My only experience with Alone in the Dark was the 2008 Reboot of the same name, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Having never played the original or the sequels of the 90s I thought this was going to be another reboot. Upon finishing my first playthrough I did a little detective work (googling) of my own, to discover Pieces Interactives 2024 installment was more of a loose Remake than a reboot.

Not knowing anything about the story or the happenings of the franchise I thought it was an interesting decision getting David Harbour and Jodie Cormer to not only do the voices of Edward Carnby and Emily Heartwood but also base the character design on them as well, and I must say, for me it works. Knowing the faces and voices allowed me to really dive in and feel a part of their story.

You can play as either Emily Heartwood who is in search of her missing uncle Jeremy, or Edward Carnby a private investigator who has joined Emily in her search. Once you have picked your protagonist you are thrown straight into the tale.

Alone in the Dark is a horror story at heart, and Pieces Interactives have done a fantastic job of making it look and feel creepy, it’s not over the top jump scares and gory monsters it just has this subtle uneasiness about it. Our story takes place in the 1920’s in an old Manor for the mentally fatigued called Derceto set in the bayous of Louisiana.

Once you take control of your protagonist, your first task is to enter the manor. Immediately you get a torch, and this is where Alone in the Dark really starts to take shape. The visuals are fantastic, slowly creeping through what seems to be an abandoned manor with your torch catching surfaces that seem to move. It always disappoints me when there is no photo mode. So much effort has gone into the visuals I’d love to be able to let my inner VP out to get some amazing shots. Unfortunately, you just have to do the old jam Edward in the corner and rotate the camera, so he disappears.

By default, Alone in the Dark is on Performance mode, and I had no problems with it, when I changed to Quality mode it was jumpy and choppy and made me feel a little sick so would keep it on Performance mode. I had my brightness turned way down as well to really add to the creep factor. You can also play around with you field of view having it lower brings the camera almost looking over the shoulder as opposed to being further back seeing a lot more of the environment.

While you are searching for Jemery you will have to solve some very weird puzzles. I didn’t find any of them too difficult, but you will need to search around for clues in the form of collectables to help you solve them. This is where Alone in the Dark shines, the little titbits of information you get from collecting letters and notes really fleshes out the story and you start to realise things might not be so black and white. All the collectibles are voice acted in the same high standard as Edward and Emily.

The combat is a little slow and clunky, but I think it adds to the charm of an old school survival horror. The shooting feels good; however, the melee needs a lot of work. Firstly, is it necessary? Secondly, why does you melee weapon have a limited number of uses before its destroyed? There were also a few instances where I clipped inside an emery or object and couldn’t move, and I would have to reload an older save.

I understand Edward having a gun, being a PI and all but it would have been great to see Emily need to playthings a little smarter rather than just opening up with a tommy gun.

I had a terrible audio delay whenever I fired my weapon, which ruined the experience for me in what was otherwise an amazing game.

Like a lot of horror stories form the 1920’s there is a lot of ‘I have no idea where this is going or what is happening’ but I need to keep going to find out. Despite my audio glitch, I had an amazing time with Alone in the Dark, the minute I finished it with Edward I loaded straight back in to see what differences Emily’s story had.

I would highly recommend any horror fan to play Alone in the Dark, you will not be disappointed.

Alone in the Dark was reviewed on Xbox Series X and is also available on Playstation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S