Alone in the Dark: Inferno Comments by Kristan Reed

I actually like the driving bit on 360 it was addictive as hell!

I really want to like this, I never got far in the 360 version but thought had potential and was thinking about getting this "improved" version. Truth be known though I can't even be bothered to try the PS3 demo and there is far better games to spend my cash on in the coming months - maybe when it's like £15 2nd hand. Sorry Eden...

I have a recently purchased, still wrapped x360 version on my self, waiting to be played with improved controls and forgiving driving sections. Hopefully the patch Eden promised won't take long.

It's nice of then to take criticism at heart and try to improve their game :)

does it have an ending now, besides.. the 5 second long 'RAR I'm satan' bit then blackscreen without a boss or anything

/wonders how Rich Leadbetter will swing this one in favour of the 360 version...
"B*gger the camera, controls and checkpoints, FEEL THE FRAME RATE"

It is good that they did their best to address the problems of the original, but it still begs the question how such a broken game got released onto the poor unsuspecting 360 massive in the first place.

how? it's atari, mate

@3william56,

And PC crowd.

As for the Leadbetter comment, I suppose if the 360 version gets patched to support the same improvements as the PS3 version, then it's back to an equal playing field. But it's interesting that you don't feel poor or stuttering framerates are an issue. Maybe that's what Kaz meant when he said the next-gen stutters when Sony say it does?

Played the demo again last night and it did take me a few turns to complete the driving section... still it was fun and though alittle clunky wasnt too bad. Still not sure if i will get this yet.

So not as good as AITD on the PC from 1992 then?

So despite the fact that the 360's camera and controls were so bad that other sites and magazines gave this game sub-5/10 scores but this "improved" PS3 version, that fixes both of those issues, still scores the same as the 360 version! Yeah, real logic at work there, EG! ;)

Played the PS3 demo and the game is still crap IMO. With the likes of the far superior Siren: Blood Curse available on the PS3 at half the price, you'd be far better off buying that for a slice of survival horror. It's more atmospheric too and isn't plagued with screen tearing like this game. Like Lost, another 7/10 score travesty, Alone in the Dark is overrated on EG IMO... the game was just never that good in the first place.

It wasn't THAT bad Darren :)

So despite the fact that the 360's camera and controls were so bad that other sites and magazines gave this game sub-5/10 scores but this "improved" PS3 version, that fixes both of those issues, still scores the same as the 360 version! Yeah, real logic at work there, EG! ;)

Played the PS3 demo and the game is still crap IMO.

Well, there you go?

Seems like its shifted into rental territory. Good to see the quality getting revisited in such a determined way. Even if the final outcome was stilla bit below par, its good that they bothered (even if they will have just been driven by a desire to make a better return on the investment).

This is bound to get patched on the 360 quickly, so how about everyone feel either happy or benign about this. There is no bad news here, other than the bad news the voices in your head tell you.

It's got screen tearing, so Darren will tear the game a new one on that alone. ;)

"So not as good as AITD on the PC from 1992 then?"

1992?? Feeling old now. First game to inflict fear, that trapdoor opening in the first room was very scary!

It's easy to bash a somewhat clunky game, Darren. But AitD really had a lot more going for it, than one might see by playing the demo bit. There were some really original set-pieces, great puzzles and stand-out moments, that were really really memorable. So memorable in fact, that all of the sub-5-reviews just don't do it justice.

bye,

Alex

@Greebo:

I still got shivers from those dogs bursting in from the corridor window :)

not enough meh in the world considerin the far superior siren is only £20

@bad09 - No but it was utterly mediocre and forgettable... I'm so glad I had a chance to play it at my cousin's and didn't actually pay money for it. If I had I'd have been gutted to be honest.

With all the other great games out now and in the next two weeks that makes this game comparatively crap IMO even if it isn't actually sub-par as such. It was just technically inept and clunky on the 360. :P

If somone is looking for a quality survival horror game on the PS3 then they'd be better advised to buy Siren at £20 or the superb Dead Space, failing that wait for Resident Evil 5 next March... only consider Alone in the Dark: Inferno as a last resort...

