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
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