Shane
Something is afoot at Derceto Manor in 1930s New Orleans.
The disappearance of a patient called Jeremy Hartwood sets the premise for this remake of the original Alone in the Dark.
Jeremy’s niece, Emily Hartwood (Jodie Comer) enlists the services of a private investigator Edward Carnby (David Harbour) and the two set out for a road trip in to the middle of nowhere to see what’s going on at the Manor for the ‘mentally fatigued’.
And as you’ve likely guessed, not everything is what it seems at the foreboding looking Derceto Manor.
Taking a modern third person approach to gameplay, your dark adventure plays out fluidly, without the screen swipes of the very original title.
There’s a lot of exploring to be had once you select who you play as, Emily or Edward. There’s clues to find, resources to collect and puzzles to be solved.
Along with this is of course both melee and weapon based combat.
Alone in the Dark 2024 has some jump scares in store for unsuspecting players as well as moments of unforgiving gameplay.
The clues that you find along with the main narrative unravel a decent story.
There are also bonus collectables called ‘Lagniappe’s’. Finding all of these will unlock in-game rewards, but playing as just one character may not fully open everything to you. Alone in the Dark is designed to be played through as Edward and then again as Emily, if you’re a completist.
Your inventory is small to say the least and you’ll always be on the hunt for keys or a way to solve a puzzle.
Items are or can be assigned to hotkeys and this includes your weapon.
While Alone in the Dark 2024 has one hell of a story to it and gameplay looks fresh, yet stylised to the era it is set within, there are glitches.
For more moments than I can recall I would get trapped within an invisible ‘prison’. Meaning all of a sudden i was boxed in and couldn’t move anywhere in what should have been an open area. This was of course game breaking and happened in varying environments too.
The only way out was to quit the game and restart at the last checkpoint.
Graphical anomalies too. I had enemies vanish in to walls never to reappear and every now and then some weird environmental sprites would tear across the screen.
I figure that these will get patched.
In all, despite the glitches, I was able to play through (yes a few hard restarts) and having played the original back in the day Alone in the Dark 2024 is a lovingly crafted remake of a still playable to this day classic.
Just wait until the game gets patched before you play alone, in the dark.
Released: March 2024
Rating: R16
Platforms reviewed: Xbox Series X|S
Genre: Horror / Action / Adventure
Developer: Pieces Interactive
Publisher: THQ Nordic