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‘Alone in the Dark: Illumination’ Multiplayer Borrows From ‘Left 4 Dead’
If it was a classic, single-player survival horror experience that you were hoping to get with Atari’s “reimagining” of their longstanding horror series, get ready to adjust your expectations because Alone in the Dark: Illumination sounds like it will be entirely unlike any previous game in the series. After Illumination was revealed, it teased two firsts for the two decade-old franchise: a cooperative multiplayer mode and four playable character classes.
Thanks to some new details from the game’s PAX showing, we now know how both of these firsts are being woven into the series.
In a move that’s likely to divide horror fans, it’s very clear that Alone in the Dark: Illumination is borrowing liberally from the winning formula that helped make Left 4 Dead such an addictive multiplayer game.
The game is set in the abandoned mining town of Lorwich, Virginia. When a flood forced an evacuation, a darkness took up residence and started populating the town with all sorts of horrors. After choosing one of the four unique characters — the Hunter, Witch, Priest and Engineer — players will be tasked with cleansing the town of the Darkness that now inhabits it.
Lorwich will be divided into sections that serve as individual maps to clear of their monstrous inhabitants, either by playing solo or with a team of up to four players online.
Because light is the Darkness’ only weakness, strategy and resourcefulness will be required to survive. This can be accomplished by making good use of each character’s arsenal. There will be an array of weapons that should be familiar to any fan of the shooter genre, as well as more specialized weapons that also double as sources of light, like the flamethrower. To keep each playthrough from becoming repetitive, the map layout, enemy and item placement will be randomized every time.
The similarities to Valve’s co-op shooter series don’t end there. Since the goal is to survive long enough to reach the safe room at the end of the map, there will be Left 4 Dead style “crescendos”, like boss fights or those frustrating bits where you’re forced to wait for a door to slowly open.
Developer Pure is looking to release the game on PC this November. They hope to have the online functionality ready when the game launches, but if they’re unable to get that finished in time it’ll just be added post-release.
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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