Alone in the Dark (MS-DOS) - Part 2

Today on Super Adventures, I'm going to try to beat the original Alone in the Dark!

This is the second and final part of my two-part article, so you'll probably want to check out PART ONE first. I wrote all about all kinds of stuff, even mentioned Resident Evil a couple of times.

One thing I didn't talk about though, and it's fairly important, is that the game came out in late 1992... so this is its 30th anniversary! It's getting a remake soon to celebrate and from what I can tell it's the kind of reimagining where they take all the stuff from the original game and put it to one side so they can make up a bunch of other stuff instead. I feel like it'll probably have better combat though.

Okay this is the last part of my Alone in the Dark playthrough and I'm playing this with the intent to finally finish it, so beyond this point the SPOILERS will be extensive. With any luck. I mean I can't make any promises here, you can count the number of true survival horror games I've completed on one hand, with all the fingers severed, but maybe this will be the first!

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Previously, in Alone in the Dark:

Jeremy Hartwood's suicide has left the creepy Decerto Mansion abandoned, and a pair of protagonists have taken an interest in investigating it. Emily Hartwood, Jeremy's niece, is driven to discover the truth behind his death... but I'm not playing as her, I'm playing as private investigator Edward Carnby who's been hired by an antiques dealer to see if there's anything there worth anything. Right now what he's mostly found are zombies, weird demon creatures and inventory items. But he's successfully escaped the top two floors and now the entire house is open to be explored. Except for the locked rooms.

And now, the conclusion:

Okay there are two doors on this landing. Well, five really, but two of them lead downstairs and one of them's locked, so I have two options left. I'll check the one on the top first.

First thing I did here was search the cupboard and find a box of cartridges. These will come in handy if I ever find a shotgun. Unless they work in the rifle?

The second thing I did was notice the shape on the chair. I can't tell if that's a subtle spectre or just a purple stain, but the more I look at it, the more I think that it's a ghost, and the more I think it'll be a bad idea for me to go anywhere near it. I've just saved though, so I'm going to go do it anyway!

Okay, the phantom turned into a cloud of balls and made Carnby dead and now I'm getting a cutscene of his corpse being dragged through some caves for some reason. I didn't get this when I dropped him through a hole in the floor earlier.

I like it when death scenes in games hint at things you're not going to discover until way later in the game.

Like this area definitely seems like it might be important later. The last resting place of Edward Carnby and also a hook that someone's just left lying next to him.

I loaded my save and went back in to loot the room properly this time, without activating the ghost.

Not so easy when it choose a camera angle that hid the table behind the chair, leaving me confused, wondering why I couldn't walk any more to the left.

I got a pretty good haul though: a matchbox, a poker, a gramophone, and those cartridges. I've read that Carnby's carrying capacity is limited, but it's still pretty impressive.

Okay that was the room on the top of the landing. I walked over to check on the other door next, and discovered it led to a hallway with even more doors. The game could really use a map.

I tried door #2 and found a notebook lying on a bedroom fireplace (that seems like a dangerous combination). I'll give it a read once I've killed the monster that immediately appeared.

Carnby will you pull the damn trigger already? What's happened, am I too close to the bed or something? Did I run out of ammo? This is damn weird.

I tried loading my last save game and the same thing happened. Sometimes I can get a shot off, sometimes I can't, and my aim's terrible right now so even when it finally fires I'm just wasting ammo. It took me 15 minutes to kill this thing with an acceptable loss of health and ammo, so this notebook had better be worth it.

Okay this actually is a pretty important notebook. It's Jeremy Hartwood's diary, with 23 pages chronicling the months leading up to his suicide. His father's research woke something in the house that led to his own death by chewing his own tongue off, and caused Jeremy's constant nightmares. So Jeremy began his own research into the occult using the house's extensive library, discovering that there's a network of caves underneath, and the 'the dark man' was invading his dreams and trying to take him over. I mentioned earlier that Jeremy's actor was a bit over the top, but this diary gives his performance a bit more context, as he sounds more and more unhinged with each page.

