Alone In The Dark

The first Alone In The Dark, on the PC, was somewhat of a milestone and it s easy to see why. The then great animation and fluid movement stood out from the stiff click and play titles so popular at the time. But compared to the other two reigning graphic adventure titles for the PlayStation, Resident Evil and Fade To Black, Alone In The Dark comes up empty.

You take control of detective Edward Carnby, a guy who could use a little exercise, who must rescue a little girl, kidnapped by One-Eyed Jack and his band of pirates. For all its spooky music and texture mapped environments, Alone In The Dark never really gets up to speed.

One major problem lies in the positioning of the camera angles. Often the chosen angle will be too far away to see what you re supposed to be doing, or will be positioned in an awkward way, so you can t see who s attacking you. The control interface is a little awkward as well. Reloading or changing positions during battle takes time, and your assailant will begin attacking before you re fully back in your attack mode. Once they ve started shooting, you can t shoot back. It can be very frustrating, to say the least.

These problems aside, Alone In The Dark isn't a bad game. It just can't compare to the newer, better games.