... falling through the floor.Originally written for http://www.giantenemyblog.com/.Somehow, Alone in the Dark for Wii flew completely under my radar. But I was on a date this weekend and we stopped into the Gamestop in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart, where the two stores are apparently trying to undercut one another mercilessly, and there it was for $15. I desperately needed to get a new game to keep me busy for awhile, seeing as I’ve been playing nothing but Sonic for the past couple weeks, so I put down the cash for it. In some ways I’m glad I did, but in other ways it’s definitely falling short.
First of all, the format is awesome. It’s set up like a TV serial, each episode lasting 30-40 minutes. with a definite beginning, middle and end. The problem with this format is that there is nowhere near enough episodes to justify this format. I’m on episode 6, with about 3 hours on my save. I’ve been told I’m nearing the end of the game. The average survival/horror game lasts at least around 12 hours on your first play-through (Though they then challenge you to finish the entire game in under 30 seconds without killing anything to get a rocket launcher with infinite ammo which you OBVIOUSLY don’t need)., while this, I’ll be lucky to stretch out to 6.
It’s not scary so much as exciting. The plot basically comes down to ‘There’s some ritual you have something to do with but you have AMNESIA!!!!’ But hey, it’s in the format of a TV serial, and as they say, when in Rome…
Difficulty is, as seems par for the course these days, completely negligible. I’ve had to redo one scene thus far, and that was due to lousy controls.
The controls are too stiff in first-person mode, too loose in third-person, and the motion controls are unresponsive at the best of times, and over-responsive at the worst. Some motions are too similar to others, so I’ll end up checking my clip when I’m trying to open my inventory, or jumping when I try to pull out my flashlight.
And then there’s the clipping. Holy fuck, I have fallen through the floor at least a dozen times. I haven’t fallen through the floor in any game since Knights of the Old Republic II. At least it’s generally easy to wander back out into open air.
Animation is… Unfinished, would be my guess. There’s a LOT of stock animation during cutscenes, and some of the movement looks to unnatural it makes me cringe.
Now, there are good parts to all this. First off, the acting is just bad enough to pull off ‘B-Rated’ without being painful to listen to. The characters are likeable, and aside from the strangely neutral accents, the New-Yorkers talk like New-Yorkers (That is, every third word is fuck). It does keep you playing, wondering what’s gonna happen next, even if at times that’s just because of the absolute absurdity of the situation (Oh look, a car. Huh, this previously empty park is now filled with zombies just so I can run over them. I’ll be!)
Driving controls are surprisingly responsive, but the limited view in first person combined with a wide turn radius can get frustrating in the bizarrely cramped spaces it always seems to put vehicles.
The music is somehow excellent yet forgettable. Kind of like all those movies with a Latin chorus, it sounds great at the time, but fuck if you remember it afterwards.
Admittedly the only other Alone in the Dark game I played was the first one (*CRASH* Joe’s here!) but I have no idea what this has to do with prior titles, if anything at all.
Basically what it all comes down to is that it was a great effort, and it fell short. Seems like it was rushed to release, months before it could have possibly been ready. Worth renting, worth $15 maybe if you’re… Uhm, crazy, maybe? Doesn’t matter.
Well, that’s it for this review, so until next time, kiss my ass, publishers who would prefer to put out an inferior product on time than an excellent product a little late.
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