So now I know Jeremy's story, but I don't know what 'the dark man's deal is. Though there's a bit of a contradiction here, because the notebook puts his death in March 1925 and the newspaper that comes with the game said he died in August 1924. Maybe Jeremy just lost track of time!

I continued on and found a painting of a dude holding an equally painted axe. At least it looked painted, before it started chasing me down the hallway. I can't even dodge out of the way as it's a homing axe!

This isn't a real problem for me though, because I accidentally read the answer while I was checking something in a walkthrough (which is annoying). I picked up an item called an 'old Indian cover' earlier from a wardrobe in the loft, so I just covered the painting with it and the axes ceased. There was no option to just pick the painting up and turn it around or toss it out the window or something.

Anyway, it's done. No more painting problems.

There's another one on the other side shooting arrows! These are the only ranged enemies in the game so far and I don't like them.

Well I can't reach the end of this corridor but I can at least make it halfway now that I'm not getting axes in the back. I entered a room and found myself looking a black screen and the message "The room is in the dark!" A bit of a weird way to phrase it, but it's another clue that the game was called In the Dark at some point. It's also weird that no light is coming in from the open door, but whatever. I'll have to wait for the RTX patch for that I suppose.

This is a puzzle I can solve on my own. I used my box of matches and then switched to the now-lit oil lamp.

Yeah this room's being lit by my tiny lamp, don't question it. The bad news is that I'm in a library, so there could potentially be hundreds of books here to read for clues. Fortunately I can't interact with anything while I'm holding the lamp, so I've been spared from having to search the bookshelves. I can't do anything about this ghost chasing me around either, other than continually double tap the 'up' key and hope Carnby starts running at some point. Sometimes when you find a scary ghost in a library you just have to leg it out of there, I learned that from Ghostbusters.

Well that was a bit pointless, though it did get that rude door open. The one that slammed shut and laughed at me when I first reached this floor. So now I'm back at the stairs with nothing to do but head down and check some more doors.

Actually there is one more thing I need to do. I accidentally saw in the walkthrough that I can throw a statue at a suit of armour to get a sword. It really was an accident, I was checking one tiny bit of text and there was all this other text around it that I really shouldn't have glanced at. But it got me a sword so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Damn, looks like I'm just in time for a zombie dinner party. I'd say it's a shame I'm not dressed for the occasion, but I kind of am. Also I've got a sword, which is the most crucial part of the ensemble.

Turns out that I was wrong when I said that the game could probably only handle two or three characters on screen at once, but that's fine as I can handle all four of them. Zombies are easy enough to fight unarmed, but with my new sword they're a joke. And, unlike the cavalry sabre, this sword isn't breaking, so I can just keep cutting them.

Alright that's done, I guess I'll check out the kitchen.
 

Oh no, why'd I have to run out of inventory space just as I found the biscuits?

I could free up some room for them by dropping a giant pan of soup I just found, but that seems like something I'll need. Hang on, I'll look it up in the walkthrough (I'll make a real effort to not glance at anything other than the soup this time).

Okay I do not need the soup, and the biscuits are a consumable healing item so they'll not spend long in my inventory anyway. (Man, I didn't know biscuits were so healthy). Alright, that's the kitchen done. Time to pick another door and go loot that place too.

It's funny how quiet the place has been lately. Sure I just slaughtered a room full of zombies, but other than the occasional ghost the house is fairly deserted now.

Oh crap the rats are enemies! They seem immune to my swords as well. Screw this place. Retreat! I'll come back later when I have a reason to. Plenty of other rooms to try, like the one with the statue in.

SPIDER AMBUSH! This room has invulnerable arachnids falling from the ceiling! And they only have six legs!

The worst thing about this is that they were triggered to fall and infest the room when I searched the statue and found real arrows in her quiver, but my inventory's full again so I can't actually pick the arrows up! I'm going to have to go over to the stairs and dump some stuff where I'll be able to find it again. This is giving me flashbacks to the storerooms I made for myself in Ultima Underworld. And Morrowind actually.

