Alone in the Dark 2

The Good
A common complaint of the first game was its shortness and this one delivers a longer, harder game that is still quite immersing. While the story was not quite as interesting or mysterious as the original game, it was still a good mystery to solve. The puzzles are also well done. Only a few did I think were a bit too obtuse.

The Bad
For some reason the designers of this game thought that the reason why people loved the original was for the combat. This game has a huge increase in fighting over the first which really tested my patience for the game. The weak point of the first Alone in the Dark game was the awkward combat. It is barely functional and only worked because it was not used very often. Its sparse use meant you never really had to dwell on its limitations. Unfortunately since this game is more about fighting bad guys than ever before I soon started to lose interest in the game. This problem is especially apparent in the opening to the game which is mainly combat oriented. I'm sure this game turned off a lot of new players as they were constantly cut to pieces in the opening moments of what is supposed to be an adventure game.

The Bottom Line
The higher emphasis on fighting in this game spoils what would have been a pretty solid adventure game. Still there is enough in the game for me to marginally recommend it to fans of the first one. But for newcomers it might be best to stay away and play the original.

The Good
The MIDI music is truly exceptional; some of it borders on "composition". The voice acting, while cheesy at times, was overall extremely good, and definitely added to the game. Sound effects were phenomenal and very effectively utilized.

Camera action was novel for the time; kudos to the people who wrote the engine.

The puzzles were appropriate. Some were a bit outlandish (every adventure has a FEW...), but overall, this would be a good game for beginner-intermediate adventure lovers.

The Bad
The fighting was awful. The AI is simply too good and controls are too bad. Ammo is too scarce. The enemies are too lethal. The fighting aspect of the game is completely out of balance, and ruined what would otherwise be a top-notch adventure.

The graphics were weak for the time, considering that this game is a contemporary of Doom and System Shock. Even moreso when you consider it came out one year before Quake. Although the graphics weren't really up to snuff for its day, I don't think that's what the game designers really had in mind for this game anyway.

Movement could be wonky. The engine didn't always "register" the edge of a wall or corner correctly. This made moving around a little frustrating.

The Bottom Line
One thing this game got right all the way is mood. The whole game is about mood, and it was brilliantly done. The whole game is creepy. The people who wrote this game did so masterfully. The plot and scripting were brilliant. The music may be something you'd listen to on your CD player.

Unfortunately, the game is unplayable for two reasons.

First, as mentioned before, the fighting aspect is just ridiculous. Had they left out the fighting, this game might have been a classic.

Second, being a DOS game, you'll have trouble with it:

There are actions which cannot be performed unless you play this game under a DOS emulator like dosbox or dosemu under Linux, or use an application to slow down your CPU like "turbo". If you can't make Carnby run, you need to slow down your processor (or install Linux, which is always a good idea).

But even worse, the game will crash at various points if you try to play it under Windows. Various calls to routines to open certain files will fail with a "file not found" error. The "fix" is to either play the game under real DOS or a DOS emulator like dosemu.

Lastly, sound most likely won't work unless you're in real DOS or a DOS emulator or with an application like VDMS.

What the game has right, it has very right. And what the game has wrong, it has very wrong.

The Good
This sequel is the 2nd in the fabulous Alone in the Dark series. First off the game is much, much longer than the original alone game. Based once again in and around an old mansion, this time around the environments are very diverse including a hedge maze, mansion and a pirate ship. The puzzles are for the most part very good and challenging. The music in the cd version is great and the books that you find in the game are read aloud by the supposed authors which is always highly entertaining. The story is fair but is told well through the books and cutscenes. Graphics are beautiful fluid 3d over 2d backgrounds which were amazing when released and still have a quirky charm to them. At one point in the game you get to control Grace, the little girl who Carnby is rescuing which helps break the game up and adds a new spin on the proceedings since she can't just beat a zombie up like Carnby.

The Bad
The combat has been upped tenfold in Alone 2 and this is particularly evident in the first section of the game where basically all you do is fight. Given the awkwardness of the combat, this can prove most frustrating to the uninitiated. The search function has been dropped in favour of a more simple arcade approach which I found to be a step back. Now it's simply a case of walking near an object to take it so skimming a room will likely get you everything in it. A total lack of horror also detracts from the experience. The original Alone was very creepy and had an eerie plot. The horror is all but gone here with the evil clown being the only vaguely eerie thing left. Some of the puzzles are so obscure they are near invisible, the worst offender being the ridiculous teddy bear under the fold out bed puzzle. If you've played through it you'll know what I'm talking about.

The Bottom Line
Alone in the Dark 2 is a bigger and better game in many ways than Alone in the Dark but falls a little short in terms of atmosphere and story.