Alone in the Dark (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

The original Alone In The Dark title was released in 1992 and still has a considerable fan base following. Revered for just about every aspect of the game, from its use of 3D graphics to the non-linearity of the gameplay, it still maintains a level of reputation that subsequent sequels couldn't match. It laid the foundations upon which the likes of Capcom and Konami built with the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series respectively but these ultimately eclipsed the sequels that came after this 1992 title. In need of a reboot, Atari went to the drawing board and in 2008, the series returned with the name Alone In The Dark, with hopes high that it would be able to rekindle the magic of the original.

Gameplay

You play as character Edward Carnby who has woken up in New York several years in the future, having not aged a single day, with no recollection of how he got there or who he is. At the start, you'll be carted off to the rooftop of a building to be killed but things don't go as planned and soon black fissures begin to appear and start tearing up the city and its people. Upon escaping, it comes to Edward's attention that Central Park, a place originally said to be for the people, is the focal point for all of the strange happenings in the city and so he takes it upon himself to search for clues to unravel what it is that is going and how he can possibly stop it. With a story that involves giant black fissures consuming a city and its inhabitants, mythical stones and zombies, the initial premise is set for something very special. Unfortunately, while the story starts out well enough, the gameplay that accompanies it quickly drags the game down in frustration and proves to be far from the ambitious start that the game hopes to be.

The game mashes together various forms of gameplay that'll see you fighting your way out of a burning, crumbling building, driving through the streets of New York to escape an oncoming terror as well as crawling through sewers and Central Park to uncover what is really happening but the open world nature of the more powerful console versions has been trimmed away for a much more linear presentation. This mish-mash of gameplay styles makes for a disjointed presentation with none of them truly fleshed out to provide a sterling experience. Like the story, it all starts out well enough trying to escape a crumbling building but the gameplay is so fraught with frustration and problems that it quickly degenerates. You'll have to shimmy along ledges and swing across wires but the game quickly shows its hand as being primarily trial and error as with little sign posting and an abhorrent lack of lighting, you'll dying over and over again trying to progress. It isn't helped by the game's lack of checkpoints and use of a third person viewpoint either. Combat revolves around utilising anything you can get your hands on in the environments or the very limited number of guns you'll find but it's not implemented well enough to provide any sense of fulfilment when it comes to defeating the enemies. Battling the ethereal beasts in the third person viewpoint is as awkward as many of the other gameplay elements but as you can switch to a first person view, it does become slightly more manageable.

The driving sections of the game provide a heightened sense of tension and atmosphere; something that game was striving to implement throughout. Yet the main problem here comes down to the controls and the fact that it defies any sense of logic. You'll have to drive flawlessly through an oncoming slew of traffic while the roads and buildings fracture and crumble before and behind you but the cars are so weightless that the slightest movement of the controller will send you thumping into an obstacle only to get a game over. It's constantly frustrating, as is the entire game, and although the penalty for death isn't that great, it means you'll have to go through the entire thing again from one of the few checkpoints that litter the 30 or so minute long episodes. The game has been designed, however, so that everyone will be able to see the ending with the game presented like a DVD of your favourite American TV show, with each section beginning with a 'Previously on Alone In The Dark' interlude. The menu is set up like a selection screen and once you've played through the first scenario, you can pick and play as you choose but even with this implemented, it doesn't alleviate the problems of frustration or poor gameplay.

Controls

Making use of both the Wii-mote and Nunchuk, the controls aren't as robust as perhaps they should be. With the game primarily taking on a third person view point, character movement feels robotic and difficult given the poor controls and the lack of camera control what with there being a fixed angle at all times. You can however change to a first person view point which does help to some degree, especially when it comes to wielding a gun and needing to aim at enemies, but even with this change controlling the characters just feels far from the natural state it should be. Actions are carried out by both button press and motion gestures but neither of these works particularly well. The A button is the prime action button but its responsiveness isn't where it should be and you'll often find yourself pressing the button numerous times before it even works. The same problems befall the gestures, which are used for the likes of strike with a picked up object, where you'll find yourself repeating them just to get them to work yet in some cases there are button alternatives that do a much better job. Motion is also primarily used for the driving sections and here, instead of being unresponsive, the controls are overly responsive making it hard to steer out of the way of oncoming traffic. All in all then, the controls aren't particularly great and it seems as though there was trouble getting the majority of the standard controls from the other versions to fit on the Wii-mote and Nunchuk.

Graphics

Being a multi-platform release, it was clear that the graphics were going to be inconsistent across the platforms but the end result is much more inconsistent with the console it is on. Alone In The Dark looks mediocre at best, with some of the graphics looking as though they've come straight from some of last generation's early releases. Textures look amicable but don't lend themselves to giving any allusion to the buildings or characters being real because they are of a lower quality than we've seen in other Wii games. The buildings and environments themselves are reasonably well designed, and you'll be greeted with some good dramatic warping of them at points which shows the game's ambitions, but owing to a severe lack of lighting, which is presumably to insight some form of tension into the play, finding your way through the unnecessary darkness to find items or what have you is incredibly difficult. The lighting itself, when it does appear, is poorly implemented and doesn't in any way help to illuminate the darkness nor does it feel natural within the environments, at times showing itself as a single plain instead of working in full 3D. Character models look jagged and poorly designed, with flat and emotionless faces failing to evoke any form of feeling or rapport. They aren't animated particularly well either, with instances of clipping issues cropping up when the characters are moving around the environment. With the game also trying to hit the DVD style setup, the game is littered with cutscenes yet the quality is inconsistent throughout and they generally look poor.

Sound

While the gameplay and graphics have faltered, the soundtrack hasn't. Creating a moving score which really permeates the action and events perfectly, introducing ambience and tension when it needs to, it is perhaps the highlight of the game showing that there is some quality to be had here. Voice work, while not quite at the same standard as the score, is adequately done but the script doesn't really do the game any favours, making the lines uttered by the many characters unbelievable due to the conviction with which they are spoken. The sound effects come off as the worst out of all the aural presentation, with there being a level of inconsistency pasted throughout. Regardless of where you are in a level, be it close to a source of sound or far away, the volume and clarity of the sound remains the same which is rather strange. There seems to have been an absence of thought for barriers which would dampen the sound but this sustained clarity is also a saving grace seeing as it's never truly clear where or what you are supposed to be headed for so it acts as a guide of sorts.

Final comments

Alone In the Dark is an example of a title that starts out with ambition and a good heart but ultimately falls far short of where it wanted to be. The majority of the game's aspects, from gameplay to controls to visuals, feels lacklustre and really does nothing to bring the ambitious elements to the forefront and build on them to make something decent and worth playing. It does have some saving graces, such as the audio work and a few moments through the story, but these are so far and few between that the end result is a game that's really not worth a recommendation. If more time had been spent on wrangling in the concepts then the end result could be entirely different. As it is though, it's one you should skip altogether.

Pro: Audio work is the only saving grace of the presentation, story as some good and memorable moments...
Con: ...But these are few and far between, controls are awkward and don't always work, visuals are poor
Final score: 3.8

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