I know what the arrows are for already as that's part of the accidental knowledge I gained by studying the forbidden walkthrough texts, but I probably would've ended up having to look it up anyway. Alright, back to the stairs again to put these arrows to use. Actually, scratch that, I want to explore the rest of this floor first, going around it anti-clockwise.

Man, that camera angle is awesome. It was less awesome how I got my ass kicked by a zombie spawning outside though. Well, okay they only take off a little health, but I need that health! I've found just three healing items in the whole game so far and one of them was a tin of biscuits.

It wouldn't be so bad if I thought it was my fault I took damage, but I'm sure I was throwing knives in the correct direction! It was the game that decided that they should just drop and land at my feet 50% of the time. Without saves the jank in this game would be a real issue instead of a minor annoyance.

I picked up some more oil for my lamp and a found a "box of shoes", so now I'm curious about the shoe-related puzzle that's coming up. Will I be using them to open a secret passage, or defeat a supernatural monster maybe?

The next enemy I have to face is... evil cigar smoke. Look at Carnby's face, he doesn't like it. I don't like it much either, as I'm losing health from it even quicker than I would in a Metal Gear game.

I wish I could say I figured out that I was supposed to fill a jug with water and pour it onto the cigar, but I did not solve this particular puzzle myself. Carnby didn't figure out to hold his damn breath or throw the cigar out of a window though, so I'm not feeling too dumb.

Now that the smoke is sorted out I'm free to wander the room and collect a lighter, a record, and a book. I'm already carrying two matchboxes, so lighting things hasn't been a problem for me, and I've found so many books. That record could be useful though if it works with the gramophone. Hey, where did I leave that anyway?

The next room features a backflipping pirate with a purple coat and a peg leg. This is the first time I've met someone I could plausibly have a conversation with, but he's not interested. You know, I'm starting to think I won't be getting any dialogue trees in this game. He's also not interested in dying to my rifle, as I've emptied every cartridge I have into him. I'm going to reload to get my ammo back, because I have a feeling I'll need it.

I could draw my sword and take him on in melee combat... but I'd rather not if I can help it, because the fighting isn't great. Hey wait a minute, there's another door here I haven't tried yet!

Okay what the hell? I knew the game wasn't going to let Carnby just walk out of the house through the front door but I didn't expect him to be stabbed by a tentacle and sucked inside a blob monster. This is pretty damn weird even for a survival horror. Fortunately I saved before opening the door so there are no consequences! The saves really take the sting out of bullshit deaths you had no way of knowing about in advance. Did I mention how much I like being able to save anywhere yet?

I loaded my last save and went in to face the pirate in a duel. He had superior skill, so I used the Jedi tactic of getting him cornered and hacking away at him in anger until I won. I got a gold key out of it and only lost 6 health! There's a locked door right next to me so I'm going to give the key a try.

The key worked! Unfortunately I had less luck with my plan to get the ghosts dancing to music on the gramophone. It seems like I'm on the right track, I just need to find a record they like, as they weren't interested in the two I brought with me.

I'm tempted to load my save again, just to get the music to stop playing. It's following me around the house! I have no idea where I'm going to find another record though, as I've explored this whole floor now. In fact I'm pretty much stuck. There is another door here I can open, but it leads back to the spider ambush room where I found the arrows.

Oh crap, I forgot about those arrows! I went back upstairs to the evil painting that keeps firing arrows at me, and shot an arrow right back at it. The first arrow missed, but I got him with the second, and then fired a third just to be sure.

This means I'm now able to walk down to the end of the hallway and explore this bedroom. I was looking for a record but what I found was a fake Book and a 3D grandfather clock that just sits there and taunts me with its + shaped hands. Is it three o'clock? A quarter past six? Half past nine? It's a mystery. I'm sure the thing must be used for something, it wouldn't be 3D otherwise, but I can't figure it out.

I checked the guide to see what the clock's about and it turns out I was supposed to push it. That's somewhere between blatantly obvious and completely bizarre. I mean you'd think they'd put some scratch marks on the wall or something. The game could really use a 'look' option, or some comments by the characters to give me a hint. I can't even examine the things in my inventory.

