Alone in the Dark

There’s a good game lurking somewhere underneath Alone In The Dark, sinking into a swamp of unnecessary extraneous systems and lackluster performances. At the risk of Monday morning quarterbacking, we find ourselves wishing it didn’t have a combat system—or, at least, this combat system—at all, instead focusing solely on investigating the spooky mansion and the occasional jaunt into extradimensional spaces. It’s briskly paced, its puzzles occasionally require an actual modicum of thought, and some of the horror ideas it’s trafficking in carry legitimate power. Don’t expect wading through all the dross to get to the good bits to be anything less than a trip into madness, though.