Alone in the Dark 2024 (PC) review "Cth-Voodoo."

It was just shy of ten years ago now that I was somehow tricked into playing Alone in the Dark: Illumination. Without hyperbole, it remains one of the worst games I've ever played and I concluded my review by declaring it the death rattle of the long-established series. Alone in the Dark had been in a spiral for decades, kicking out numerous mediocre reboots that failed to find purchase with modern day horror gamers as well as a couple of atrocious films routinely mocked by all; I didn't see a way back for it. In predicting its death, I was technically correct (the best kind of correct); long running series developers Atari (formerly Infogrames) sold the series rights to THQ who are behind this, the latest reboot attempt. They promised a return to the roots of the series - a modern reimaging of the very first title released all the way back in 1992 that grandfathered the whole 3D horror genre. Did they fare any better? Well, less than a year after release the developer, Pieces Interactive, was closed down due to disappointing sales. Which doesn't bode well.

The twist ending for this review is that Alone in the Dark 2024 is a good game, but probably not the horror heavyweight contender hoped for. It's got atmosphere to spare and a genuine love for its founding titles, but it's also clunky, overburdened and, most damningly, not especially scary.

The game takes place in Derceto, a mansion isolated in the Louisiana swamps. No longer abandoned, as in the original Alone in the Dark, it now serves as mental institute for the troubled of mind. Much like the original, you are given the choice between two protagonists; private investigator and series mainstay Edward Carnaby, or Emily Hartwood. Back when, Emily arrives to investigate the death of Derceto's owner and her uncle, Jeremy Hartwood, but here, he's very much alive. He's been committed to Derceto but correspondence has ceased, so Emily hires Carnaby and the pair make the soggy trip to check it out. This will come to be regarded as a bad idea.



It repurposes bits and pieces of the original game rather than rebuild it entirely from scratch in new modern splendour. The similarity of the location and cast is, really, in name only; it's much more interested in reviving previous inspirations, of which Alone in the Dark boasts many. The first game of the original trilogy was very Lovecraftian, and so cosmic horror makes an appreciated return. Jeremy is a tortured artist, which doesn't make him much different from the rest of the suffering creatives housed in Dercerto, except, they're all accounted for and Jeremy is very much missing. He's been acting weird, say the rest of the resident weirdos; complaining about a stygian figure discovered in his dreams that has followed him into the waking world. And then, one morning, he just wasn't there anymore.

The second game was focused more around voodoo, which, turns out, is very popular in 1930s backwater Louisiana. For Jeremy, it was a means of possible salivation, which he embraced completely. With few other leads of worth, picking away at his occult interests will eventually lead you to his prized possession - a juju talisman fashioned by a voodoo priestess. Using this, Jeremy has fled into worlds of his own making, designed around anything from traumatic memories to personalised flights of fancy. If you want answers, you're forced to unlock the secrets of the talisman and give chase. Only, to you, these worlds aren't beacons of safety. You're not welcome among the dreamscapes.

The third game was about furious undead cowboys. Sadly, they did not make the cut.



For both better and worse, Alone in the Dark keeps its mundane and imagined worlds very separate. Though decidedly more prosaic than its counterpart, exploring Derceto and picking through its sliding scale of idiosyncratic inhabitants does a lot of the plot progression's heavy lifting. Obviously, there's enough genre-obligatory hidden notes and unattended diary pages scattered about the place to make you question the worth of the mansion's cleaning maid (she's definitely up to something, and exploration proves it's surely not dusting). These offer slivers of the horrors that have happened under the stately house's roof, both past and present, nudging you towards your next line of questioning or search for clues. Only, sometimes, you'll step through a seemingly innocent door and that will all be gone. The transitions between the real world and the imaginary obviously take more than a little inspiration from Silent Hill's trips into the Otherworld, but stepping between realms might just be the game's highlight for me. Sometimes, they're broadcast well in advance. Sometimes, you're moving between worlds by choice and design. Then, sometimes, in the blink of an eye, you're there at the whim at something more powerful than you. And by the time you realise you're in danger, the danger is already upon you.

