Essentially kicking off the whole third-person survival horror genre a good four years before Capcom stepped up to the plate with its now legendary Resident Evil franchise, Alone in the Dark did the whole shtick first back in 1992. Though you can certainly make the case that the series has been on something of an uneven trajectory since its first instalment, it’s also equally true that the resurgence of Alone in the Dark in 2024 promises a resurgence that is not only much more in line with its more than three-decade-old origins but which can also stand shoulder to shoulder with the survival horror efforts of today. As such, there is arguably no better time to plumb the history of this often overlooked series that in large part birthed the modern survival horror genre.
Alone in the Dark (1992)
Kicking the whole thing off roughly thirty-two years ago, the first Alone in the Dark was a trailblazer in more ways than one. Brought to grim, unholy life by director Frédérick Raynal and his extremely talented, though small development team at French studio Infogrames, Alone in the Dark resulted from the desire to create a video game inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft and hoo boy, did it nail that premise and then some.
Not only was Alone in the Dark one of the first games ever to overlay fully three-dimensional characters over pre-rendered backgrounds (a trick that Resident Evil would repeat to greater success in 1996) but so too did it also craft a genuinely terrifying tale in which players took control of Edward Carnby. A private investigator, Carnby sought to delve into the depths of Derceto, a haunted Louisiana mansion in 1924 to unravel its secrets, solve puzzles and uncover the horrors that lay within. The new Alone in the Dark title which will reboot the story and events of this original entry in the series, essentially bringing everything full circle.
Jack in the Dark (1993)
A strange little entry in the Alone in the Dark franchise, Jack in the Dark was a much smaller game that was developed while production was concluding on Alone in the Dark 2. A bite-sized adventure in which players take control of youngster Grace Saunders, Jack in the Dark has Grace attempting to escape a toy store after she is locked inside during Halloween. Of course, with this being an entry in the Alone in the Dark franchise, the toys are very much alive and to make matters worse Grace is also tasked with rescuing Santa Claus from the titular and nefarious Jack-in-the-box, too.
Aside from the oddly festive premise, what also separates Jack in the Dark from the other Alone in the Dark titles is the fact that there is no combat whatsoever, meaning that Grace must rely on her puzzle-solving acumen to get the job done. Interestingly, Grace Saunders would return thirty years later in a separately released Prologue to 2024’s Alone in the Dark reboot that embraces the same combat-free, puzzle-solving shenanigans as Jack in the Dark.
Alone in the Dark 2 (1993)
Representing a sizable shift from the more considered atmospheric beats of its predecessor, Alone in the Dark 2 not only veered away from the creepy cosmic horror of the first game in favour of a plot that had Edward Carnby rescuing Grace Saunders from voodoo zombies and immortal pirates, but it also brought a strong focus on gunplay rather than the sort of exploration and puzzle solving that defined the original.
The downside to this, of course, was that combat was never really counted among Alone in the Dark’s strengths and so Alone in the Dark 2 felt a lot more clunky and far less atmospheric than the game that originally inspired it. To say that Alone in the Dark 2 was a missed opportunity to capitalise on the success of the first game in the series would be something of an understatement.
Alone in the Dark 3 (1995)
The third Alone in the Dark title released before Capcom even got out of the starting blocks with its Resident Evil franchise, Alone in the Dark 3 whisked Edward Carnby off to the not-so Wild West in 1925 as our beloved series protagonist finds himself drawn to a mysterious ghost town, searching for a film crew that has gone missing in the area.
Clearly not learning the lessons from Alone in the Dark 2, the third instalment in the series would once more double down on combat as Edward Carnby found himself tackling all manner of undead cowboys, radioactive mutants and more besides. Needless to say, Alone in the Dark 3 lacked so much of what made Alone in the Dark so compelling in the first place that it ended up being a resolutely forgettable offering as a result.
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001)
With Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise being both three core entries deep and having gained millions of fans across the world by this point, it was clear that when Alone in the Dark did re-emerge it would have to be something different from what we saw previously, while also matching up with the redefined genre expectations. What we got was Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, which ditched the jarring pirates and cowboy enemies of the previous two games in favour of legitimately terrifying horrors that would emerge from the bowels of the earth. Though Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare doesn’t wholeheartedly leave the series’ prior and misguided obsession with combat entirely behind, it does reinvigorate the exploration and puzzle-solving side of things.
The way this is achieved is that the player has a choice of two very different protagonists to take control of in the early going. Edward Carnby returns as one of these characters and somewhat predictably, is the one who takes part in all the gunplay, while Aline Cedrac, a university professor who accompanies him largely handles much of the puzzle solving and frequently the two individuals meet up, combining their narratives in the process. Though far from perfect and certainly not quite up to the lofty new standard for the survival horror genre that Resident Evil had established, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare nonetheless set down a promising blueprint for where the franchise could have gone next.
Alone in the Dark (2008)
Sadly, that blueprint was almost completely ignored when Alone in the Dark would re-emerge some seven years later. 2008’s series entry, which was just called ‘Alone in the Dark’, took a conceptual hard left in terms of what the previous games in the series had given players. Splitting up the story into a series of interconnected episodes allowed players to tackle a specific episode rather than having to go through the whole game from the beginning each time (triggering a neat “Previously on Alone in the Dark” cutscene to catch players up in the process), 2008’s Alone in the Dark would instead embrace a fully three-dimensional world in which players could switch between first and third person perspectives.
While the updated technology was welcome, along with the move to a suitably spooky occult-style narrative, a baffling focus on combat, extinguishing fires, poor puzzles and a general lack of atmosphere, together a raft of sometimes game-breaking bugs would all conspire to condemn 2008’s Alone of the Dark to the nadir of the series and the bin of time.
Alone in the Dark: Illumination (2015)
Speaking of bins, the game that essentially forced the Alone in the Dark franchise into hibernation for the last nine years, Alone in the Dark: Illumination was an online-only multiplayer first-person shooter(!) that utterly missed the point of Alone in the Dark in ways that can only be described as utterly spectacular. A quarter-baked, fad-chasing take on the likes of Left 4 Dead masquerading as an Alone in the Dark title, Alone in the Dark: Illumination had up to four players playing as different characters from the Alone in the Dark mythos, all the while completely ignoring the atmosphere, puzzle solving and storytelling that had served as the original design bedrock for the series.
Quite simply, every aspect of Alone in the Dark: Illumination’s design feels compromised. From the less-than-satisfying combat, poorly balanced classes, enough bugs to create a new Starship Troopers movie and a pointlessly grindy progression system that just made you want to shrink into the earth to never appear again, Alone in the Dark: Illumination was just awfulness incarnate.
