Alone in the Dark

E3 06: Alone in the Dark Updated Impressions

LOS ANGELES--Nothing says "E3 2006" quite like a private press showing of Alone in the Dark, the upcoming horror-themed successor to the series of the same name from developer Eden Studios. Although we've already taken an advance look at the game in our recent E3 exclusive preview, today, we had the chance to see even more of the game, both in the form of prerecorded trailers and in the form of what appeared to be a live gameplay demonstration.

The demonstration opened with what producer Nour Polloni explained was a cut-down version of the game's first 10 minutes. Apparently, Eden Studios will attempt to make the game as immersive and realistic as possible (as realistic as a game about a paranormal investigation can be) by providing the lead character, Edward Carnby, with exceptional control over his environment, and even his own body. At the outset of the game, Carnby is apparently being held prisoner by a disagreeable group of thugs with guns. This initial part of the game takes place from a first-person perspective, and for whatever reason, Carnby's vision is extremely blurry and he can make out only rough shapes--though as Carnby, you can apparently opt to shut your eyes. However, this ability didn't seem to make the thugs especially happy--one of them forced Carnby to stand and walk down the hallway--and this sequence revealed that he had been held prisoner in what appeared to be a run-down apartment building.

However, like in many games about paranormal phenomena, something seemed to go horribly wrong. Cracks suddenly appeared along the length of the ceiling above Carnby (as though some kind of invisible creature had been burrowing through the plaster), though the crack itself seemed to move along the ceiling, leaving the rest of the plaster intact behind it. This bizarre sight caused Carnby's captor to shout in surprise before jostling our hero back down the hallway; then, perhaps as the result of the commotion, a gas line in the building ruptured, causing the hallway behind Carnby, and the odd furnishing on the way, to burst into flames.

Moments later, the moving cracks returned, this time along the length of the wall just behind the armed thug. Turning to see what happened, Carnby's vision started going blurry again just as something unidentifiable reached through the cracks to snatch the thug through. The cracks then suddenly ran through the floor at Carnby's feet, sucking him through up to his torso. Just as our hero was about to be dragged down to the same fate, a bit of flaming debris ignited the crack, which burst into flames, causing Carnby to briefly lose conciousness as the floor apparently gave way beneath him, dumping him into what appeared to be a boiler room, which was filled pipes, valves, and partial chain-link fences. The building's regular lights died out, giving way to a rotating red ceiling light that cast crazy shadows on the walls.

At this point in the demonstration, the camera switched to a third-person view of Carnby, who looked to be in extremely bad shape. In addition to having various cuts and bruises on his face, his clothing was wrinkled and he had several bloody cuts on his body--the blood has soaked through his clothing and basically made him look like death warmed over. Unfortunately, Carnby didn't have much time to look for bandages or a mirror, since he had to flee from the encroaching fire. Carnby dashed down the hallway just in time to see a room on first story of the building collapse through the floor, crushing the room beneath it (and extinguishing the flames). It seemed that Carnby was finally safe, until a chunk of the wall in front of him tore itself away and floated off into space. Then the floor began to give, then the entire building around him crumbled away, revealing that Carnby was actually several stories up in a skyscraper and falling to his death. Fortunately, he was able to grab hold of a gargoyle built into the wall of the building before a huge chunk of the building rained down onto the streets of New York City.

We then watched two additional demonstrations of gameplay, which showed both how environmental elements will come into play, as well as how much control the game will give you over Carnby's actions. In the first, we watched Carnby stagger down an abandoned street to commandeer a derelict taxi cab, then drive like a madman down a winding road past several overturned cars and flaming debris until the road itself gave out into a ravine where a flatbed truck transporting a ruined car lay abandoned nearby. Carnby jumped out of his cab and conveniently found a powerful Desert Eagle pistol, which he then used to shoot out the truck ramp supporting the ruined car (similar to the puzzle in the first half of Resident Evil 4 in which Leon can use his gun to shoot out the supports on a far-off drawbridge to open a path for himself). After Carnby shot out the ramp, the wrecked car came tumbling off the truck, which let Carnby jump back into the taxi and use the angle of the truck's ramp to jump out of the ravine.

Finally, we watched what appeared to be a real-time demonstration of an early version of the game in which Carnby commandeered another car in a parking lot. Apparently, cars will serve many more purposes than just fast transportation in the game; for instance, Carnby will also be able to hop into the backseat of a car to fire out at pursuers if someone else is driving. However, once he jumps into a car, the game's view will switch to a first-person "cockpit" perspective that will let you turn on the radiator to defrost your windshield, turn on the radio to hear ambient music (and police reports and desperate calls for help), search the glove compartment, and even attempt to hot-wire the ignition if Carnby doesn't have the key. Hot-wiring cars will be an actual minigame in which Carnby tears the cables out of the ignition and attempts to match the correct wires to each other using your console controller's analog sticks. If Carny succeeds at this minigame, he can start the engine and drive away; if he fails, he may instead honk the car's horn loudly, alerting any nearby enemies to his presence.

We have yet to see a great deal of the gameplay for Alone in the Dark--we're especially interested in seeing how melee and ranged combat work, considering that Eden Studios has publicly cited the action-packed Resident Evil 4 as being a groundbreaking game. Still, Alone in the Dark continues to look visually impressive, and its unusual gameplay elements and episodic gameplay pacing will hopefully help Eden Studios and publisher Atari accomplish their goal of reinventing the Alone in the Dark series. The game is scheduled for release on the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 next year.

Gamespot