Alone in the Dark is neither a remaster nor a remake. This survival horror game is a reimagining of the 32-year-old original. Same setting, same characters, same basic story structure with differences. Unfortunately, there are also awkward fights and annoying puzzles. And above all, the most important aspect is neglected in the survival horror game. We tested the PS5 version.
Two Hollywood stars are the playable characters
The Original from Alone in the Dark is a classic. It has laid the groundwork for many other survival horror games in the 3D area. Whether for Resident Evil, Silent Hill or Dead Space.
Unfortunately, no other game in the Alone in the Dark universe has this Milestone status of the original achieved in 1992. The contemporary Alone in the Dark from 2024 does little to change this fact. So much in advance.
During the Intro sequence The game from manufacturer THQ Nordic and developer Pieces Interactive introduces you to the story. In a car the 1920s the two of you drive through a rural region in Louisiana.
You can watch the corresponding scene – and some other sequences – in the official release trailer:
He's behind the wheel Private detective Edward Carnby. Next to it his Client Emily Hartwood. The dialogue presented is written awkwardly, but the actors portraying it, David Harbor (Stranger Things) and Jodie Comer (TV series Killing Eve), entertain you with their performances. This applies to the original English dubbing and also the German dubbed version.
Just one story for two characters
You are on your way to a remote location Property called Derceto Manorto track down Emily's missing Uncle Jeremy. Once there, you have the choice, as in the original, whether you would rather control the detective or the niece.
If you play both characters one after the other, stay disappointment back. A few cutscenes differ marginally. All characters treat Emily more warmly than Edward. But everything else is identical, including the ending.
However, per character there is unique side missions. With Edward you relive a past investigation. With Emily you have to complete a lengthy stealth passage in which you can die a frustrating number of deaths.
Back to what looked deserted from the outside Scene. Inside, this is nothing more than a mental institution in which you meet the bizarre residents and the mysterious nursing staff during cutscenes that advance the story.
Everything becomes clear to you at the latest when entire rooms turn into foggy alleys or a swampy landscape full of enemies in front of your eyes or behind your back. This is about paranormal activities. The fact that the game experiments with the boundary between reality and imagination is a strength.
This is where the new interpretation differs from the original
You explore the impressive Derceto Manor institution extensively throughout the game. Room by room. Floor by floor. She is the one central location for numerous story events. But the literal game changer is an enchanted talisman.
With the three-piece gold jewelry you can leave the boundaries of the estate as Emily or Edward travel temporarily into dream worldsto understand Jeremy's disappearance piece by piece.
These dream worlds come from Jeremy's memories and provide visual variety. Sometimes you find yourself in a library next to a terracotta-colored courtyard. There you have to escape the shadow man feared by Jeremy.
Other times you feel like Indiana Jones in an underground temple complex in Egypt. Here you have to reflect incoming light with special lenses in a puzzle and use it to open locked doors.
Although the variety is welcome, these scenes do not reach the level of eerie and frightening environmental transformations of Alan Wake 2 (test).
Guesswork abounds
The Puzzle from Alone in the Dark take up a large part of the playing time. Without these passages, the duration of six hours per character would be reduced to approximately two hours on medium difficulty.
For the most part, classic puzzles await you. You have to find keys or open locked chests with the right combination. There are also far more more complex puzzleswhich extend over several rooms and can only be solved with information from found documents or books.
Where you initially enjoy solving a puzzle, a problem creeps in over time: lots of puzzles are annoying, because they are not challenging, just time-consuming. The pacing of the game suffers as a result.
In some places it remains unclear what the game or the developers want from you. In the selectable Old school mode You won't receive any hints or see highlighted items. For anyone looking for help, the Modern mode which gives you more help in the form of text displays. But even this doesn't always prevent you from getting stuck from time to time and not making any progress.
A game for lovers of doors and keys
The gameplay isn't innovative either. You often use them Mapto find your own way to the next goal. Because you appear on the map as a white dot with no direction, you often get lost. Too often. That's annoying!
Additionally, they prevent you from exploring the institution Doors locked or wedged, which you will encounter every minute. That's annoying too! At some point you automatically ignore your character's statement that you need a key for the door.
Between the puzzle and story passages the conflicts with the opponents disappoint. And on several levels. The variety of enemies changes between a human-like body made of tree bark and branches, an alien skeleton with long legs, a kind of predatory fish in swamp landscapes or oversized bats.
That's why they commute Secret passages between boringly easy and impossibly difficult. The result of the latter is situations in which all enemies in the area rush towards you. This also makes due to the awkward gunplay and des imperceptible hit feedback less fun.
Every melee weapon shatters
The Weapon variety doesn't deserve her name. You fire a pistol, a shotgun or a machine gun. Later in the game you will temporarily use a flare gun. That's it.
Even if the game flirts with old mechanics from the original, you can Poverty of weapons check off a strategic approach to combat. You just shoot around until nothing moves. What would have been an asset: an upgrade system for weapons or different types of ammunition.
Therefore there is Melee weapons. Rusty pipes, a pickaxe or a hammer. Everyone controls themselves the same. Everyone controls themselves poorly. Because the animations in close combat look awkward and choppy. They feel like that too.
But the worst thing is that the melee weapons after about five hits it will simply crumble into splinters in your hands. Then you have to look for a replacement. Because you can only wear one of them.
Alone in the Dark doesn't offer enough horror
Up to isolated jump scares This survival horror game has little to do with survival horror. No opponent is scary. Nothing creates great discomfort in you. The music is threatening at times, but nothing more. The sound effects of closing doors or crumbling stones are the highlights here.
Visually, the characters' faces are disappointing. Otherwise, the developers have added a lot of detail to all areas, but the game doesn't run smoothly even in performance mode.
Additionally Your character sometimes gets stuck on objects and can no longer move. Or the camera permanently zooms in extremely close to you. In both cases only a reload helps.
Alone in the Dark is already available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Test conclusion
Alone in the Dark could have been so much better in my opinion. This survival horror game advances on almost every level your own strengths into the background. Although the performances by two Hollywood actors are worth seeing, the written dialogue is less so.
Although the varied talisman levels shine with suddenly changing rooms and a lot of visual variety, what follows is a time-consuming, boring puzzle and awkward fights against interchangeable opponents.
In addition the stories of the two playable characters are almost identical. Even the ending. Alan Wake 2 offers a more clever approach with two interwoven but different storylines.
However, what surprised me the most is this lack of horror factor. Apart from a few jump scares, the game left me cold on this level. For a horror game, there is shockingly little horror.
Through the jazz music that appears in cutscenes, the cryptic dialogues with the bizarre residents of the institution and the story as such, sometimes emerges unintentional comedy. In these moments, I don't know if the developers actually intended my laughs that way.