing....pre-rendered scenery is lit up with the torch glow over the darkness, in fact the lighting does a lot for the games atmosphere..and that is where the comparisons to Silent Hill come in, the torchlight is used often just like Silent Hill...while the comparisons with the original Resident Evil are obvious as most of the game is set in a big scary mansion..but a much better and more beautiful mansion then Resident Evil's. The characters personalities are extremely good and full of depth...Carnby has so much character, while Cedrac is scared stiff as she is seperated from Carnby, the chemistry between these characters is good with the characters starting out having small arguments and then realising that they have no choice but to work together. Monsters make an appearence in the game early on, but that is where one of the problems lie as they are randomly brought back to life after killing them...meaning it feels like you are wasting bullets killing them again. AITDTNN is a great edition to the brilliant horror genre...wandering around a mansion in the dark with a torch is very traditional horror.....but traditional horror that has paid off nicely!!!Chris Wigham 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Opinions Round-Up "AITDTNN doesn't come at all close to the survival horror masterpiece that is Resident Evil, but still is a pretty good alternative if you want some more bloody action. I totally agree with Hawkeye, he has mentioned almost all the faults apart from the hard going difficulty which is just too much for this type of game, ammo is scarce but thankfully gameplay isn't!" Simon Wigham |