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Disaster from start to finish- Avoid It. You've been Warned!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 22
Date: July 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've been reviewing games for Amazon since 1999. I've seen the worst of games...Daikatana, most especially. Now, after many moons have passed, I have come across one of the worst, if not, the buggiest, most annoying piece of program I have ever encountered in my life. Alone in the Dark is a major disaster, from it's storyline, dialogue, annoying voice acting, frustrating controls, unforgiving checkpoints, and the most buggiest collision detection EVER! The only PLUS in this game are the graphics but that's about it. So I'll keep my review straight and to the point:

GRAPHICS: Excellent. No complaints

CONTROLS: Main character moves like a tank with a bad engine. Controls are completely unresponsive. Some buttons do not function as stated. For example, you press A to turn off a flashlight. If you're holding a gun in one hand and holding a flashlight on the other, you can't press A to turn it off. You have to press the gamepad down, open your virtual jacket and then unequip from there. HOW TEDIOUS CAN THIS GET??? Another example: you're standing next to an object your wish to pick-up, an "pick-up object icon" appears telling you to press A. To pick up an object, press A. The problem with this is that turning off the flashlight you need to press A as well. So if you're holding a flashlight and you need to turn off it off (it has limited battery life by the way), you'll have to move away from the pickable object so you can turn off the flashlight.
Here's another example again: You have a zombie attacking you, controls say you have to double click the left analog stick to do a quick turn. If you're holding a gun or a melee weapon, quick turn won't work, but then sometimes it does!!!
And here's another example: Driving a car is like driving a bar of soap on a smooth glass. A slight turn on the stick will spin your car uncontrollably. There's an action sequence in this game that requires some driving. I will warn you now, prepare to do this about 200 to 500 times because you will fail.

BUGGY ACTION SEQUENCE: There's an action sequence on Episode 2 where you have to escape an earthquake. The entire driving sequence requires you to get away from the earthquake before ti swallows your car. Unfortunately, the car is just completely unresponsive. Second, there's a jump that you have to make before the entire road cracks open. Sometimes you'll make the jump sometimes you won't. What's weird is that once your car flies over the cracked road, the game will turn into a full motion video showing your car making the jump. But once your car lands, somehow the game randomly decides whether the earthquake catches the tail end of your car thus killing you instantly or by some algorithmic calculation, you do make it. But that's just half of the problem because this action sequence will continue for the next 10 minutes and if you fail halfway or even on the last part of this sequence, the game will throw you back to beginning of the sequence. TOTALLY UNFORGIVING CHECKPOINTS. By the way, you can't skip the full motion videos which means you'll be forced to watch cheesy FMVs over and over again everytime you fail an action sequence.

How about weapons you ask? Forget about using guns. Guns are completely ineffective against zombies (which you will be battling the entire game). So if ever you decide to collect ammo, well...it's pretty much useless and waste of space. Zombies can only be killed by fire. If you do have to use your gun to kill zombies, you'll have to find gasoline or any flammable liquid, combine it with your bullets, load your gun with said "gasoline dipped" bullets and then shoot the zombies. But wait, you can't just shoot them anywhere. Zombies have this glowing yellow areas of their body that's vulnerable to fire. So on top of mixing and matching items to make fire, you'll have to be a sharpshooter to hit the zombies where it hurts. Otherwise, you'll just be wasting time and ammo.

I think I've said enough. This game is the worst ever for 2008. Do not waste your money on this. Believe me, when I read the poor reviews, I told myself "Nah, I don't believe these reviews, I will buy it and try it myself." So now, I am $60.00 poorer, and my blood pressure just skyrocketed after playing this game. Avoid this game. Stick to the DOS version of Alone in the Dark.

crazy camera, crappy controls

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: July 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

One of the most disappointing titles of 08 is Alone in the Dark.

Pros:
- good visuals (but you often won't be able to appreciate them due to a crazy camera)
- good effects (fire and electrical)
- good soundtrack
- good (looking) inventory (it's only good conceptually though, NOT good in practice)
- a nice rebuild-a-world concept. Eden did this incredibly well with Test Drive Unlimited. I suggest you buy that game instead.

