Review EN/PTBR

"Okay, we need to launch a game between Alone in the Dark 1 and Alone in the Dark 2 where we convince our audience to buy the next game, so I had this idea, what if Santa Claus was kidnapped by some toys then you have to go there and make all the toys look like fucking idiots to make them release the hostage?"

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"Tá bom precisamos lançar um jogo entre o Alone in the Dark 1 e Alone in the Dark 2 aonde convença nosso publico a comprar o próximo jogo, então tive essa ideia, e se o papai noel fosse sequestrado por uns brinquedos ai tu tem que ir lá e fazer todos os brinquedo de otário pra fazer eles liberarem o refém?"

The original Alone in the Dark, in many ways, is extremely dated, with many of its elements coming off as clunky, primitive, and unsettling to even look at, but not in the way that the game intended. However, despite all of these faults, I ended up liking the game a lot more than I expected to, offering plenty of neat ideas that would become a staple in the survival horror genre, and a fun enough gameplay setup that had me satisfied by the time the credits rolled. And hey, the game was pretty successful critically and financially as well, so a sequel was inevitably going to happen… but not immediately. The game would eventually be released around the tail-end of the next year, but before we ended up getting that, another smaller game was made to be released to the public, as a nice little promo for what was to come. This game would simply be known as Jack in the Dark.

This game is essentially the equivalent of an unrelated demo that was released for Alone in the Dark II. As such, it is primarily meant to just show off what could potentially be done in this new game, while providing a neat, yet short experience for those who were fans of the first game. I myself wasn’t even originally going to cover this game, as I thought it wasn’t gonna offer anything that I wasn’t gonna get just by going straight to Alone in the Dark II, but after seeing how short it was, I thought I may as well go ahead and give it shot. So I did, and for being a promo game, it is actually pretty decent. It has very little to offer, but it manages to do perfectly accomplish what it sets out to do, and it provides a decent amount of fun for how long it lasts.

The story is extremely silly and nothing like what would be seen before and since in this series, where a young child by the name of Grace Saunders wanders into a toy store during Halloween in the hopes of getting some treats, but ends up getting locked inside, so she then has to figure out how to escape while facing the goofy terrors within, which is a plot that is just whimsical and stupid enough to where I can’t help but love it. The graphics are essentially on the same level as that as the original game… and by that, I mean it looks like a polygonal garbage fire, but all of the backgrounds for the store and toys do look pretty good, and like its predecessor, it has enough charm despite how primitive it looks, the music consists primarily of just one track, and said track is as whimsical and enjoyable as this game is, so it fits well for the game we have here, the control is also on the same level as the original game… and by that, I mean the movement is heavy as fuck and not enjoyable at all, but again, I can’t fault it too heavily for this, and the gameplay is pretty similar to the original game, only made much more simplistic and approachable here.

The game is a survival “horror” game, where you take control of Grace Saunders, go through the entirety of this toy store, search around for plenty of different items that can help you out along the way, fend off plenty of fearsome living toys so that they won’t capture you, and try your best to not be smitten by the amount of charm that is oozing from the game the entire time, which is pretty hard to do. If you have played the original game, or even AITD II, then you pretty much know what you are getting into here, and while it doesn’t have much to offer, it manages to be decent amount of fun as you go through it.

One of the biggest things that this game has going for it is its charm, which is can be seen everywhere you look. The game doesn’t try to be scary whatsoever, and instead, since it was released around the holidays, it tries to be as festive and colorful as possible with many of the different decorations, creatures, items you see, and it manages to succeed in doing that. The decorations in the store are incredibly charming, and the blend right in with the Christmas and Halloween feel, the enemies are pretty goofy, yet can still be threatening if you don’t know what you are doing, the means in which you solve puzzles are silly and appropriately childish, and by the end of the game, you even end up saving Santa Claus from his candy-cane prison. I couldn’t help but have the biggest smile on my face the entire time, because there was just something about all of these festive and silly elements present in this small game in a horror franchise that made me really end up enjoying it a lot, and it would be the only reason why you would want to check the game out. Gameplay wise, it is still Alone in the Dark through and through, with it being cryptic enough to where you can spend a good amount of time with it if you don’t know what you are doing, but not too frustrating to the point where you would wanna quit.

