Alone in the Dark: Difference between revisions

'''''Alone in the Dark''''' was the progenitor of the [[Survival Horror]] genre in 1992. It was also the first game to feature [[Sprite Polygon Mix|3D polygon characters over fixed 2D backgrounds]], allowing for cinematic camera angles. Featuring a mix of combat, puzzle-solving, inventory management, and exploration, the game was well-received and made a rather large impression at the time. Set in the 1920's, the game had players take the role of private detective Edward Carnby or socialite Emily Hartwood, who were locked in the haunted mansion of Derceto, searching for a way out while battling zombies, monsters, and a lurking evil inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

* [[Action Commands]] -: Used in the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark'' to try and escape if you get eaten by a fissure.

* [[Action Survivor]] -: Carnby and Hartwood were like this in the original ''Alone in the Dark''. By the sequels, Carnby has become a [[Badass Normal]] paranormal investigator, an occupation shared by the new Edward Carnby from ''The New Nightmare''.

* [[And I Must Scream]] -: Captain Pregtz from the first game was turned into a tree and has lived in an underground city for 300 years. Subverted in that he still has servants waiting on him hand end foot. Er, branch and root. Jack in the Dark, despite being a kids game, features sentient toys living in an abandonned toy store for years. Despite this, they don't seem to mind much.

* [[Apocalyptic Log]] -: Jeremy Hartwood's diary in the first game.

* [[Arbitrary Equipment Restriction]] -: During the 2008 game, during a light based puzzle section near the end of the story, the flashlight you have throughout the entire game suddenly becomes unusable until after the puzzle is solved.

* [[Attack Its Weak Point]] -: All of the humanoid enemies in the 2008 game can only be killed by igniting the fissures on their bodies.

* [[Back from the Dead]] -: The members of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] in ''Alone in the Dark 2'' will resurrect an hour or so after being killed, unless you physically destroy their contract with the Devil first. In ''Alone in the Dark 3'', Carnby himself comes back from the dead (thanks to a little Native American magic) after being shot by the [[Big Bad]]. In fact, the sight of Carnby digging his way out of his own grave even scares the ''undead skeleton-arm zombie sheriff'' member of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] so much he drops his gun and runs away.

* [[Badass Normal]] -: Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood are among the few [[Survival Horror]] protagonists able to punch zombies to death with their bare hands.

* [[The Bad Guy Wins]] -: Both endings to 2008, more or less, although one is a potential [[Sequel Hook]].

* [[Black Cloak]] -: The human villain Crowley and his men in the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark''.

* [[Climax Boss]] -: The swordfight against the pirate ghost in the original ''Alone in the Dark''. The battle against the huge Museum Beast about 1/2th of the way through the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark'' (complete with awesome battle music -: "End to a Prelude" on the official soundtrack).

* [[Closed Circle]] -: In the original game, trying to exit the mansion via the front door reveals the exterior to be an otherdimensional void which promptly eats you.

* [[Continuity Nod]] -* The [[Big Bad]] of ''Alone in the Dark 3'' is revealed to be the child of the [[Big Bad]] from the original ''Alone in the Dark'' and [[The Dragon]] from ''Alone in the Dark 2''. Also, one of the villains in ''The New Nightmare'' is named De Certo, after the haunted mansion in the original game.

** All 3three games in the original trilogy as well as ''The New Nightmare'' feature an "unseen being watching your character through the window" scene at the beginning of the game.

* [[The End - or Is It?]] -: The original game ends with the hero destroying the evil force and escaping the mansion into daylight, hailing a passing cab and getting in, only for the driver to turn around and reveal himself as a cackling zombie. Of course, since he appears in the sequel, presumably this experience wasn't ultimately negative.

* [[Gainax Ending]] -: The endings to the 2008 game.

* [[Game Breaking Bug]] -: 2008 ''Alone in the Dark'' seem to be made of these. One of the biggest problems with the much-hated 59th Street [[Scrappy Level]] is that your vehicle can and will get stuck into invisible walls. The rest of the game doesn't get much better;: driving never outgrows the invisible walls, which also invade jumping puzzles, while combat is helplessly random due to both the accuracy required (enemies have only specific weak spots) and the problematic collision detection.

* [[Gameplay Ally Immortality]] -: Despite following you around for a good portion of the game, Sarah Flores in the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark'' is unkillable, and won't even be targeted by monsters. She vanish into nothingness if you die and respawn, but she'll either teleport at the destination or just be ignored until the next gameplay segment. It's mostly one of the game's many glitches.

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** Open the yellow book (De Vermis Mysteriis) without standing on the pentacle first, and an invisible evil spirit snaps your neck. A [[Trial and Error Gameplay]] moment.

* [[Kill It with Fire]] -* The main premise of the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark''. All the major monsters can only be permenantly killed with fire. Fortunately, you can shoot flaming bullets, toss molotov cocktails, attack with aerosol spray flamethrowers, or simply set a chair or baseball bat on fire then whack monsters with it.

* [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] -: Carnby's condition in the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark''.

* [[Late to the Party]] -: ''Alone in the Dark 3'' has Carnby arriving shortly after ghosts have wiped out the film crew visiting a wild west ghost town. Central Park in the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark'' is also like this, as you get there after Lucifer has already trashed the place.

