Finally got a chance to play through “Alone in the Dark” and I have to say that the game has gotten a bad rap which it doesn’t reserve. Is it a perfect game? No. But it’s still a hell lot of fun to play and when you are talking about a “game” then that’s all that matters.

The original “Alone in the Dark” was a seriously scary game and launched the survival horror genre. We play survival horror games to be scared and the new “AitD” succeeds in that area to the point that I had to primarily play the game during the day or with the lights on and the TV volume turned down. Keeping the TV volume low was key because it’s really the detailed sound effects and eerie music of the game that caused me to jump out of my seats more times than anything else.

Breaking away from open sandbox games, “AitD” uses an episodic structure similar to what was seen in “Lost: Via Domus.” The story is broken into 8 parts and playing through them gives one the sense of watching a TV season or mini-series. Because I am such a TV junky, I absolutly loved this aspet of the game. There are plot twists, cliff hangers, and everything you’d expect from a real TV show.

Adding to both the scare-factor and story emersion is the graphics. They are just flat out pretty! For the most part the graphics are beautifully rendered to the point that they look too real to be in a game. To really make uses of the graphics though, you need an HD TV and you need to see fire effects at night. They are flat out goergous and something you’d expect to see in a summer tent pole film. Flames litterally lick walls and beheave so real that at times you forget your playing a game and not watching a movie.

The most frustrating and problematic part of the game is the gameplay itself. Nearly everything in the game can be used as make shift weapon, but god help me if there weren’t times when it was nearly impossible to pick up the item you wanted becuase it was too close to another item. If this were a simple adventure game then it wouldn’t be an issue but when you have a demon about to pounce on you and you’re trying to pickup a chair to use as a shield it becomes extremly agrivating.

Related to the gameplay are the controls. At times they can be clunky and durring the sequences when you need to drive you feel like you’re pushing a box around instead of steering a car. Of course these complaints are no different than the crap-shoot that is “Grand Theft Auto IV” yet for some reason people seem to ignore these problems in GTA and make a huge issue out of them in “AitD.” And you know what? if there is a certain sequence that you are having problems beating, then you can just use the episode structure and jump ahead to the next episode! I mean if GTA had had that feature then the game would have been 100 times better.

So to sum up… is “Alone in the Dark” a great game? No. But it’s a good game and in terms of scare factor it’s right up there with “Bio Shock” so if you are a fan of the survival horror genre then it’s a must buy.  Even if you don’t like scary games, then you still need to check the game out to witness it’s amazing fire visual.