Yeah i think the original '92 version was probably the first game ever that made me jump in places.
The dogs bursting through the window i remeber too.
Plus the camera angles and control screen for a fully 3D game where excellent from what i remember.
How come 15 years later the control and camera is worse?

I'd pay for a Live/PSN re-release of the 1992 Alone In The Dark. Given that the original Reisdent Evil has been remade several times for different consoles now, it'd be nice to go back and revisit the original genesis of survival horror.

Ah, the good old days, when Alone in the Dark was wierdo French Cthulu-esque horror rather than an American monster movie.

Edit: Indulging my selse of nostalgia a bit, I found this. A bit small? That 320*200 * 256 colours is the actual screen resolution it was in . Seems hard to believe these days.

Alas I got to the dreaded roots bit on my 360 version and gave up. I got over the borked controls but forcing me to run around a park and burn lots of things over and over again was enough. They really should have sorted that out. It's just a cheap, cheap way of making the game longer.

Quite liked the first driving section through the city (even though it took about 6 attempts) - as for the ones with the bats lifting your car - good job I missed the TV when throwing the joypad in gamer-rage.

I am still sure that the bats ability to lift the car was only put in because the driving was so broken i.e.

"The car gets stuck on scenery and you can't die, how can we get round that?"

"Easy, instead of coding it properly lets throw in some bats that lift the car in the air and then drop it!"

"Genius! - That just shaved us about a month off the deadline."

Never mind the borked driving - what about that black shit on the floor that reacts to light - or doesn't when it feels like it and kills you!

Pissed me off far more than the driving - even my old school arcade playing mentality was being stretched to the limit. Luckily there was a skip - as after about my 200th attempt I had to admit defeat. What a shower of shit the black stuff is - adding nothing to the game.

6/10 at best from me - great atmosphere, poor implementation - unsure any of the changes could really push the mark up as I didn't really struggle with the camera or controls that much (once I realised you can fast swap inventory items with the shoulder buttons).

Are Eden patching the 360 version to bring it in line with this release? If/when they do, I will be getting it on 360...

So when is the 360 getting the patch to make this game playable.
I really enjoyed Alone in the Dark, but stopped playing because of the controls.

I'm intersted in this one for the january sales. I'd be willing to give it a try out at £15-20.

I still like the idea of the coat inventory, combining items & fire propegation.
Glad to hear of the swepping changes since the 360 release, but not quite enough to make it a day 1 purchase.

I played it on the 360, enjoyed it. Realy.
It "feels" like a '90s game, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It is a horror game, and succedes at delivering that feeling of deja vu.
And it's short, so it was all over soon enough.

How on Earth does something as glitchy and broken as this get a score on the buy end of the marking scale?

Alone in the Dark: Inferno is pure failure. If it's supposed to be a survival horror game it fails because the twitchy camera destroys any sense of stillness or atmosphere, you can't be scared because it's impossible when you're plonked into the middle of a failing piece of technology, you just can't forget that it's a game. If the gamer is there for the puzzles or adventure they'll have to contend with the worst controls I've experienced in years. Not forgetting the terrible graphics, the character damage system is pure comedy and the character models and environments are ugly and inept.

I dread to think how bad the game was when it was inflicted on 360 owners, it establishes itself firmly at the bottom of the recent survival horror heap, below Obscure II even. Try the demo first if you're getting unnatural urges that compel you to buy this game.

I think some people are going way overboard on how 'bad' this is.
fwiw I didn't find anything that 'broken' in it (save a car chase or two) and the fetch quests at the end were just as horrible as anything Bioshock gave us.

It just an average game. Just another droplet for the sea of averageness that is out there.