Behind the clock I found a key and a parchment with more text to read (or listen to being read).

I figured that I might have some use for the fake Book in the Ghostbusters library, so I went running around the bookshelves in a figure of 8 to get a bit of space from the ghost that's chasing me. I've found a section of the shelves that obviously doesn't match, but I can't examine it while I'm holding the lamp! I'm going to have to check the walkthrough again, because I am totally stuck right now.

Oh, it says to put the lamp down. Well... okay that makes sense. I still couldn't find a way to open the secret passage though, so I gave the walkthrough another glance and it informed me that the mechanism is hidden in the painted books to the right of the obvious 3D door. I usually search every inch of every room I'm in, but I didn't this time because have you seen how many books are in this place?

I went through the secret passage and found a couple more books, the kind that get put into my inventory. The books and notes are where all the backstory's hidden so I'm going to have to read them all to understand what's going on.

Book #1 killed Carnby instantly, the magic cast by the Latin incantation lifting him from the ground, snapping his bones and cracking his spine. Book #2 was a warning about book #1.

I also got a mysterious talisman, three daggers, and a piece of paper with a picture of the correct dagger I should use to stab that library ghost. Not much of a puzzle, more like an in-game manual for the weapon.

So I went back out and slayed the library ghost with one hit from the dagger, which presumably helped somehow. I guess it means I'm free to explore the library now. Yay! Though I realised I'd left the oil lamp running all this time, wasting the precious fuel, so I loaded my save and retrieved the dagger much faster this time.

The visit to the library didn't help much, but the key from behind the grandfather clock opened a room downstairs, and putting the broken sword on the shield opened up a secret passage! The room also contains a record of the Jonathan Creek theme to get the ghosts in the ballroom dancing, so I was able to sneak past them and grab a key.

Plus I picked up another book with more crucial backstory! It seems 50/50 whether the books and papers are completely relevant to the story, but this one seems important. It's a story set in the Civil War, about how some soldiers decided to stay at Derceto and were attacked by the foul cigar smoke. They fought back, shooting the owner, Pickford, and burning the place down. It doesn't look very burned down at the moment, but then supernatural mansions are weird.

It seems like I've finish the mansion chapter though, and I'm moving on to whatever's next.

Fucking fuckity fuck... these controls are getting on my nerves now. There are 100 keys on a PC keyboard, would it have killed them to add a run button instead of making me double tap? I'm sick of watching Carnby do a little dance as I'm tapping the 'up' key trying to find the exact right timing to get him running, especially when running is absolutely crucial.

Hang on, this collapsing bridge means I've reached a point of no return, right? Man, I hope I've brought all the items I need, or else I'm going to be screwed.

What the hell is this thing! Its teeth turned into thin needles and stabbed poor Carnby to death. All because he wasn't running quick enough.

It seems like I'm in the giant worm bullshit zone right now, because I ran away from one of the things and ended up running straight into another one. Oh wait, hang on, I've figured it out. It's the same worm, it just moved to get in front of me. Luring it around like this has opened up an exit behind me, so I'm actually done with this place now. Yay!
 

Oh shit, are you fucking kidding me? How is there a jumping puzzle in this game? There isn't even a jump button! Wait, hang on, I'm wrong, they have just added a jump option to my actions menu.

Man, I truly have entered the realm of nightmares so terrible they could drive you utterly insane. Actually this bit was was pretty easy and I managed it first time. A regular-length jump will get you across each of the gaps, so all you have to do is get Carnby facing the right direction.

This bit is just bullshit though. Navigating a tiny character around a maze of bridges with awkward tank controls while a monster flies around and tries to get me. Actually it was also pretty easy and I managed it on my first try again. I did fall into the water one time, but I just walked over to a ledge and he pulled himself up.

