- Publisher: THQ Nordic
- Release Date: Mar 20, 2024
- Also On: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Jun 3, 2024When I first played this year’s Alone in the Dark re-imagining, I thought it was a very good but flawed experience. After this week’s massive update, I’m glad I waited a bit longer to do my review because it is now in a much better state, and is worth your time even if you never played the original. Just be aware of the visual cutbacks needed to get this running on Steam Deck. I liked it enough to get it on PS5 for a replay.
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Mar 27, 2024A lack of horror behind the captivating puzzle adventure. While exploring the Derceto Manor is consistently enjoyable, it is really hard to catch the sense of fear which is crucial to a horror game. Still, it might serve as a nostalgic journey for those who remember the original.
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Mar 19, 2024While it has plenty of rough edges, Pieces Interactive's take on horror royalty is the best the series has been in decades.
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Mar 19, 2024This reboot of Alone in the Dark is mainly driven by its characters and its story, whose particularly meticulous narrative resources immerse us in an intriguing atmosphere and scenario. Fighting and puzzles are unfortunately disappointing, with only a handful of memorable confrontations and a few (too few) devious puzzles. This 2024 version of Alone in the Dark won't become a genre staple, but it will keep survival-horror fans busy until the release of the Silent Hill 2 remake.
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Mar 19, 2024Alone in the Dark is undoubtedly an ambitious and researched reinterpretation, a tribute to the original game (and everything that came after) that delivers a new, compelling story, excellent acting performances, an interesting art direction, and nice puzzles but also a pretty sloppy combat design and outdated graphics.
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Mar 19, 2024Ultimately, this return of Alone in the Dark is a project that was only able to convince us halfway. On the one hand there is excellent writing, capable of keeping you glued to the screen for the entire duration of the campaign while, on the other, we find a playful structure that thrives on ups and downs and a shaky technical realization, elements that prevent the title from Pieces and THQ Nordic to take flight. In any case, fans of the genre and admirers of the brand might consider venturing into the gloomy Derceto manor.
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Mar 19, 2024Alone in the Dark’s clumsy action and boilerplate occult story may be off-putting to new players hoping for a Resident Evil-like glow-up. Meet the remake on its own terms, though, and you’ll find a charming '90s horror homage that doesn’t turn its nose up at gaming’s roots. It revels in its old-school design like a dedicated cultist, even inviting Hollywood actors to dance around the fire with it.
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Mar 19, 2024Alone in the Dark presents a promising yet imperfect reimagining that captures the essence of a mesmerising, atmospheric adventure game. However, it struggles to rationalise the inclusion of clunky combat and basic stealth elements that detract from the overall experience…Solid performances support a narrative rich in psychological and cosmic horror, motivating you to delve deeper into the mysteries of Derceto Manor, even though lackluster boss battles weaken the impact of its critical moments. While these action-oriented sections constitute just a fraction of the game, their lackluster implementation impedes the revival effort from achieving its fullest potential and matching the success of other recent survival horror remakes.
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Mar 19, 2024Alone in the Dark offers a good mix of puzzles, exploration and moments of good tension, but it doesn't really surprise or innovate.
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Mar 19, 2024Despite a few glitches and a rather classic construction, Alone In The Dark is nonetheless a game that you'll love to play. The game's ambience is clearly present throughout, and the pace of puzzle completion and progression is very well managed.
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Mar 19, 2024The survival horror genre has leaned more into action these days with greater success overall, such that it’s hard to recommend Alone in the Dark for its combat, which feels updated to modern standards when compared to the original but remains significantly lacking.
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Apr 12, 2024AITD is a game that does a lot of things well, but it is also burdened by its weaknesses. Enjoyable puzzles, a good script, and an immersive atmosphere are all lost in the surprisingly poor combat mechanics, bugs and technical issues that spoil the enjoyment of the game.