Cons:
- EVERYTHING ELSE
- the camera/view/perspective is insane and simply uncontrollable. This game has a 1st person/3rd person/3rd person (forced) perspective. It switches back and forth between these perspectives every 5 seconds against your will (you have no choice), disorienting you, and when the perspective changes the control layout also changes which is even further disorienting. This means that if you are looking around in 1st person (with right thumbstick - like every other game in the world) and the game sudden changes to 3rd person (because they think it's a neat cinematic gimmick), that right thumbstick no longer functions as it did before. In combat, it gets worse. that same thumbstick changes yet again depending on the weapon. Wow, that, is, nuts.
- first person view is too slow
- controls are insane and uncontrollable. As described above, they keep changing and you have to unlearn everything you just learned and relearn what the h*ll everything does based on what perspective you are in and what the situation is. That's the problem. Your brain will still be using the layout you were able to use 2 seconds ago, because that's natural, intuitive and the way most good games work. h*ll, even really bad games have consistent controls.
- there is NO option for the gamer to map the controller as in other games. If they'd put the controls in the gamer's hands, maybe this would have been a 2 or a 3.
- even if you master the constantly changing controls, they are still slow, clunky and unresponsive. Doing things like jumping and just trying to pick something up can be goofy.
- While the inventory system is interesting and has a professional looking interface, it functions like everything else in this game, with poor unintuitive controls. Beyond that, the inventory doesn't pause the action, so you'll get your butt kicked in combat trying to figure out what to do with the inventory...nice
- the use "fire to kill everything" gimmick is overused and seems a bit silly. Fire isn't ubiquitous in real life.
- dialog not really inspired
- story not really engaging
- don't really care about the characters
- driving is horrid. I won't even talk about it.
- combat is tedious, long, difficult and silly using the clunky controls. and again, UNINTUITIVE and utterly inconsistent.
- All of the above means POOR GAME TESTING. Somebody, somewhere at some point must have mentioned the camera and controls. My guess is that somebody did, they weren't the boss, and the boss never played the game.

Usually with bad games, you have things like bad AI which runs right at you, low-rez textures, bugs, poor collision detection, stuff like that. These are hallmarks of low budgets, rushed titles, noob programmers, etc...Alone in the Dark is very bad is UNUSUAL ways. Like they had a big budget, decent developers, and had good tools in their hands, but still managed to create a monstrosity. That crazy show "Cop Rock" comes to mind. A complete disaster.

A New Reality Series: The Back-of-the-Box Reviews #1

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: July 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

IMAGINE A WORLD: Where a puzzling control scheme is your own bittersweet ally! As boardroom-approved, scar-laden and anti-hero-riffic Hasselhoff look-a-like Eduard Carnby, you are now on the run through a Central Park haunted by glitches! Behind every gloomily-textured corner lies a confusing death that will have you glued to your TV in controller-twisting anger!

As you man your human tank of a main character, you'll see that Central Park is not what it used to be. Where a typical day might lead to a leisurely bit of relaxing entertainment, or at the very least a humorous glance at a horse taking a poo, now you will find a gritty (nay, mega-gritty!) bombastic yarn that splits at the seams with inspiring ideas. Rather than offer you what you expect, however, the producers here have instead worked closely with programmers to distribute a game that throws each and every one of your preconceived notions to the curb. In other words, what sounds good on paper has blossomed into an EPIC FAIL! Take that, gamesite previews!

THRILL! to the anguished, profanity-filled cliches that litter the dimestore script.
GASP! as everything you thought you once knew about beta testers is defenestrated before your very eyes.
SASHAY! through the hidden mini-game breakdancing/epileptic experience! Any graspable ledge or mysterious wormhole will cause your character to twitch, stutter, and perhaps even mysteriously die! Keep your finger in the general vicinity of the reset button!
CRINGE! as you accept your 10-dollars-off the Xbox version at Gamestop...BUT AT WHAT COST?!

(hyphens are copyright Back-of-the-Box Reviews)

P.S. please buy my used copy, as I am very hungry right now.

Save your money!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've played some really bad games in the past, but I have to admit that AITD has jumped up into the top 5.

GAMPLAY: Absolutely horrid.
GRAPHICS: Actually, pretty good.
SOUND: There's sound in this game other than grunts?

Okay so, hands-down the absolute worst controls in any game -- ever! The first five minutes of this game alone, will have you wanting to throw your controller across the room! Just wait until you have to fight an enemy. Moving you character is such a chore that any hopes of enjoyment are soon done away with.

In short, I simply can not understand how a game that has been delayed as many times as this, can still be this bad.

TRUST ME! Save your money!

A Nightmare to control.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: June 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game had so much potential. Production values are generally high, with some occasional glitch here and there. The main problem is that the game's pace is inconsistent. You should never find yourself bored in a game, and it happens more often then not in Alone in the Dark.

