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“Alone
in the dark 4: A New Nightmare” (aitd4) got off to a
very bad start when the lip-syncing in opening cinematic
sequence did not match the voices. It was like watching
a bad martial arts movie with the actors lips moving
about 2 seconds behind the dialogue. The initial
impression of this being a quality game was not good.
The story is based on the exploits of the enigmatic
edward carnby, who travels to a mysterious island to
investigate the death of his friend Ed Fiske. Tagging
along is aliene cedrac: an anthropologist interested
in the “research” conducted on the island. Gamers may
choose between playing as either carnby or cedrac,
each with separate, intertwining storylines and starting
points in the game. Dialogue between the two characters
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throughout the game via walkie-talkie. I think
the back-and-forth dialogue between the two was supposed
to be infused with minor sexual tension and witty banter,
but it came off as forced and ultimately silly.
Gameplay is
standard adventure game fare with the over-the-shoulder
camera perspective. Actions include walk, run, push/pull
objects, shoot, aim and the ever present “action button”.
The inventory system includes the basic view, use, examine
and reload options, along with “split” and “combine”,
which can be used to create new, more powerful ammunition.
This “split/combine” feature first appeared in the
“resident evil” series, and comes off as completely
unoriginal in aitd4. Weapons include the oh-so-standard
pistol, grenade launcher and shotgun.
The beginning of the game introduces the story, and in
doing so forces the gamer to read loooong passages in found
manuscripts, documents and books. The problem is that the
storyline is generally uninspiring and unoriginal: forcing
me to skim through the books, hoping there was not a game
clue somewhere in the books.
Not to worry, because aitd4 is ridiculously easy for those
familiar with adventure type games. Your character carries
around a flashlight, and important items / clues actually
shine in purple light as the flashlight is shined upon them
so as not to miss the items. I rarely say this about a game,
but aitd4 is just too easy.
The middle of the game is a quest for keys to unlock doors
previously locked. Also at this stage, zombies/monsters start
appearing more frequently and you have to keep a close eye
on your health meter. This would normally be the fun part,
but the graphics are so uninspiring that I found myself
racing from door to door to get through the game. The low
point of the graphics was when a tentacle monster attacked
me out of a bed, and it looked like it was cut-and-pasted
from microsoft powerpoint. The many zombies encountered
also die with lackluster appeal. Good thing the keys were
actually labeled as to what door they went to – no need to
make the game difficult or anything. The end of game ties
up loose plot points and has the final predictable
confrontation of good vs. evil.
Aitd4 is another game in the bad trend of releasing console
/playstation games for the pc. This is just a bad idea.
No effort was made by infogrames (publisher of aitd4) to
customize the game for the pc – to save a game, you must
find “charms of saving” and use them to save your progress.
Gee, anyone think these were used as the save mechanism in
the playstation version? .
There is not much to recommend about this game. At best,
it is a poor resident evil rip-off. At worst, it is a game
that should have never been converted for the pc.
Sliceboy Rating:
2 out of 5 Planets
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