Doing a public service
In the interests of science i picked up Alone in the Dark for the 360 today. I've only had a few hours to play it so far, but here is an initial review for those people on the fence about wether or not to buy it. If i ever compare it to another game assume that game is Assassin's Creed, the benchmark of a good game.
Grapics (I always start with this as its what your going to have to look at all the time)
They are, quite simply alarmingly pretty, except in a few notable situations. If there is alot happening on screen then things tend to get simplified. During explosions sometimes planks of wood and stuff are essentially just brown rectangles. Not a huge problem but stil...
The animation is sometimes a little odd, but overal everything is really nice. They tried to get an awful lot of different interactions going so when some things occur it looks a bit off.
Gameplay.
Moveing around, interacting with your environment and generally being in the game is really nice. Get in a fight and get walloped in the face and you will blood in your eyes. pressing the blink button (i shit you not) will clear this up pretty cquickly. It's just awesome the way they have made a blink button fun. The inventory is genious but a little hard to use during combat. they have a quick setup system where combinations of items are hotkeyed, a necessity.
They have a driving section. This is both amazing and the worst part of the game so far. It is beutiful gripping and wonderful. It does however lose this on the 9th playthrough. there is an achievement for driving 10 miles. I got this during the first driving section as i had to do it so many times.clip a tiny bit of scenery? Redo the entire race. Random peice of architecture hit you? Restart the race.
Combat is nice and immersive. Vaugely reminicent of Farenheit in the way you do it through gestures. Humanz (yes, everything has a Z on the end apprently. Ratz, Humanz, everything. so very street) only die through fire. So you batter the crap out of someone with a pickaxe then have hunt around for a bit of wood to set on fire to burn them. quite lame.
Story
Pretty solid alone in the dark stuff. Forgotten horrors, mysterious NPCs etc. Oh yeah and you play a guy with amnesia.
Set peices.
This is what this mother-fucker is all about. This is why this game is a really really good buy. Even the intro, essentially an on rails section is wonderful. You wake up bleary eyed and so confused you dont know whats going on and your vision blurs. Blinking repeatedly pulls it back into focus. Seriously. blinking is tops.
Overall.
I am not that far into the game but already it is looking like a solid action/point and click game. Breaking into cars is great fun. Either you hunt around to find the keys some idiiot has left in his car or you hotwire it by pulling out the wires and using the joypad sticks to manipulate them.
At once beautiful and infuriating. Like i like my games.
Grapics (I always start with this as its what your going to have to look at all the time)
They are, quite simply alarmingly pretty, except in a few notable situations. If there is alot happening on screen then things tend to get simplified. During explosions sometimes planks of wood and stuff are essentially just brown rectangles. Not a huge problem but stil...
The animation is sometimes a little odd, but overal everything is really nice. They tried to get an awful lot of different interactions going so when some things occur it looks a bit off.
Gameplay.
Moveing around, interacting with your environment and generally being in the game is really nice. Get in a fight and get walloped in the face and you will blood in your eyes. pressing the blink button (i shit you not) will clear this up pretty cquickly. It's just awesome the way they have made a blink button fun. The inventory is genious but a little hard to use during combat. they have a quick setup system where combinations of items are hotkeyed, a necessity.
They have a driving section. This is both amazing and the worst part of the game so far. It is beutiful gripping and wonderful. It does however lose this on the 9th playthrough. there is an achievement for driving 10 miles. I got this during the first driving section as i had to do it so many times.clip a tiny bit of scenery? Redo the entire race. Random peice of architecture hit you? Restart the race.
Combat is nice and immersive. Vaugely reminicent of Farenheit in the way you do it through gestures. Humanz (yes, everything has a Z on the end apprently. Ratz, Humanz, everything. so very street) only die through fire. So you batter the crap out of someone with a pickaxe then have hunt around for a bit of wood to set on fire to burn them. quite lame.
Story
Pretty solid alone in the dark stuff. Forgotten horrors, mysterious NPCs etc. Oh yeah and you play a guy with amnesia.
Set peices.
This is what this mother-fucker is all about. This is why this game is a really really good buy. Even the intro, essentially an on rails section is wonderful. You wake up bleary eyed and so confused you dont know whats going on and your vision blurs. Blinking repeatedly pulls it back into focus. Seriously. blinking is tops.
Overall.
I am not that far into the game but already it is looking like a solid action/point and click game. Breaking into cars is great fun. Either you hunt around to find the keys some idiiot has left in his car or you hotwire it by pulling out the wires and using the joypad sticks to manipulate them.
At once beautiful and infuriating. Like i like my games.