Chilling New Screens for Alone in the Dark
By Stephany on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 7:23 PM PST In Atari, Computer, Games, Microsoft, Sony
Alone in the Dark tells the tale of Edward Carnby, an investigator and protagonist from the the first game, as he investigates a grisly mystery in Central Park. A horrendous entity has escaped the confines of its own world and Carnby must stop it from wreaking havoc on all he holds dear. While he is trying to free the world of this loathsome being, Carnby becomes privy to: the mysteries of the afterlife; why New York City has a need for a woodland park, and the enigma of his having never aged a day in the last 75 years.
Alone in the Dark, also known as Alone in the Dark 5 and Alone in the Dark: Near Death Investigation (thank goodness they are dropping that subtitle) features the macabre style of the series played with new gameplay mechanics and a broader-reaching, action-packed play style with real-time worlds, and wide-open environments. Having an episodic game structure, the episodes are 30-40 minutes long and start with a breakdown of the previous episode after a save. Each one of the episodes end with a cliff-hanger and if the player decides to exit the game, a teaser comes on screen to give the gamer an idea of what to expect the next time they reload.
Despite being originally planned for a November release, Atari has pushed Alone in the Dark into the next year – so expect it to hit shelves sometime in March 2008. A first person action/adventure/horror title such as this may well be worth the wait, especially since all subsequent horror titles owe their livelihoods to Alone in the Dark basically inventing the horror genre. To be made available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360; there are rumors circulating the net that it will also grace the PSP and the Wii. We will let you know if these rumors are true and provide you with more information when Alone in the Dark gets closer to its release.
Episodic gaming? 30 minutes a game? and each episode will come out, what, every month or two, or six?
This is a broken model of business, one that should be cut out of the industry like a tumor.
Gah. I’ve never liked the series, and charging a gamer for slow as hell episodic 30 minute updates is just a stupid, stupid way of marketing a game. HL2’s episodes sounded good at first, until we found that they take about a year to make and 3 hours to play through… At least the Orange Box is coming with a little bit extra content to justify its purchase.
I couldn’t care less about a new AitD game, and this butchering of it isn’t selling me on the matter at all.