At the end I found a chest containing a mysterious gem and a note from the dark man, Pickford (aka Ezechiel Pregzt). He got his slaves to write this message because he just wanted to let Carnby know that he knows what he's up to and he intends to kill him on the sacrificial stone to regenerate his body. Hey, that's what the death cutscene is about! It's also basically what he tried to do with Jeremy Hartwood, before he escaped his influence by committing suicide. I recognised a Cthulhu name drop in the note, but I'm getting the impression I was supposed to recognise the name 'Pregzt' as well, so I may have missed a few books along the way. Probably my own fault for not searching the whole damn library, but I didn't want to waste the oil lamp fuel.

So... what do I do now? I guess I go back the way I came and try to find something to use this gem on.

SOME TIME LATER

Turns out that there was a rock behind the chest and I was supposed to push it out of the way to reveal a secret passage. I just can't seem to get it into my head that I should try pushing things in this game.

Anyway I've reached a pitch-black maze level! The kind where you can only see a tiny circle around you as you walk around. I found this bit to be a pain in the ass in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Loom, but here it was fairly painless. Partly because I've been careful during the game to conserve my very limited oil lamp fuel and partly because I immediately looked for a map online! I didn't even try to solve this one legit, I'm not interested.

Alright I've reached a cave with an evil tree that's shooting fireballs at me, and things are seeming fairly climactic. Man, I can't believe that Alone in the Dark ends the same way as Quake! Though I guess they're both drawing from the Lovecraft mythos, so that does kind of make sense. Unfortunately I've never read any Lovecraft myself, I'm not into horror, so the reference is lost on me. If the evil tree ever gets explained in game I must have missed that book.

I'd try shooting back at the tree or its water-dwelling minions, but my rifle cartridges were ruined when I slipped into the water, so all that ammo I've been conserving is useless now. Not that I had many cartridges left, as I've found literally one box of eight rounds in the entire game.

Hang on, there's an exit hidden over on the left!

Hey this is where the zombie drags Carnby when he dies! I saw this screen ages ago when the phantom turned into a cloud of balls.

Trouble is that the door's locked and I already used the gem to get into this place. Hey, maybe this is where I use the talisman I found in the library! Nope, didn't work. Nothing's working.

I guess I'll walk over to the belligerent tree boss then, see if it wants to chat or whatever.

And this is the sacrificial stone where they put Carnby's body. That means I can finally swipe that hook!
 
Okay, I've got the hook, now what? Do I just leave using the hook to open the door? I know, I'll put that talisman I found onto the stone! That should do something. I mean I haven't found any other use for it for yet.

Putting the talisman down got the tree to stop firing fireballs, so I'm making progress. I haven't quite got this figured out yet though. I guess it's time to switch to the walkthrough again.

I was supposed to throw the oil lamp as a Molotov cocktail! You know, that thing I need to light dark rooms. We're not doing dark rooms anymore I guess. Those flames look terrible by the way; this is the first time the art's really let the game down.

This was my cue to make a heroic exit... unfortunately the tree was a load-bearing boss and rocks started to fall, stunlocking Carnby until he was damaged enough to die right there on the spot. A few reloads later and I successfully escaped the tree, using the hook as a key to open the door. I expected that'd be the end of the game, but nope I was back in the wooden bridge maze. So I guess I'm supposed to backtrack all the way to the mansion then? How does that work when the bridge collapsed behind me?

Jumping across pillars gets harder when one of the bloody pillars is off screen! I still managed it without effort though.

I backtracked to the bullshit worm zone and discovered that luring the giant worm around had revealed another exit I hadn't noticed before, leading up into the mansion. So I wasn't trapped down here away from the items upstairs after all. The exit led to the rat cellar, where I found... bullets. That's a bad sign, especially as I haven't found the revolver yet. It's starting to seem like the shooting isn't over and I'm about to have a final confrontation with the evil Ezechiel Pregzt.
 

Nope, no boss fight. I left the mansion and finished the game! Holy shit, I just beat Alone in the Dark, and it only took me a few decades. Man, it's nice to get some new music for a change (the soundtrack is kind of limited).

Carnby jumps for joy when he leaves, while Emily waves her hands in triumph, so the character you pick does make some difference after all!

I'm still thinking about these revolver bullets though. How the hell did I miss a revolver?

