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[Ghosts Of Gaming Past] A Review Of ‘Alone In The Dark 2’
Written by Kevin Kennedy, @thekevmiester
Coming out just a year after the genre defining original, Alone in the Dark 2 throws us into a game that will be very familiar to those who played the first, but with enough changes to the tone and story to provide a fresh experience. How does this follow up of a classic fair after 20 years?
Set just three months after Alone in the Dark, the sequel sees private detective Edward Carnby (no Emily this time) investigating the disappearance of both a young girl named Grace Saunders and his partner, Ted Stryker. His investigation brings him to an old mansion named Hell’s Kitchen which houses a crew of Pirates who shoot on sight. Edward must rescue the young girl and discover why she was kidnapped in the first place.
It feels as if the designers have intentionally left the horror part of their game behind with this sequel. There are monsters to fight and witches to defeat but this feels more like a fun action adventure romp, set with a cheesy intro right out of a Lethal Weapon movie. Edward Carnby is less a tragic character caught in the wrong place in the wrong time and more a roughish hero who charges into danger equipped with his wits, feeling an awful lot like a Broken Sword game, just without the charm or character.
Having said that, the story actually is an improvement on the last game, which I can barely even remember. The bad guys have some charm and personality to them, from the peg-legged pirate to the blowgun wielding chef. There are even flashbacks that delve deeper into character’s motivations and backstories and fully flesh out the story for those who’d rather not receive all their information through books.
The game feels totally separate from Alone in the Dark, both in terms of tone and continuity, as the events of the first game are never even referenced let alone mentioned. The silliness that occasionally bubbled to the surface in the previous game has been cranked to 11 this time around and quite frankly the game is better off for it. Just don’t expect to get scared at all as that isn’t the order of the day.
Little has changed in the gameplay department, though there have been a few improvements. The inventory limit has been removed, which means a lot less headaches and allows players to pick up books to their hearts content without handicapping themselves. Running, while still unpredictable, is much simpler this time, sometimes pressing the up arrow will have you sprinting away with ease.
Apart from that, you’re the same battle-tank that you were before, which would be fine if it weren’t for the entirely game changing. Much like the story, the gameplay is more akin to an action game now, with countless enemies to defeat with various assortments of weapons. Whereas before, combat was to be avoided as much as possible, this time it’s not uncommon to have to fight up to 4 zombies at a time. The game simply isn’t designed for this scenario and quite frankly it isn’t any fun, at all.
You’ll hammer the attack button countless times before the enemies finally fall and there’s no real option to dodge or counter. A common tactic will simply be to get their attention then hide behind a corner as they all charge at you, taking them out as they arrive. It’s hardly thrilling stuff to begin with and after a while it gets plain frustrating, also it feels like cheating, but it’s something you have to do as many enemies have items or keys you need.
Resident Evil became more like an action game as time went by, but at least the whole game changed to accommodate this change. Alone in the Dark 2 is still played the exact same way, it just chucks a whole heap of bad guys at you and expects you to deal with them. A baffling decision. If the game really wanted to focus more on action, then the overall design would need to be drastically changed.
Many will give up quickly, as you are thrown head first into puzzles and bad guys before you can get a grasp of what’s going on. Things do get slightly better upon entering the mansion as we return to the tried and tested formula of the original, but even then we face problems as the puzzles are ridiculous.
I mentioned in my Alone in the Dark review that a walkthrough may be necessary for completion. This time however, it is downright vital. The number of times I threw up my arms screaming “How was I supposed to know that?” is obscene. Also, take the wrong turn or even explore rooms in the wrong order and you may suddenly be ambushed by half a dozen enemies. Save often and in different slots or you may have to restart the game from the beginning.
Change is good, but you must accommodate for the changes you make, otherwise you’re just creating a mess. Many franchises have made a transition from horror to action, but at least they design the game around the changes. This has it’s moments but is never particularly fun to play.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I don’t like this game. Though there is one aspect that is surprisingly excellent; the music. While not all perfect, there are a few tunes here that are actually quite fun, like Pirate shanty songs right out of the Monkey Island series. Like I said, it’s not perfect and comes with a heavy helping of cheese, but given the little thought put into the rest of the game, it was a nice little surprise. As for the rest of the presentation, things look identical to the previous game, which is fine, but it’s no surprise to hear that those looks have aged.
The original Alone in the Dark may not be perfect but it did have it’s charm, though it’s sequel tries to take the exact same toolset and build a completely different game with it. Where it not for this review, I would have given up five minutes and promptly forget about it. The fun and goofy story and cool music isn’t enough when all of the gameplay amounts to boring combat and crappy puzzles.
The Final Word: A better story, but gameplay is completely fumbled. You may want to skip this one.
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
The ‘Scary Movie’ Spoof Franchise Is Getting a Reboot at Paramount!
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
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