Alone in the Dark Review | Darkness Reimagined
It’s interesting to witness a game development studio experiment with a different genre, like when Relic Entertainment, a team primarily known for developing real-time strategy games, released Warhammer 40K: Space Marine in 2011. Creating one of the most accessible Warhammer games to date. Or like how Auroch Digital, a developer that predominantly made strategy and sim games, created a gory throwback boomer shooter. (Also set in the Warhammer universe.) These deviations often result in unique and unexpected gems, and that’s how I approached Alone in the Dark.
It was only after I rolled credits on the game that I learned about the developer’s history. In 2019, Pieces Interactive, the team that was previously notable for their work on Magicka 2, was given the opportunity to work on Alone in the Dark. After an unsuccessful sixth installment in 2015 (Alone in the Dark: Illumination), Atari sold the IP for the premier survival horror franchise to THQ Nordic. In 2024, Pieces released their reimagined vision for Alone in the Dark, headlined by David Harbour and Jodie Comer in the lead roles. Three months later, the Embracer Group, which acquired the studio in 2017, closed Pieces Interactive. What started as a look at a developer stepping outside of their comfort zone became a review of what ended up becoming the studio’s final game.
Right from the main menu, Alone in the Dark drips noir vibes with its dark color palette and jazzy tunes. This continues into the opening moments of the game, which sees the two potential protagonists set up the plot as they arrive at the Derceto Manor. Emily Hartwood (Jodie Comer) received word that her uncle was showing signs of mania, and she decides to go visit with Private Investigator Edward Carby (David Harbour) as backup. Upon their arrival, you must choose which character you want to play as throughout the roughly 8-hour campaign.
This structure of the game is actually one of my biggest points of contention with Alone in the Dark. The game doesn’t tell you much when it asks you to make the character selection, so I went with Detective Carnby. His storyline crosses paths a few times with Emily before they come together in the end, and I wondered throughout how her story differed from my own because she is so often surprised at the things Carnby is doing and saying. Turns out, not much. Playing as Emily gets you altered character interactions, but the gist of what you’re doing is the same. The characters are swapped, so the surprise Emily felt at Carnby in my first playthrough simply came from the Detective in my second.
While I do think playing as Carnby is the best way to experience the game, seeing as he is also new to this setting and these characters, just like the player, Emily’s added context makes the story a bit easier to follow. But after already experiencing all the major story beats as the Detective, it’s harder to slog through the same levels, solving the same puzzles, to get a few different dialogues. All that’s to say that the decision to have dual protagonists feels odd to me. I would have preferred a single, fleshed-out storyline, maybe as Emily, and unlocking Carnby for the New Game Plus runthrough, or no second option at all.
Moving past the narrative structure, Alone in the Dark is a rather engaging game. The game is helmed (written and directed by) Mikael Hedberg, who previously worked on SOMA and Amnesia: The Dark Descent at Frictional Games. Perhaps as a result, the game is unexpectedly tense. It’s well put together, featuring detailed environments, solid sound design and music, along with satisfying puzzles, that all come together to create a spooky atmosphere. Even though some of that tension is dropped for the big climactic reveal, it’s a good time for those looking for a horror game this Halloween season.
Despite the game taking place entirely in Derceto Manor, the game uses one of my favorite horror game techniques to take you to a variety of locations. I like to call it the “rug pull,” and it’s essentially whenever you turn around in a horror game to find that you’re not at all where you just were. Maybe you enter a room to solve a puzzle, and when you turn around to leave, you’re in a dense jungle. This really highlights the various environments that Pieces put together, from the moody French Quarter to a foggy shipping port. As a fan of noir, I was hoping the game would lean more into that genre, especially when playing as Edward Carnby, and although it does use sharp shadows and introspective monologues occasionally, it’s not sustained.
There is still an inherently cinematic quality to Alone in the Dark. Cutscenes are well shot, and the developers sometimes attach the camera to a subject (be it a character or an object) as a visual garnish. The story also takes you through several color palettes that change up the visuals and don’t overstay their welcome. Sort of like little vignettes of the era. Accompanying that cinematic quality is an ominous antagonist. In the early chapters of the game, The Dark Man is a forboding entity whose name is only spoken in whispers, and Alone in the Dark uses him as an avenue to bring up some thought-provoking conversations on faith, mental health, and philosophy.
When it comes to the audio department, there are a couple of things to discuss. For starters, the game’s soundtrack is composed mainly by Arni Bergur Zoega, with additional work done by Jason Kohnen on the more jazzy tracks. They combine to set the tone nicely. The voice acting is also strong across the board, not just for Harbor and Comer. Something I didn’t pick up on until the start of my second playthrough was that Alone in the Dark is performed like a stage play. There’s a stiffness, for lack of a better term, in the performances and animations that feel intentional. This is more noticeable in the dramatized voice-overs for every note you pick up in the game. Whether that is effective or not will vary from player to player, but I found it added an off-kilter theatricality to the game reminiscent of Twin Peaks.
Alone in the Dark is one of those games that is best played with a pen and paper nearby to scribble numbers and symbols down as you piece together the puzzles. This leads to inherently satisfying puzzle mechanics that I enjoyed solving. Even if I did get lost for a bit in the process. The game is designed in a way that you need to reference the notes you pick up frequently to find the answers to your problems. At the start of the game, players are asked to choose between the Modern and Old School puzzle guidance. This refers to how the game will help you on your playthrough, and those wanting a challenge can go Old School. Which means you don’t get any hints to nudge you in the right direction. And the satisfying puzzles add another wrinkle to the replay value discussion because the puzzles are less rewarding the second time around.
When you’re not solving puzzles, you’ll be engaging in combat, and Alone in the Dark has a fairly clunky combat system. Being a survival horror game, ammunition is hard to come by, and it’s easy to waste that precious ammo. Guns kick hard and take time to aim properly, and melee attacks don’t pack much of a punch. Nor do they look like they do either. There is some room for stealth, but most enemy encounters are made to be fought through. It’s not awful, but I enjoyed the game more when I was exploring and avoiding danger than when bullet-sponge enemies were thrown at me to fight off.
I have three more notes to share before concluding this review. The first is that I played through the PlayStation 5 version of the game. Alone in the Dark plays smoothly on Performance, and while Quality mode offers a noticeable visual difference, the framerate definitely takes a hit. Next up, I am a bit mixed on the game’s ending. On one hand, it abandons the intriguing antagonist it sets up in the first half, but on the other, it’s a pretty cool reveal. Though I don’t know if the backloaded boss fights were necessary. Lastly, the game has a nice Photo Mode that’s fun to tinker with.
With that said, Alone in the Dark is a decent horror game. There are some good ideas in the mix, from a spooky premise, satisfying puzzles and smooth gameplay. However, it’s sadly held back by a mix of clunky combat and confusing narrative pacing. These are things that I would have liked to see Pieces Interactive iterate on in a sequel, but the studio’s closure following the game’s poor sales performance means we won’t get to see it come to light. It might have been difficult to recommend Alone in the Dark as a full-priced title, but like I said, it’s a good Halloween game if you can find it on sale. Alone in the Dark is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
