32 years ago, in 1992, Alone in the Dark left its mark on the history of video games, in front of the very first survival-horror game in its history. A French pride, carried by Frederick Raynal, which would inspire many games in the years to come.
Subsequently, Alone in the Dark had the right to several sequels, which were never supervised by its original creator and which never managed to reach the quality of the first opus. Five games were released between 1994 and 2015, failing to seduce players and fans of the genre.
Finally, in 2018, THQ Nordiq bought the license and entrusted it to its studio Pieces Interactive for the development of a remake, inspired by Capcom's work for the remakes of Resident Evil2 and Resident Evil3. THQ's goal was to offer a game that would follow the plot of the first opus, while incorporating references and characters from other Alone in the Dark games. Does the result live up to our expectations?
Welcome to the home of Derceto
This remake of Alone in the Dark puts you in the shoes of Emily Hartwood or private detective Edward Carnby. These are the two main characters of this opus, brilliantly embodied by actress Jodie Comer (Free Guy, The Last Duel, Killing Eve) and actor David Harbour (Stranger Things, Suicide Squad, Quantum of Solace).
The game offers you to choose one of the two characters. The only regret is that this will not radically change your adventure. Indeed, whether you decide to take Emily, or Inspector Carnby, you will live the same experience, with the same chapters and the same puzzles. The only changes will concern certain lines of dialogue and a few cutscenes, but nothing really incredible. Too bad.
Emily Hartwood and private detective Edward Carnby go to Derceto's house to find traces of its owner, Jeremy Hartwood, Emily's uncle who has mysteriously disappeared. As soon as they arrive, Emily and Edward understand that something strange is happening with a gloomy and disturbing atmosphere.
You will have to investigate and explore the entire house to understand where Jeremy is. Very quickly, you realize that a strange sect and divinity could be at the origin of this disappearance.
A paranormal investigation
Alone in the Dark invites you to investigate the disappearance of Jeremy Hartwood. To do this, you must search the entire house to find essential clues to solve puzzles that will allow you to advance your research.
However, we regret having fairly repetitive puzzles, both in their unfolding and in their resolution. They often involve the same processes, the same mechanics, not very complicated to solve for the most part. Be careful, however, some approximate translations of the documents can give you a hard time understanding what you have to do.
By solving the different puzzles, you will find keys to unlock the doors of the house, which will lead you to objects or documents written by Jeremy, allowing you to solve your investigation. But to do this, you will have to investigate a strange sect and the deity Derceto. Your investigation then takes a completely different turn, between the real world and a parallel, horrific world, with strange monsters and creatures that will not hesitate to kill you.
Alone in this threatening darkness
The atmosphere of this remake of Alone in the Dark is really good. Whether in the real world, with this mysterious house, or in the parallel world, much darker and more threatening, we have a very well-transcribed heavy atmosphere. The staging is also of high quality, with some very well-crafted camera shots, helping to immerse us in the game. Let's point out that this remake of Alone in the Dark remains a modest "AA", with a much smaller budget than the "AAA" games. We quickly feel the technical limitations, however, the title still offers us some great things in certain details, such as the staging. We feel that the cutscenes are worked on and this clearly helps us to immerse ourselves in the story.
The sound ambiance is also successful and contributes to this immersion. The dubbing (the game is only available in the original version, subtitled in French) is of high quality, with a good performance by Jodie Comer and David Harbour. The ambient sounds are also very good, whether it's the noise of the monsters and creatures, but also the general sound atmosphere which, throughout the adventure, does not reassure us.
Limits quickly reached
In terms of gameplay and graphics, we quickly feel the limits. If the game is far from ugly, it is far from the most beautiful games on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The landscapes and graphics as a whole are acceptable. On the other hand, we feel a lot of gaps in the modeling of characters and faces.
Concerning the gameplay, here again, we find a fairly rigid game, far from revolutionizing the genre. You have the choice between fights with firearms (revolver, submachine gun, shotgun), but also a wide variety of bladed weapons (shovel, axe, candlestick, pickaxe, etc.). The hand-to-hand fights are a bit messy, not very precise. As for gunfights, aiming is quite tricky because of a capricious camera that can quickly get overwhelmed by events in an intense situation.
Finally, it is in its narration that the title can be a little feverish. If the story as a whole is rather nice, on certain narrative passages, we regret certain inconsistencies. Whether you choose Emily or Detective Carnby, each will investigate on their own. On the other hand, it is really the protagonist that you control who will solve three quarters of the investigation. He is the one who will discover the clues and switch from one universe to another, risking his life on numerous occasions. In the sequences where Edward finds Emily, the latter is mocked by Emily who does not take him seriously and even suspects him of going crazy and of being useless. The latter does not even notice the detective's disappearance, his injuries and his damaged clothes. We would have liked better writing at this level, to have more credible exchanges.
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