Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare Demo

While the horror genre is not exactly new, it's certainly not as old as some of the other ones, unless you count the slightly scary platformers. However, true horror titles used a different set of mechanics to inspire fear into the players, by replacing the huge monsters with unseen threats and taking away most of your guns, leaving you unable to shoot your way out of a situation.

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare is the fourth title in the series and it brings back some of the well-known characters from the previous episode, including Edward Carnby himself. However, this time around, you get to choose between two characters over the course of the gameplay, with the other one being Aline. Naturally, their styles differ greatly and they use different approaches when it comes to staying alive.

As far as the background story is concerned, it all revolves around Carnby and his investigation of a place called the Shadow Island, where one of his friends meets his end. Things get much more interesting after a while, since you stumble into some caverns deep underground called the World of Darkness, where vicious creatures have been living for quite the long time.

Whenever you play as Carnby, your main concern is to kill the hordes of monsters that are after you and get out of the levels alive. In order to do so, however, you must light and light-based ammunition for your guns. Thus, a mere flashlight can be enough against the hell spawns, although you can also use more efficient methods, such as phosphorus-infused bullets that light up when they hit their target.

Graphically, a lot of effort went into the level design, the characters and the creatures you have to face off against on a regular basis. Extra attention was awarded to the illumination effects, even if the technology did not allow for too much at the time. Other than that, the characters are very easy to control and the sound is sublime, especially when it comes to environmental effects.

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare manages to stay true to the series and recreate the same atmosphere as the previous episodes, although the stories could have used a bit more work. In essence, the mechanics are the same and the fans should be pleased by this sequel as well.