Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare Hands-On
Not satisfied with its has-been status, Darkworks is hoping that its latest Alone in the Dark game will wrest the survival-horror crown from Capcom. We've played the latest build, and here's what you can expect.
Ever since the announcement of Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, there's been quite an uproar about the series being the progenitor of the survival-horror genre. While the original Alone in the Dark indeed established many of the genre's conventions, subsequent installments in the series steadily flagged in quality, allowing Capcom's Resident Evil to steal the ball. Nowadays, Resident Evil, rather than Alone in the Dark, is what's synonymous with "survival horror:" It wasn't until after Resident Evil and its many clones began making a splash that the term itself was coined. At any rate, Darkworks--the developer of the Alone in the Dark series--has decided to give it another go with The New Nightmare, and the results seem to be working out very well.
Though it seems very hard to go wrong with a survival-horror game, given the genre's well-established conventions, a great many games serve as evidence that much can go amiss. Games like Vampire Hunter D, Countdown Vampires, and The Ring come to mind, as immediate evidence. Given the scarcity of successful executions, you'd think that developing a successful survival-horror game is something of a science. Whatever the particulars of the formula, Darkworks has apparently gotten it right.
Stories--and the ways in which they're told--are very important to such games. The New Nightmare's narrative is suitably creepy. At the outset, you're introduced to Edward Carnby and Celine Cedrac, the game's protagonists. The former is a hardened crusader against evil; the latter is an archeologist of the Indiana Jones variety. Both find themselves en route to the mysterious Shadow Island--the site of Edward's friend Fiske's demise, and the hiding place of three ancient tablets whose inscriptions Celine is charged to decipher. Once over the island, however, the duo's journey prematurely ends; their plane makes a crash landing, and they're separated. This is where the actual game begins, and you're made to choose one of the two characters, with each one's quest being slightly different. While there is a good deal of overlap between both characters' scenarios, approximately 60 percent of each one's path will be unique. Both scenarios will also differ in focus, in order to reflect each character's profile: Edward's will be markedly more rough-and-tumble and combat-oriented, while Celine's will focus on puzzle-solving and detective work.
Aside from cutscenes and FMV interludes, The New Nightmare uses a unique narrative device to sprinkle in tension during dull moments: the walkie-talkie. Both characters are equipped with one, which lets them effectively communicate with each other at any time. Hitting a shoulder button will cause the active character to access the radio and call for the other. Most of the time, however, the calls seem to go unanswered. We have seen quite a few scripted cutscenes, though, which involved some pretty lengthy dialogue between Edward and Celine. They seemed to occur at random moments, apparently activated by a timer, letting the story unfold naturally and organically. Needless to say, it can really spice up some of the harsher seek-and-fetch type moments of the game.
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare Quick Links
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- Infogrames
- Darkworks
- Horror Action Adventure
- Release: Jun 18, 2001 »
- ESRB: Mature
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