Re-reading the x360 review is well worth it ;)

@JonFE
"@Greebo:

I still got shivers from those dogs bursting in from the corridor window :)"

It was the kid zombie in the first hall for me. Sure, graphically it was about 20 polygons in total but still creepy as hell.

Fantastic game but I'll never play it again, nostalgia is the better option. I'd love to see a remake.

I picked this up cheap on the 360, played the first level then decided to wait for the patch. It certainly looks the part, it's just way to awkward to control as it is.

@ Darren

Yeah I'd go with forgettable, It was OK and I did enjoy what I did play but it was forgotten very quickly, and your right releasing it now is a very bad idea as it will get shown up quite badly!

"If somone is looking for a quality survival horror game on the PS3 then they'd be better advised to buy Siren at £20 or the superb Dead Space, failing that wait for Resident Evil 5 next March... only consider Alone in the Dark: Inferno as a last resort..."

I agree with that (although you're forgetting SH: Homecoming for PS3 owners!), but I can't agree RE5 is survival horror mate, it's got more in common with Army of Two than Resident Evil from what I've seen :)

Some (spoiler-free) details on what's so 'innovative' about the puzzles would be nice. I mean, I hate 'traditional survival horror' for the most part (The REs and SHs do absolutely nothing for me, with the exception of a few stand-out moments scattered across the series) largely because I hate 'find key open door find key open door' games, even when the key and/or door is disguised as something else.

Also, whoever called Dead Space a 'superb survival horror' is a fool. DS is about 0% horror, 1% survival, and 120% shooting shooting shooting. From the AitD demo, I would say they're worlds apart (Literally, badum-tish). Although that reminds me, has/will EG cover the DS DLC? I'm wondering what the hell those are all about, perhaps they might make it worth reacquiring the game. Any thoughts?

so this is an improved version but yet scores the same as broken 360's version?

"More often than not though, Eden succeeds, and once you get to grips with creating Molotov cocktails, shooting bottles in mid-air, and using aerosol cans as makeshift flamethrowers"

Just guessing having not played this, but is this not a list of spoilers in itself?

"Also, whoever called Dead Space a 'superb survival horror' is a fool. DS is about 0% horror, 1% survival, and 120% shooting shooting shooting."

Play it on hard....

I love how the artwork for this game consistently looks nothing like the dude in the game. I thought that was reserved for western Megaman NES covers.

It's cute how some people (Probably those with cataracts or Parkinson's or something else impairing their hand-eye co-ordination and dexterity) can assume that normal gamers are oblivious to 'difficulty inflation,' particularly in EA games. Which is the polite way of saying, stop being stupid, of course I played it on hard, first run through and all. What, did you think I was a toddler? But thanks for the suggestion, I'm sure it took you some effort to type with your presumably-gimped hands, you silly mouthbreather.

@ twinberettas

Wow, way to get your knickers in a twist pal, no offense was intended you sensitive little gamer you! Life is too short to get so upset, it just sounded like my experience of DS. :)

Fair enough you played it on hard a lot of people have found hard too much, personally I had the arcade experience you described on normal and found it just as boring. However I'm finding Dead Space on hard changes the way you play and it becomes a more RE style hunt for ammo creeping around, scared of each encounter, making every shot count...you know that survival horror feel.

I'm pleased that you perceive sensitivity in me, and I'm glad you've found your level. I suppose there's a reason EA are so big.

Innovative puzzles? Well, how about having to fashion sticky molotov cocktails, and tossing them onto the backs of scuttling creatures so that, timed correctly, they crawl back into their nest and blow everything up?

I also enjoyede the fact that killing creatures can be done in so many different ways. Pour gas onto your ammo to create fire bullets and shoot them in the rift, or batter them with a pipe and drag them off to a bonfire, or just get your med spray out and fashion a makeshift flamethrower out of them. Or, of course, toss a bottle of fuel into the air and shoot it. Most, if not all of these things feel fresh and interesting. It's a shame if people didn't appreciate that Eden tried a lot of different things.