* [[Lightning Reveal]]: A lightning flash in one of the outside areas in ''The New Nightmare'' shows a massive horde of ghoulish humans surrounding you for an instant. {{spoiler|It's an early prelude to when you return to the location later and encounter just such a force, but thankfully, you happen to have found [[BFG|a gun that fires emulsified light.]]}}.

* [[MacGyvering]] -: In the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark'', you can combine various inventory items for assorted effects. I(i.e., taping a box of bullets to a fuel can to make a stronger bomb, or pouring fuel onto your gun's bullets to shoot [[Arrows on Fire|flaming bullets]]).

* [[Magical Native American]] -: The shaman who helps Edward in ''Alone in the Dark 3'', as well as Edenshaw in ''Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare''.

* [[Mind Screw]]: - bothBoth finales to the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark''. Sheesh.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] -: The worse of two endings to AITDthe 2008 ''Alone in the Dark''08, if you kill Sara, Lucifer takes control of you instead, becoming even more powerful than otherwise.

* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]] -: ''Alone in the Dark 2'' featured zombie pirate mobsters as the game's enemies (one member of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] was even a zombie pirate ninja!). In ''Alone in the Dark 3'', you fought zombie cowboys, and during a short section of the game, zombie cowboy ''werewolves''.

* [[Obvious Beta]] -: The 2008 game, most obvious in the 360 version.

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] -: Prominent in the soundtrack to AITDthe 2008 ''Alone in the Dark''.

* [[One-Winged Angel]] -: In ''The New Nightmare'', both of the Morton brothers undergo a monsterous transformation to become the game's final bosses. Alan Morton just turns purple and grows to about 8 feet tall, whereas Obed Morton turns into a large, two-headed, jet-black bipedal reptilian monster.

* [[Paranormal Investigation]] -: Carnby is like this in the second, third, and fourth games in the series. In the first game, he's a regular detective (who mostly makes a living following cheating husbands), and in the fifth game, he's got amnesia.

* [[Plot Tumor]]: - burningBurning the Evil Roots (of an Evil Tree, of course) in the 2008 game. Padding at its best. A nod to the original game, where ths [[Final Boss]] is an evil tree that must be burned.

* [[PoweredPublic ArmorDomain Soundtrack]]: -An Seen,instrumental strangely,version inof the"Vesti wildLa west-basedGiubba" ''Alone in the Darkfrom 3''. The [[Big BadPagliacci]]'' donsis aplayed primitivein suit ofthe "[[PoweredGame ArmorOver]]" (whichscreen even has anwhen [[ArmOur CannonHero Is Dead]]!) toin fight you''Alone in the finalDark battle2''.

* [[PublicQuirky DomainMiniboss SoundtrackSquad]]: AnThe instrumental[[Big versionBad|Big Bads]] of "Vesti''Alone Lain Giubba"the fromDark ''[[Pagliacci]]2'' isand played''Alone in the "GameDark Over"3'' screenboth whenhave [[Oura Heroband Isof Dead]]several incolorful ''Aloneminions inwhom theyou Darkfight 2''throughout the games.

** [[Save Game Limits]]: ''Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare'' required a Charm of Saving to save the game. There was a scenario early on which allowed the player to get as many Charms of Saving as desired, though.

* [[Sheathe Your Sword]] -: {{spoiler|Carnby's zombie double}} in ''Alone in the Dark 3'' can only be defeated by dropping your gun and approaching it unarmed.

* [[Solve the Soup Cans]] -: Done in the original trilogy, and the''The New Nightmare''.

* [[Sprite Polygon Mix]] -: The original ''Alone in the Dark'' started this trend.

* [[Survival Horror]] -: The game that started it all.

* [[Sword Fight]] -: ''Alone in the Dark'' had a swordfight against a pirate ghost as a major encounter about 2/3rds of the way through the game. ''Alone in the Dark 2'''s climax involves a series of sword fights against the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] of pirates.

* [[Swords Akimbo]] -: This is the (rather cool) fighting style of ''Alone in the Dark 2'''s [[Big Bad]] and final boss, One-Eyed Jack.

* [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] -: The first game includes ''Fragments of the Book of Abdul'' and ''De Vermis Mysteriis''. Reading the former will hurt you and reading the latter kills you. The ''Vermis'' is found with another book warning you that reading such tomes can be harmful (and mentions the ''Vermis'' by name), but the game doesn't tell you what a book's title ''is'' until you've already read it.

* [[The Unfought]] -: The 2008 ''Alone In The Dark'' builds up to a climactic showdown between Edward Carnby and Lucifer... and just when it looks like the two are about to throw down, the game ends with a [[Gainax Ending]].

* [[Unwinnable by Design]] -: A bunch of circumstances in the original 1992 game. For example, if the mirrors are broken before you put them on the statues, you are trapped on the 2nd floor, and if you forget to unlock the basement door, and all the planks leading across the chasm have fallen down, then you're stuck underground.

* [[Updated Rerelease]] -* The 2008 ''Alone in the Dark'' is be rereleased on the Playstation 3 as ''Alone in the Dark: Inferno'', with exclusive new levels as well as improved, faster and more responsive controls. The [[Scrappy Level]] has also been made easier and much less frustrating.

* [[When Trees Attack]] -: The boss of the original game is a tree (inhabited by the [[Big Bad]]) that shoots fireballs at you.

* [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]]: - theThe horrific monsters in the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark'' are listed as Ratz, Vampirez, and Humanz. If anyone thinks they could sound less lame in the original French... they don't.