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Apr 12, 2024Alone in the Dark (2024) developers decided to run away and jump into the rich Survival Horror genre, without having any trump cards at the ready. That’s exactly what the authors of the new Alone in the Dark decided to do. The mystical plot of evil in the Louisiana swamps quickly turns into a disjointed kaleidoscope, where characters and any semblance of integrity are lost. The game system turned out to be obscenely poor: four types of weapons, five types of enemies, two types of puzzles! This thing can only be recommended to researchers of the genre, and other players do not even need to know about the existence of Alone in the Dark.
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Mar 19, 2024An old-fashioned Lovecraftian action-adventure game rather than frenetic Survival Horror, Alone in the Dark allows itself an interesting re-imagining of the founding episodes. Nostalgia unfortunately collides with obsolescence: even the hardcore fan of the license will have difficulty getting past systems that are too archaic. We would have appreciated that, freed from the chains of AAA with huge budgets and the need to necessarily do better than its competitors, the Pieces Interactive title tried more things, did things differently, allowed itself a certain radicality. It is not so. An adventure with a capital “AA”, imperfect in its substance as in its form, but sincere in everything it undertakes.
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May 13, 2024Alone in the Dark is a game that gets 60% right, and the rest is a mixture of poor or frustrating gameplay mechanics.
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Apr 30, 2024Another unsuccessful attempt to restart Alone in the Dark. I wouldn't want to see a sequel made in the same vein.
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Mar 25, 2024Alone in the Dark doesn't bring anything new to the genre; it's just a completely standard (non)horror adventure with action moments. It's a shame because this franchise probably won't get another chance for a comeback.
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Mar 19, 2024It’s not without its memorable moments, but Alone in the Dark fails to escape the shadows of the other contemporary survival horror titans that it helped spawn.
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Mar 19, 2024Alone in the Dark has fumbled once again, with this reimagining circling the drain to a pit of mediocrity. Though the game itself and the environments can be beautiful, it doesn't take advantage of its star-studded cast nor does it tell a story that is remotely sensical or engaging. Always offering just the bare minimum of staples for the survival horror genre and nothing more, it's sad to see the grand daddy of the genre be a shell of its former self. Maybe Alone in the Dark should remain exactly like its namesake.
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Apr 8, 2024Alone in the Dark builds its atmosphere competently but continually fails to pay it off. Okay puzzles and world design are drowned by flawed combat and dull writing.
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Mar 19, 2024Alone in the Dark is a B-class game that can be compared to projects like Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle and Song of Horror. But it can't even come close to the legendary original.
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Mar 19, 2024Alone in the Dark is a weak survival horror pastiche largely devoid of original moments. The occasional dash of character in its 1920s Deep South setting can't make up for repetitive puzzles and the feeling we've seen all of this before.
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Mar 19, 2024The game certainly gets better as time goes on, and the story is well-told enough that it's worth experiencing for survival horror fans. However, it comes with the caveats that the overall gameplay leaves a lot to be desired, and its survival horror contemporaries just do a better job on nearly every front.
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| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
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Mar 19, 2024I really do believe there’s a great horror game here. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve played up until this point and love the breadth of content on offer, as well as the intriguing puzzles and an environment that slowly evolves over time. Still, for now, I don’t recommend you buy this game until a patch has been released and I’m able to get through the entire thing for our final review. [Review in Progress]
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Mar 19, 2024It helps also that the latter stages of the game capitalise on groundwork laid in the more predictable first half. The locations you find yourself sucked into become that bit more intricate, with multi-part puzzles to wriggle through, and some combat situations that force you to move through the gears. Plus, each time you reemerge in Decerto, with everyone else none the wiser as to what you’ve been up to, the notion that the whole thing might be in your head starts to grip. True, there’s nothing especially original about a story that blurs the lines between madness and the paranormal, but it does inject doubt and paranoia into your investigation, which only makes you long to unravel the truth more. While spending time alone in the dark may not be as uncomfortable as it should be this time, then, with all the changes it may still be worth peering into the void, to see what returns your gaze.