I know everyone wants to know 'Is it as good as the first?' And yes, it most certainly is. I won't waste any more of your time on over-long intros. Well, finally that emptiness can be quashed as the most eagerly-awaited adventure game sequel, Alone In The Dark 2 is winging its way to the stores as you read this. And similarly, when you finish a novel by a favourite author and you know they are going to take at least a year to finish their next work, a kind of emptiness sets in. This atmosphere consumed the player, and when the car pulled away with the hero in the final scene, there was that mixed feeling of satisfaction and a deep regret that it had to end.
This was due to the spooky context-sensitive music, the vector-based graphics that gave the figures their odd angular features, the story which lent such depth to the characters and the old House On The Hill location in which it all took place. And better than a book, it was graphic and interactive: the mix between puzzle solving and arcade action was excellent and the animation was startling.Īlthough many games have harnessed these qualities, the difference with Alone In The Dark was atmosphere, a word much bandied about at the time. Not a Jackie Collins 'Old-rich-tarts-get-shag-off-young-execs' type of good book, but an eerie horror-stroke-thriller, nail-biter of the Edgar Allan Poe kind.
Alone In The Dark starts with an A'and was undoubtedly the adventure romp of 1992/93-Playing it was akin to reading a good book. This isn't strictly true but it sounds appropriate when you want to talk about an Artful, Atmospheric Adventure game.