Latest reviews:
|
Alone in the Dark  
The power of game nostalgia is not to be underestimated. With all the super-slick technological marvels that are available to the modern gamer, you will still find people sitting rapt at their computers playing the clunky, eye-straining games they were obsessed with in their youths. They love these games, and no matter how awful they seem to someone who never played them as a child, these people will insist that these games are as good now as they were when they first appeared. And this is the only explanation I can come up with for the raves I have seen directed at Alone in the Dark.
I have seen at least three game reviews that said Alone in the Dark was not only the precursor of Resident Evil, but also a superior game. Now, I never played Resident Evil, but I played its sequel, and Resident Evil 2 is so far superior to Alone in the Dark that it's as though someone were claiming that The Brady Bunch is funnier than The Simpsons. And guess what? They're wrong.
Not that I am the target audience. Outside of RE2 I have very little use for action/adventure games. Trying to solve puzzles while monsters are clawing at you is a bit like playing chess with a gun to your head, and I'm a rather leisurely chess player.
In Alone, monsters can succumb to either the solving of puzzles or brute force, depending on the monster. Some succumb to nothing at all. Sometimes you can just shut the door. It is a matter of experimentation to find out what works for what, and as I've said elsewhere, I don't like random testing in adventure games. It is an unforgiving game in which you will die easily and often.
Visually this was probably kind of cool a billion years ago (a computer minute is equal to 4000 human years, you know). It is that kind of angular virtual reality 3D that used to impress us all when that was the only kind of 3D there was. The hero/heroine lopes along oddly, eyes staring, while simple, loosely joined monsters swipe at him/her. I guess someday Half-Life will look pathetic, too.
Since I didn't get far into the game, finding it too aggravating, I can't tell if there's any real plot. There is an intro explaining why you are wandering around a haunted mansion, and there are documents to read that tell about this and that, but whether this all comes together into a cohesive whole I can't say. I just wandered down halls and through doors, picking up stuff and shooting at monsters, who always arrive to a sort of honky-tonk suspense melody.
Like most adventure/action games, Alone's action is as unsatisfactory as its adventure. If you've got bullets you aim and fire (aiming is difficult), if not you whack the monsters with whatever you've got, if anything. You won't get the action adrenaline rush of a real action game of ancient days like Commander Keen or Wolfenstein 3D. It's all just kinda annoying. -- Charles Herold -1999
|
Find Software: