01-24-2008, 10:18 PM
Director Uwe Boll was more than a little unkind to the Alone in the Dark franchise with his 2005 Christian Slater-powered cinematic schlockfest, but Atari is looking to restore this seminal survival horror series' good name in May with a new release, simply titled Alone in the Dark. The game will bring longtime hero Edward Carnby forcibly into the present day. In previous installments, Carnby was kicking it in the roaring 1920s, but now he'll find himself alive in modern New York City, clothed in contemporary garb and fully aware of his past life eight decades earlier. Naturally, one of your goals will be to figure out just how in the heck all this came about.
On your way to discovering the truth about Carnby's predicament, you'll slog through a number of unpleasant and creepy scenarios, fight off various unsightly denizens of the night, and solve a number of environmental puzzles--at least, if our recent demo of the game was any indication. The first leg of the demo began in a level set inside one of New York's sewers, which Carnby had to navigate from one end to the other. You'll be able to play Alone in the Dark from either the first- or third-person perspective for most of the game, though we were only able to see from the third-person perspective in our demo--the presentation of which reminded us a lot of such games as Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War.
The sewer level showed off some ghastly enemies and shooting action, like you'd expect to see in a survival horror game, but we were more interested in some of the unique mechanics at work in Alone in the Dark. For one, the game simulates fire more realistically than any game we can remember. Flammable materials, such as wood, can catch fire and burn realistically, with other materials also catching fire due to its proximity. Once an object, such as a chair, is alight, the fire will slowly climb up to consume it, first charring it then reducing it to burning embers and ash after a few moments. We only saw a brief demonstration of this system, but we're guessing it will figure into a number of puzzles in the final game.
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On your way to discovering the truth about Carnby's predicament, you'll slog through a number of unpleasant and creepy scenarios, fight off various unsightly denizens of the night, and solve a number of environmental puzzles--at least, if our recent demo of the game was any indication. The first leg of the demo began in a level set inside one of New York's sewers, which Carnby had to navigate from one end to the other. You'll be able to play Alone in the Dark from either the first- or third-person perspective for most of the game, though we were only able to see from the third-person perspective in our demo--the presentation of which reminded us a lot of such games as Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War.
The sewer level showed off some ghastly enemies and shooting action, like you'd expect to see in a survival horror game, but we were more interested in some of the unique mechanics at work in Alone in the Dark. For one, the game simulates fire more realistically than any game we can remember. Flammable materials, such as wood, can catch fire and burn realistically, with other materials also catching fire due to its proximity. Once an object, such as a chair, is alight, the fire will slowly climb up to consume it, first charring it then reducing it to burning embers and ash after a few moments. We only saw a brief demonstration of this system, but we're guessing it will figure into a number of puzzles in the final game.
Clikc here read more