To make matters worst this might be the weakest controlled next generation game ever. It is not difficult in a way the ultimately rewards you with practice. From the start, until you get to the end, you will NOT like how the game plays. I felt like throwing my controller through the wall. Do yourself a favor, and skip this one until it drops in price. I assure you this one WILL drop soon.

Makes the original AitD look like a masterpiece...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I rented this from gamefly.com before even thinking about buying it, and am I glad I did. I played the original Alone in the Dark on a pc in the early 90's. It was a classic - scary, challenging without being frustrating and good game play. Even though the graphics are without question better in this 2008 edition, the scare factor is gone. Possessed persons and creatures in the game (in the game so far, as I haven't finished it yet and probably won't) are not frightening, mood music is not well timed/done or overdone in places. Movement is choppy and difficult - there's no moving from a pivot position, you don't have the freedom of observing in all directions if you're not in first-person mode, and overall directional control with the left stick just isn't smooth as, say, in Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty 4. The motion sequences can be choppy and laggy/delayed. There is a long intro chapter you complete before the title screen comes up in the game and if you had to judge the game on that alone, you would likely not buy a copy for your Xbox 360 collection. You can't skip action/movie sequences so game play feels like it drags more than it already does. Checkpoints (they're like autosave points)are weird, as you'll have to often view the action sequences again before you can continue to play from a checkpoint. Characters feel "flat" (no personality).

I don't recommend paying $60 or even $50 for this game. Pick up a used copy for $20 if you can. I was incredibly disappointed with this game. Makes me miss the original dos version.

I agree with Paul Arellano's July 1, 2008 review of this game. I somewhat agree with reviewer N. Durham's point concerning a decent game marred by technical issues. But IMHO, with this many technical issues, I *do* consider it a part of the game experience and can't extract it out of the overall enjoyment factor.

A complete disappointment.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It is just incredible to see how the series that created the genre has been destroyed by the las installment.

The game is full of technical problems that prevent you from having any fun whatsoever. It had a super great potential but they blew it by releasing too early and not paying attention to the actual game play.

Graphics are very good but that does not save a game at all. This is the only reason it got 2 stars, to tell the artists that they are the only ones who did a good job.

This only tells you the state of the Video Game industry. These guys have almost no process in their development cycle and whatever little process they have it is done wrong. It is very possible that they put the developers to work 60+ hours a week just as they did to us in EA for Superman, which was another disappointment, though not even close to the level of failure this game is.

As for the game, well, simply don't buy it, it is going to be a real disappointment and a waste of your money. In spite of the industry being in complete development dippers, some companies still manage to crate good games, this unfortunately is not one of them. Rent it if you want to see it, just as I did after reading the reviews here and I am glad to have wasted only $5 instead of $60.

You have been warned.

Decent Graphics, Terrible Control.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've enjoyed a few of the other Alone in the Dark games, because of their horror/scary game-play that few games can achieve. This game has loads of potential, but doesn't come close to using it. The most irritating part of this game is the control. At times it is not bad, but when you are trying to fight off the little monsters, it is quite frustrating. Also there are many glitches or hiccups in the game that will cause you to throw the controller across the room. Here are the pros and cons...

Pros:
-Decent graphics, not great, but not bad.
-The sound effects and the soundtrack itself are very good.
-Storyline really isn't that bad. Not too detailed, but enough to keep you interested.

Cons:
-CONTROL!!! Not only when walking and fighting, but also while driving vehicles the control is not very good. Enough of a problem to make you not want to play it.
-GLITCHES! At times when running around when a lot else is going on, you can get stuck in corners, walls, objects and anything else. Very frustrating and sometime can somehow just cause the character to die.

Over-all, this game has some very good points, but because of the horrible control, it makes the game almost unbearable. If you are a huge fan of the other Alone in the Dark games you may get really into this due to the scary game-play, good soundtrack and decent spooky graphics. But I believe many will shy away from this game due to the control frustrations.

Bad camera and controls

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Graphics are decent, but camera makes the whole game annoying. You find yourself struggling with the controls and camera angles, and it just ruins the whole game.

Maybe worth 20 if on sale, certainly not worth 60!!! This game will annoy you though, lol.

Disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: June 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The game have controls, camera and inventory management issues (for details read online reviews). It's a shame, so much technological achievements but no well implemented for the game playability. Wait for a price drops, an used copy, a bundle or a game patch (I doubt so).

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