It’s somewhat unsurprising that the 2024 return to the horror icon Alone in the Dark is, by far, the best game in the series in the past 20 years. Unfortunately, Pieces Interactive’s return to Resident Evil’s forerunner is still underwhelming, although it’s certainly worth a go for those who long for the return to Edward Carnby.
Alone in the Dark 2024 isn’t a remake like Capcom’s revivals of classic Resi games. Instead, it’s a complete reimagining, offering a new take on the original game’s plot as well as gameplay more fitting for a game released 30 years later.
In this revival, you play as either Private Investigator Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood as you look into the disappearance of Jeremy Hartwood, Emily’s uncle plagued by visions of another world. Set just after the Great Depression, your journey to the psychiatric nursing home of the Louisiana-based Decerto Manor offers a unique setting, one that often dotes on the line of uncanny valley with a slight Twin Peaks rip-off vibe that never feels truly earned.
At its core, Alone in the Dark is a suitably trivial survival horror game. You search through Decerto Manor to find supplies and solve puzzles — most involving the use of talismans and keys — as you push forwards through the game’s underwhelming and underbaked story. It’s certainly got its charms, mostly due to the performances of David Harbour and Jodie Comer as Edward and Emily respectively, but it often fails to grab you in the same way as Resident Evil does.
For the most part, this is due to the fact that Alone in the Dark 2024 simply isn’t scary. While the original games are fairly light on the scares compared to modern standards, this reboot is somehow even tamer. As you explore the beautiful Decerto, you’ll often be pushed into an alternate spirit world where the actual scares happen. Sometimes this can happen at Decerto, other times you’re sent to a new location entirely, but the main bulk of scares happen in external locations, making the main arena of the game feel relatively safe.
This has the effect of making it incredibly clear when you can and can’t be hurt, a death sentence for any horror game. For the main bulk of play, you won’t be scared, and even when you are in one of the game’s combat arenas, you still won’t be frightened, but that’s for a whole different reason.
As it just so happens, Alone in the Dark’s sparse enemy design is not only rather uninspired but also rather stupid. Just like the slow, shambling zombies of Resident Evil 2, they’re easy to avoid, but they also lack any form of awareness. A few strewn bottles around the predictable fighting arenas can distract them and free you up, a neat mechanic for sure, but you’ll rarely even need to use them.
When you get into a fight, the experience isn’t much better with gunplay that lacks punch — and bizarrely causes many audio glitches, at least on Xbox — as well as enemies that lack meaningful responses to your attacks. Melee combat is more fun, as it forces you to get in close and smack your foes with paddles, axes, 2x4s and more, but ammo is plentiful enough that you won’t be using it all too often.
While this review is mostly negative, Alone in the Dark isn’t entirely awful. At points it can be fun, but it feels woefully unpolished. Set pieces are often cut too short and disconnected, which may be intentional. It feels like the game’s budget was wasted on nabbing recognisable actors instead of creating the game their faces are selling, and that’s a shame.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing in Alone in the Dark that’s standout, something not even true of the maligned 2008 reboot. Annoyingly, it’s standard - a run-of-the-mill, budget survival horror game that just so happens to star the second-best Hellboy actor and the amazing star of Killing Eve. It also manages to waste them, and shove the latter into a rough Louisiana accent that I’d rather they never did again.
Nevertheless, Alone in the Dark is a game that is worth a shot when it’s cheap, or if you’re a longtime fan of the series. For everyone else, it’s best to avoid.
Reviewed on Xbox Series with code provided by the publisher.