With all that being said though, this is still a promotional game at the end of the day, which means that there isn’t much of it for you to enjoy. If you know what you are doing, the game can be beaten in around 5 minutes or so, and aside from what it does offer, it only serves as a means to promote Alone in the Dark II more than anything else. That’s not a bad thing at all, but for those of you that would potentially go into this expecting a full-size game out of this, you may be disappointed by what you get. Not to mention, since this is Alone in the Dark, that means it comes with all the downsides that original game had, where the movement is awkward as hell, the camera angles can be a bit of a nuisance in certain situations, and whenever you do get hurt by an enemy, it can be pretty hard to run away in time. Of course though, none of these problems are as big of a factor as they were in the original Alone in the Dark, and the game is short and charming enough to where none of that really matters, so I was completely fine with it at the end of the day.

Overall, despite some headaches that just come naturally with this series, Jack in the Dark was pretty enjoyable for what it was, being enjoyable festive and charming with what it provides the player, and is short enough to where you won’t feel like your time was wasted. I would recommend it for those who liked the original game, or for those who are fans of the series in general, because despite how little it offers, it is decent enough to where that doesn’t become an issue. But anyways, I guess we are gonna get back into the main sway of things once I get around to doing AITD II. I just wonder what it would be like if we actually got a full AITD game that had the same attitude and festive nature that this game did. That would be really fucking weird, but I would be all for it.

Game #480

Wow, another fucking GOG game where the default DOSbox settings are borked. Pro tip, set the CPU cycles to around 14000 (this can be cycled via CTRL+F11 or CTRL+F12) to salvage the frame rate. Thank me later lol

This is the type of CD you would have found in a cereal box 20 years ago. This game is the westaboo equivalent of that chibi Rondo of Blood minigame Peke (PEKE of the franchise) which plays instead of the main game if the player boots Rondo up the wrong way. This game is the type of thing that would never get made nowadays.

Just a cute little promotional game for Alone in the Dark 2; nothing more, nothing less. The puzzles are very easy to figure out, minus the mirror thing which took me a minute. The dime goes in the candy machine, the jack in the box bites on everything so it gets the candy cane, etc.

There are only 2 music tracks in the game and they're both pretty charming I suppose. I do wish there was a cheesy narration at the beginning though, so the lack of one is what docks points down for me.

Graphics are more of the same deal as with the other 3 DOS games, but shoutout to the ending screen for being something that I would probably have set my wallpaper to back in 1993 https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1163726632910077982/image.png

I want to say something more about this game but IDK, it kinda just exists. There's nothing particularly great about this game, but it's so short it's hard not to find it charming, clocking in at around maybe 10-15 minutes long max. I just appreciate that in a world where lame as fuck cinematic trailers and $200 ultra deluxe pre-order bonus editions are the norm for hyping games up nowadays, something so pure exists where the creators were just fucking around with extra development time. Kino sauce that doubles as both a Christmas and Halloween game.

As a promotional game, meant more to show what Alone in the Dark 2 could offer rather than stand as its own experience, Jack in the Dark, on the surface, seems quite limited. With only one room to walk around, and a handful of puzzles to solve, the whole thing can be completed in ~ten minutes, but even regardless of that there’s a good amount on offer here. The setting of the toy shop is fairly aesthetically pleasing and well-utilized — all the puzzles lean into the setting of the store, near-exclusively using object and enemy models that weren’t otherwise recycled for Alone in the Dark 2. The fixed camera does well to capture some rather clever and cool-looking angles without ever getting in the way or accidentally hiding anything from the player. The rather goofy tone manages to come across even with the little runtime it has, the enemy (and player!) animations being rather charming as they plod across the room and the plot going into… what’s ostensibly a rather off-the-wall direction with an entirely straight face. The limits of this being a tech demo, in a way, become a strength: the game can focus purely on the things it's best at, and strip back most of the systems and complexity that otherwise… have historically held more full-length Alone in the Darks back. Maybe a shame that this is as simple as it is — I would’ve loved to see something like one of Alone in the Dark 2’s stealth sections in here — but I can’t deny that it does basically everything it wants to. It gets into the action, shows off what Alone in the Dark 2’s engine is capable of, and does enough to stand out a little on its own merits, too. Frankly, the fact that I’m left wanting more is a good thing here. Would've loved to have seen this expanded on.