Alone in the Dark Reviews

You better must choose if it’s worth spending your spare cash, because it might not be the game for you and it might be for others.

Alone in the Dark marks a fine attempt at contemporary survival horror mechanics but is completely adrift with an incoherent narrative, dull design, and baffling tonal choices.

While it’s great to witness the return of survival horror royalty, Alone in the Dark haphazardly follows modern genre trends where it once invented them. While it mostly succeeds at drawing players into a Lovecraftian mystery, it's hard to ignore the underbaked action elements used to patch these story beats together.

Alone in the Dark should be quite the event of a release. Serving as a remake of the original 1992 horror game, the title often described as the ‘grand daddy’ of survival horror, this is an attempt at bringing the series into the modern age.  The only problem is the franchise has tried this once before with the incredibly poorly received 2008 reboot. Sixteen years later and sadly, Alone in the Dark has repeated history, failing to capture modern audiences. A swing and a miss.

While this reimagining of the 1992 cult classic is lacking on some fronts, it makes up for the superb and unsettling atmosphere sprinkled throughout the whole game all while being a strong love letter to the original.

As it stands, it’s very hard - if not impossible - to recommend Alone in the Dark in its current state. Even if you can look beyond the blandness of its design, story, and gameplay, the sheer lack of polish is far too frustrating to warrant spending any money on. It’s a game that, without exaggeration, I had been looking forward to for years. All that’s left now, though, is a sour taste.

Alone in the Dark (2024) revisits the original 3D Survival Horror with respect for the 1992 game and the games inspired by it.

A '90s survival horror throwback modernized with a visual overhaul and much-needed QoL changes but hampered by rough writing and animations.

Alone in the Dark’s moments of homage will land more strongly with longtime fans of the original, and the optional director’s commentary in the upgraded PC install is a fun add-on to enjoy; it would have been even better to have included it with all versions of the game. Still, newcomers will have no problem going in cold, as the runtime of eight hours or so for an initial playthrough requires no previous experience with the franchise whatsoever. The value will lie in how immersed one finds oneself in Derceto's intrigues because, besides the personal trauma bubbling underneath it all, its monsters are pushovers.

Pieces Interactive’s 2024 reboot of Alone in the Dark reminds me in numerous ways of the classic Silent Hill games, for better and worse. Combat is impactful, but not always recommended. The drifts between Derceto and supernatural worlds are unsettling, but also janky. The characters feel compelling and mysterious, but also unemotive and somehow detached. And in all of that, it tells a truly intense story that cranks it to eleven by the end and sets up from something even more interesting. You won’t find a perfect horror on the level of Resident Evil 4 in this version of Alone in the Dark, but it still captures the trademark macabre psychological horror and compelling investigation that this series has been missing for far too long.

The 2024 Alone in the Dark is a deeply flawed game, but at least it's never boring. The first playthrough is fun despite its issues, mostly thanks to the campy story, and exploring Derceto is rewarding, even with the simplistic puzzles. The second playthrough is where it becomes apparent that there isn't much to the game. At best, it's an incredibly basic and generic survival-horror game that's stuck in the past, and at worst, it's buggy and doesn't justify its $60 price tag.

I did run into a few issues with the Series X version of the game.  I had it crash on me every single time I transitioned from Chapter 1 to 2, no matter who I was playing as unless I skipped the cutscene.  It was repeatable every time and during Chapter 2, at random parts while playing as Edward, my Xbox would overheat and shutdown.  I have never had the issue before and pulled up WWE 2K24 and let a CPU vs CPU match run for 2 hours immediately after without a hitch.  I was able to finish the game without further issues and the developers told me they hadn’t had this bug before so it may just be my machine.

Alone in the Dark isn’t flawless, but it’s definitely one of the best entries in the series so far and an accomplished reimagining. Its story will keep you on your toes, even if sometimes you might feel like it could have a little more fleshed out. And while the game’s combat doesn’t impress, the oppressive atmosphere throughout is effective at keeping you on edge. Throw in a bucketload of enjoyable puzzles to overcome, and you have a survival horror that’s well worth spending some time with.

Alone in the Dark has plenty of written text, from books and clues to patient files and transcripts. Every piece of writing includes voiced audio from the character responsible for it, and the voice work never falls flat. You could almost remove the visual side of the game entirely, and you’d be left with a compelling and clear mystery podcast.In a sea of remakes and unearthed old IPs, something rarely stands out as different enough from its original to feel unique while staying similar enough to earn the same title. Alone in the Dark 2024 achieves this balance shockingly well. This is a fresh story, but the respect and adoration of the original are clear at every turn. Because that original happens to be the grandfather of survival horror, Alone in the Dark is a must-play for any fan of the genre.

“Alone in the Dark is the confidently silly horror remake the 1992 classic deserves.”

The original 1992 Alone in the Dark, developed by Infogrames, is considered to be the first ever survival horror game. While I haven’t played the 1992 original, I have played many of the games inspired by its creation, including the Resident Evil series which I’m a big fan of, with the Resident Evil 2 remake being one of my favourite games of all time. Thirty-two years after the release of the original, Alone in the Dark has been remade by Pieces Interactive, bringing the investigation of Jeremy Hartwood’s disappearance to life with modern graphics built on the Unreal Engine 4 and with performances from award-winning actors Jodie Comer and David Harbour.

Alone in the Dark (2024) is a stunningly designed game with a fantastic cast, though it has a couple of issues, too.

Alone in the Dark serves up a classy and confident slice of old-school survival horror, all sliding puzzles, creaking floorboards, and long, dark shadows. Though it undeniably lacks the grander scope of its Shock & Gore contemporaries, this quaint tribute to yesteryear impresses with its kooky cast, strong atmosphere, and vintage ‘ghost story’ vibes. Crucially, Alone in the Dark fans have a new adventure they can be proud of.

Alone in the Dark has some good ideas, but it fails at most because it tries them all. Nice visuals, great fire effects and valiant efforts at innovation don’t make up for boring combat, frustrating controls, poorly designed levels and a hackneyed story. There’s a certain amount of old-school adventure charm in Alone in the Dark, but it shines only as the dimmest of lights, hemmed in by the darkness of its many failures.

I think it’s safe to say that the Alone in the Dark franchise is one of the founding fathers of the survival-horror genre, with its debut making waves way back in 1992. The latest title, of the same name is in fact the fifth title in the series and was announced as far back as 2005. After numerous slips and delays, here we are with the release date finally upon us, so draw the curtains, cut the lights and get ready to have your wits tested.