Therein lies perhaps the biggest issue. Derceto opens up more and more locations as exploration turns up new passageways or ways to unlock previously unpassable obstacles, but what it never provides is any kind of threat. Alone's admittedly foreboding but meagre collection of face-chomping nasties reside exclusively in the alternative realm. This means, until reality tears and the mundane crumbles to dust, you're absolutely safe. You can stomp around content in the knowledge that nothing's going to jump through that ominous looking window, and that there's nothing waiting for you in any of those shadowy corners. It removes any sense of anxiety or fear from around half the game, which feels like a detriment to any horror experience. Trespassing in Jeremy's realms does provide some sinister moments and a definite perchance for the occasional jump scare, but it's also introducing you to Alone's overly busy and clumsy combat system. Where it tries its hand at stealth, melee and shooting all dipped in various shades of mediocrity.

To briefly run the list down, stealth accounts to little more than throwing things to distract monsters then running past them while they're gone. It's an appreciated inclusion as it offers the chance to sidestep combat all together, but isn't solid enough to guarantee results. You can melee attack with various objects found scattered around the worlds, but handhold weapons will fall apart after a couple of battles, forcing you to continuously search out a new shovel or pipe to bludgeon things with. The few firearms provided are serviceable, with ammo just scarce enough to make it a desirable resource, but they all become crushing obsolete once you obtain the tommy gun in the last few chapters. But that sense of overkill is fine; by this point of the game, you're probably done trying to make the most of the combat and are happy to have the ability to mow everything down with prejudice.



I appreciated it all the more because, while a lot of games struggle in the final stretch as they scramble to tie everything together, Alone in the Dark ramps up the chaos and revels in it. Throughout most of its run time, it's patient, letting you edge closer to Jeremy in little pockets of revelation, hinting that the efforts made in securing him salvation might come at a great cost. And then, consequences. The eight or so hours of exploring sinister locations, and decoding ancient riddles all bear sudden and explosive fruit as the mystery is unravelled, which it seems to take very personally. It might have got away with it all if it wasn't for that meddling niece and her cantankerous private detective. So, yeah, consequences, which arrive like a rocket powered half brick to the face after what could best be described as a pretty slow-paced affair up until that point. It's a great way to end a decent experience.

Only, I suspect decent isn't what THQ were hoping for. I enjoyed my time being alone in the dark; I enjoyed it enough to play through it twice so I could check out each protagonist (there's not a huge amount of difference; the standard endings differ enough, but the three secret endings are shared). A replay is certainly helped by a run time that could be considered short, but felt about the right length for the premises without it running out of steam, but maybe that's the issue. As a macabre action game, it's too limited, it's combat mechanic functional rather than fun, and fighting completely relegated from half the game, regardless. As a tale, it's sinister more than horrific with sporadic highlights that hit especially hard, but are few and far between and often don't have the follow up they deserve. But they remain moments of worth. Stalking through an oilfield that probably no longer exists lit only by the flickering flames of burning silos, knowing that there's something huge and hungry out there, or picking through a library completely construction by Jeremy's imagination looking for clues. Except, you're not the only browser; there's something old and ancient and so far above you that it barely considers you. If you're unlucky, that will change. If you point a gun at it, it won't attack you directly; that would suggest you pose some kind of threat. Straining against it, your arm starts to bend, the nozzle of the gun moving away from your intended target in a slow, shaky arc until it's pressed against your temple. First you fight it, pointlessly. Then you panic. Your choices are limited; stop being of momentary interest, or die.

Librarians Elder Gods can be arseholes like that.

Staff review by Gary Hartley (October 31, 2025) Gary Hartley arbitrarily arrives, leaves a review for a game no one has heard of, then retreats to his 17th century castle in rural England to feed whatever lives in the moat and complain about you.