I know that it's in the game, you can see a shot of Carnby using it if you leave the title screen on for long enough for a slideshow to start. He's also got a weird painted-on face (the model had a featureless head until later in development, so they drew a face on with Deluxe Paint for promotion and box screenshots etc.)

Damn, I can't believe this. I've finished the whole game and I'm still going to have to check that walkthrough one last time to find out where to get the gun.

Okay it turns out that the revolver was inside the 'box of shoes'. I took the item description at its word, but the game lied to me as it was actually a shoebox of gun. Well, I didn't need the revolver anyway, so it's all good.

Oh no, the car is being driven by a zombie! Twist ending.

It's fine though; all the monsters disappeared when I sorted out the tree, so I guess this must be a good zombie. No sign of the frog however, so he must have been evil.

CONCLUSION

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If I was asked to sum up Alone in the Dark in one line, I'd say it's got awkward controls and awesome floorboard sounds. I was pretty surprised by how good the music and sound effects are in this, especially as it came out in 1992. I was also surprised by how quickly I got used to the tank controls and antiquated interface this time, possibly because of all all the practice I've gotten playing games for this site. But the bits in between all the walking around are a bit of a problem, especially the fighting. Survival horror games aren't necessarily supposed to make a player feel powerful, but I'd at least like to know where I'm aiming and being able to step to the side would be a big help too.

The character select text and two minute intro might have you expecting some dramatic cutscenes and hard-boiled narration, especially as one of the characters is a legit 1920s private detective, but nope. They really committed to the theme of you being alone (in the dark), so the story is told by your own actions and the backstory has to be hunted down in books and notes. The writing's pretty good, and makes the whole game feel more sophisticated and literary and stuff, but I got impatient whenever some text I found seemed totally irrelevant. Hang on, it's just occurred to me that all the books talking about a strange New England town and Halley's Comet were probably there to foreshadow Infogrames' next Cthulhu 'em up, Shadow of the Comet. Anyway, the annoying thing is that even though I read all of those books, I apparently missed a couple of really important ones about Decerto Manor and Ezechiel Pregzt, or why there's an evil tree in the basement. See, this is what happens when they make lamp oil a precious finite resource and then turn out the light in the library.

Though the game's actually less frustrating than I was expecting. I guess it's a lot easier to forgive janky gameplay, trial and error design, awkward combat, and instant-kill literature when there's no serious consequences. A lot of people would say that savescumming takes the tension away and I can understand where they're coming from, but I don't really want the tension of knowing that the next bit of dated game design could force me to replay the last hour. I was careful with my saves though, as I had no interest in running out of ammo or lamp oil right at the end and discovering that I hadn't got a save from back far enough to escape this fate. I also cheated a bit by checking things in a walkthrough (more things than I intended to), but I didn't feel all that sorry about it afterwards. I would've spent hours using everything on everything else before I stumbled upon the solution of firing an arrow at a painting or throwing my precious oil lamp at the evil tree. I mean I didn't even solve the mystery of the box of shoes.

I did a little investigation into the various ports and it seems like you're basically getting the same game whatever you play it on. The Mac port is higher resolution in parts, the 3DO version is actually lower res, the Acorn Archimedes conversion has fewer colours, and you typically need to play the game from a CD version to get the CD music and voices, but a list of other differences would be short and trivial. Though I suppose it's worth mentioning that so easy to double-tap run on the 3DO port that I could do it accidentally, even though it has a separate run button!

I wasn't going to give this a 'Not Crap' star, because I still don't think it's a very good game. But I played the whole thing through to the end and that just made me more curious about what the ports and sequels were like. I somehow ended up more enthusiastic about Alone in the Dark after finishing it than I was when I started! I just like this game for some reason.

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Thanks for reading! If you've got anything you want to say about Alone in the Dark, then you should slam those words into the box below and then smash the 'publish' button. Gently. 

The 'next game' clue is a real challenge this time. I mean it was a challenge for me to find anything distinctive for you to identify it from. It's not a ugly game, but an 80x80 pixel slice of it looks kind of indistinguishable from a bunch of other games in its genre.