The progenitor of the Survival Horror genre.
This game must've looked fucking crazy in 1992. Imagine looking at the barely interpretable environments of Wolfenstein 3D next to this fully realised Mansion, in which people obviously lived and died for that matter. While the graphics are obviously outdated now, they're still functional. Personally I find them quite charming, but I can see it putting people off these days. The character designs are the strongest part in my opinion. The enemies, while just amalgamations of shapes in different sizes and colors, can even look threatening at times. Emily and Edward just barely manage to not look ridiculous, so they don't drag down the horror factor.
Okay before I go on about all that other bullshit no one cares about, let's talk about Resident Evil.
I always knew Alone in the Dark inspired Resident Evil. It's the kind of trivia basically everybody seems to know about. What I didn't realise is that Capcom whole cloth ripped this game off. A hyperbole to be sure but it's more accurate than not honestly. AITD takes place in a mansion filled with monsters, you select if you wanna play as a male or female character at the beginning and it's mostly pre-rendered. The puzzles usually involve putting a McGuffin into an indentation, in order to open a door. There are readables scattered throughout the game, in order for you to catch up on the lore. There is an inventory system in place, which is limited and there are multiple weapons and matching ammo to find. Lastly the game ends with a escape sequence.
The craziest part is that there is no Item-Box, so if your inventory is full you just dump your excess items on the ground. Just like you would exactly ten years later in Resident Evil Zero. Needless to say it sucks in both games. Capcom had ten more years of game design experience and a game they took massive inspiration from already having made this mistake and they still managed to fuck that up. Those who disregard history are doomed to repeat it I suppose. Anyway Resident Evil Zero rant over.
Let's back up for a sec. Yes, there is an inventory system. Yes, it's lmited, but not in any meaningful way. There is really no resource management to speak of, because you can save everywhere and an unlimited amount of times. Save, find out what to do, reload, do what you just learned perfectly, repeat. This takes out a lot of the difficulty. Of course there is some jank and bullshit death, which was the style at the time, but it's pretty much all negated by the unlimited save function. Now AITD is showing it's point and click adventure game influence here, this isn't the only example either. Your actions aren't all bound to keys, most of them are selected in your the inventory. Just like someone would select what Guybrush should do, before clicking on something. Its work well enough honestly. The games this fascinating combination of the survival horror Resident Evil would later establish and the point and click adventure games of the 90s, which preceded it.
The level design and puzzles are fairly standard for today, but competent enough so that it held up for me. I played through the game without a guide and only got stumped once. It's lacks most of the 90s gaming horseshit, I've come to expect. The books and parchments usually offer helpful hints about the puzzles, so no guide needed. A cool little detail is that items, for the most part, reside in logical locations. For example the medkits are found in the bathrooms, a stew is found on the kitchen table and the rifle is locked up in the attic.
Speaking of guns the combat is clunky and obviously obsolete, but functional. It's actually possible to play through the game, without getting hit. In turn it's not really hard or interesting. Although the game offers a lot of options to avoid combat all together. I felt really clever for pulling it off, so bonus points for that.
Lastly the voice acting must have been trailblazing for the time. A diary containing the house owners descent into madness is fantastically written and performed. I can't think of any game around the era which could've come close. So AITD casually sets the standard for voice acting in videogames aswell.
Honestly I say give it a go, it's short and sweet. A little janky, but not at all uncomfortable.
This game must've looked fucking crazy in 1992. Imagine looking at the barely interpretable environments of Wolfenstein 3D next to this fully realised Mansion, in which people obviously lived and died for that matter. While the graphics are obviously outdated now, they're still functional. Personally I find them quite charming, but I can see it putting people off these days. The character designs are the strongest part in my opinion. The enemies, while just amalgamations of shapes in different sizes and colors, can even look threatening at times. Emily and Edward just barely manage to not look ridiculous, so they don't drag down the horror factor.
Okay before I go on about all that other bullshit no one cares about, let's talk about Resident Evil.
I always knew Alone in the Dark inspired Resident Evil. It's the kind of trivia basically everybody seems to know about. What I didn't realise is that Capcom whole cloth ripped this game off. A hyperbole to be sure but it's more accurate than not honestly. AITD takes place in a mansion filled with monsters, you select if you wanna play as a male or female character at the beginning and it's mostly pre-rendered. The puzzles usually involve putting a McGuffin into an indentation, in order to open a door. There are readables scattered throughout the game, in order for you to catch up on the lore. There is an inventory system in place, which is limited and there are multiple weapons and matching ammo to find. Lastly the game ends with a escape sequence.
The craziest part is that there is no Item-Box, so if your inventory is full you just dump your excess items on the ground. Just like you would exactly ten years later in Resident Evil Zero. Needless to say it sucks in both games. Capcom had ten more years of game design experience and a game they took massive inspiration from already having made this mistake and they still managed to fuck that up. Those who disregard history are doomed to repeat it I suppose. Anyway Resident Evil Zero rant over.
Let's back up for a sec. Yes, there is an inventory system. Yes, it's lmited, but not in any meaningful way. There is really no resource management to speak of, because you can save everywhere and an unlimited amount of times. Save, find out what to do, reload, do what you just learned perfectly, repeat. This takes out a lot of the difficulty. Of course there is some jank and bullshit death, which was the style at the time, but it's pretty much all negated by the unlimited save function. Now AITD is showing it's point and click adventure game influence here, this isn't the only example either. Your actions aren't all bound to keys, most of them are selected in your the inventory. Just like someone would select what Guybrush should do, before clicking on something. Its work well enough honestly. The games this fascinating combination of the survival horror Resident Evil would later establish and the point and click adventure games of the 90s, which preceded it.
The level design and puzzles are fairly standard for today, but competent enough so that it held up for me. I played through the game without a guide and only got stumped once. It's lacks most of the 90s gaming horseshit, I've come to expect. The books and parchments usually offer helpful hints about the puzzles, so no guide needed. A cool little detail is that items, for the most part, reside in logical locations. For example the medkits are found in the bathrooms, a stew is found on the kitchen table and the rifle is locked up in the attic.
Speaking of guns the combat is clunky and obviously obsolete, but functional. It's actually possible to play through the game, without getting hit. In turn it's not really hard or interesting. Although the game offers a lot of options to avoid combat all together. I felt really clever for pulling it off, so bonus points for that.
Lastly the voice acting must have been trailblazing for the time. A diary containing the house owners descent into madness is fantastically written and performed. I can't think of any game around the era which could've come close. So AITD casually sets the standard for voice acting in videogames aswell.
Honestly I say give it a go, it's short and sweet. A little janky, but not at all uncomfortable.