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Sluggish and cold.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

June 10, 2002

"Alone In The Dark' is a cinematic puzzle-solving
game that is very heavy on story. It is saturated with
cut-aways that aren't particularly interesting and drag
play too much. Picking up objects and inspecting clues
are mandatory game-play events that frequently resist
easy action, take forever, and can drive you nuts.

Because of these characteristics, `Alone In The Dark'
is not the paranoia-inducing game that it means to be.
There are a lot of games out there, shooters mostly,
that can make you nervous and give you thrills. Since
the combat in `Dark' is mechanistic and unchallenging,
there is no real sense of peril, and since the problem
solving and story are so repetitive, it's far from
engaging.

Yin Yang for Yin Yangs

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game for anybody, who can let his imagination wander, appreciates mystery stories, and enjoys the feeling of light goose bumps once in a while. Great graphics (especially the flash light effects!!!), sound effects, and a decent story create a nicely eerie athmosphere.
If you are looking for shoot and splatter action....do not buy this game! If you can't live with dialogues, when the character's lips are not moving....do not buy this game. If you can't handle the fact, that this game is obviously an emulation of a console game....do not buy this game.
But if you enjoy solving puzzles, suspense, mystery, and those occasional goose bumps, it will give you several hours, if not days of good, solid entertainment!!!

Should be ZERO Stars - This Game is really bad.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: August 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Do not waste your money on this game. The controls are horrible, the engine is out of date and the puzzles are simpley find key try door. Any atmosphere this game has is destroyed by its horrible game play, slow and jittery engine and outdated approach to gaming. They should be banned from ever making another crappy sequel. Its a shame because the graphics are pretty, but the implementaion is the worst since the last ultima game...and that is pretty bad.

decent game...not great though..

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I could overlook all of the before-mentioned flaws but the one flaw that sinks this game is the horrible save feature. I don't know what the designers were thinking when they came up with that but it sucks all the fun out of the game..

If you truly want a game that is befitting of the horror genre then I recommend "Clive Barker's Undying." I can only recommend this game to the hardcore Alone in the Dark fans of yesteryear...

there's some fun to be had

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Most of the reviews I've read of ALONE IN THE DARK 4 : THE NEW NIGHTMARE didn't exactly embrace the game, but when I saw a copy of it..., I figured what the heck. How bad could it be? The previews instalments were pretty cool... AITD 4 - sure enough - has a few setbacks, but also enough strong points to make it a fun experience. If I had bought the game at full price I would have been disappointed, but if you catch it at a reduced price you shouldn't be worried if your money will be well spent or not. First off, you've got to love the scenery. Overgrown thickets of weed creep and crawl around a menacing manor. It's raining. It's after dark. And you're alone. Ambient sounds pulsates from your speakers. A flash of lightning jars the sky in half. Something is moving in the bushes. I suppose this is what Edgar Allan Poe pictured his House Of Usher would look like. I haven't felt atmosphere like this in a game since I first played RESIDENT EVIL. The graphics also look nice. Whenever you pick up a game at a reduced price, because it's been a while since its original release, there's always the chance that the graphics will be such a letdown that you just won't stand to play the game (Sure it's gameplay above graphics, but it doesn't hurt that the graphics don't make your eyes eek). This is not a problem with AITD 4. Even though the game runs on low resolution, the developers have managed to tweak the most out of their engine. The backdrops look beautiful. Okay, so the characters may look a bit glued on, but not enough to make it annoying. The game also has great replay value, in that you can choose to play as either to character, Edward Carnby (Who looks an awful lot like Nick Cave) or Aline Cedrac, and the two of them starts out the game at different locations. It may not be two completely different games, but it certainly warrants a second play-through. AITD 4 also features a nice blend between action and thinking. You'll need both muscle and brains to complete the game.

Problems. The biggest setback of the game is the combat engine. The developers have gone no further than aim, point and shoot. You can't aim low, middle, or high, like in RESIDENT EVIL, just turn a 360 and pull the trigger when you're facing your enemy. Reloading your weapon is not a simple task of pressing a key. You'll need to access the inventory screen, select your weapon, and then choose to reload. The end result is that you feel you've got very little control over the combat. You'll get used to it, and eventually it won't bother you that much, but the game would have been a lot better if the developers would have fleshed out a better combat engine. It should be fun shooting at monsters... I also don't like games that only allow you to save at certain points. AITD 4 features the RESIDENT EVIL solution, in where you have to pick up these tablets that are good for one save. Games are less scary when you save at every corner, but this should be the player's choice, and not the developers. It's not much fun going over the same ground twice.

Summing up. AITD 4 may not be good enough to warrant a full price purchase, but if you can pick it up at a reduced price then the game will be worth your money. People who are not die hard fans of the genre should perhaps be a bit more cautious and instead go with a safer purchase (NOCTURNE is a recommendation), but those of us who enjoy this sort of entertainment will surely find something to appreciate the game for (Especially since there's not a great number of this type of titles for the PC).

Ackward gameplay, bad controls

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: November 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I played the first and second AITD games and loved them. This one leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

First, when I loaded the game on my laptop, the opening animations are so jumpy that I only saw 5 "screen shots" in what was supposed to be a 30+ second animation.

Then I started playing the game, and at one point the game just kept exiting back to the Operating System. After getting very frustrated I updated my standard Win 2000 video drivers (which work fine with every other game/application) to the manufacturers video drivers. It works better now. Check out their tech support site and see how many others have compatibility problems as well.

The gameplay is frustrating because you are fighting creatures that are off screen. You can use the ALT key for automatic aiming, but there is never enough ammo to kill everything. The most annoying feature is that creatures reappear (but again, my ammo doesn't). For example, I'll be in the main room on the first floor and kill the monster there. There are 5 doors in this room and of course I want to check them all out. Every time I re-enter this room, the same monster is there. ARGH!!! I still want to play the game but think I need to start over and follow a different path as others have suggested.

And finally - I have a PIII 700Mhz machine with 8mb video card, I would expect better performance (loading of screens, animations, etc) from a game such as this.

The original and the best!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: July 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game is marveolus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excelent graphics!!!!!!!!!!!! Excelent Sound!!!!! Excelent history!!!! Better than any Resident Evil game!!!! 3 CDs of pure terror The original survivor horror game is here............Buy it now!

Pain...so much pain!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 10
Date: May 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

STAY AWAY!!! This game is terrible! The dialogue, voice acting, plot, music, monsters, interface, and fighting are awful! Ooohh, scare monsters away...with a flashlight? Huh? One character explains how scared she is because everything is, "Really dark," when it's night out. The girl is a simp. (...). The music is a bizarre techno-rumbling which I thought was a computer malfunction. Everything about this game is just so...bad. Horrible. HORRIBLE!!! Oh, and it's not scary at all, just dark.

ITEM WAS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT & PROMPT REFUND WAS ISSUED.THX

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 12
Date: November 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

VERY WORKABLE. THANKS AND SMILE!

NO ENCUENTRA LA SALIDA

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: June 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

ESTIMADOS AMIGOS NO ENCUENTRA LA SALIDA, YA QUE YA ELIMINE EL MOUSTRUO DE LA LIBRERIA Y TOME LA LLAVE Y EL ARMA DE LA CUARTA PINTURA, PERO NO SE QUE HACER PORQUE RECORRO TODOS LOS PASILLOS Y NO ENCUENTRO NADA QUE HACER NI ENCUENTRO LA CLAVE DEL PANEL DE CONTROL DE LA LIBRERIA.
ESPERO QUE PUEDAN AYUDARME, GRACIAS....

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