Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare Review

Apart from this, the things that irritated me most were the bugs. For god knows what reason, each time you save the game (in one of the four available slots, and you can save the game only as many times as much save amulets you find) you first have to pray that the game will return you to the same position where you saved the it. The game simply saves your position at the beginning of a certain area, regardless of your current position within that area. Now, how big are those areas actually? That is a good question... the areas can be one location, or they can be ten locations... You know, when you achieve a flawless victory over a tough opponent and save the game, and then you load it only to find he is still there... well that can really get to you... Oh, and there are some hard locations where you simply cannot use the health packs (?)... You get used to it all after some time, but still ...

Puzzles mostly come down to find-key-find-door followed by obligatory gathering of various journals and papers which reveal the mystery of the island. They seem tedious at first but improve over time. You should just pay heed that you won't be able to see most collectable items in the darkness, and some of them are equally indistinguishable even if you point your torch at them. This is why going along the walls and constantly pressing the action key might be a wise thing to do... You will be surprised at the quantity of save amulets and other items that can be gained this way...

The graphics highly resemble what we saw in Blair Witch 1: Rustin Parr and leave a very good impression. It is still a combination of 2D and 3D graphics. All mobile things are 3D objects stuck to pre-rendered or drawn backgrounds. All in all, the game looks dark, grim and intimidating... just as it should be. Maybe the fact that everything is so dark makes the game look as good as it does as it was easier to create dark and shadowy locations than well lit ones full of details. The darkness can hide many flaws. Whatever the case, I am quite satisfied with the graphics, especially with how some locations look when you run your flashlight over them... Lighting is not dynamic and the shadows cast by non-interactive objects will not pay much heed to your torchlight, and some things just look too static (the water in the sewage) but these are minor flaws. I played the game both with a GeForce and on Voodoo, and I can tell you everything looked somehow better in Glide...

As for the 3D objects, the characters spoil the overall impression - some extra polygons and lip animation wouldn't hurt a bit. Apart from that, animation is pretty good. Still, in combination with the stupid control method I mentioned, even the animation can seem crappy at times as you will frequently see your hero walking in one spot when he hits an object, an invisible wall, etc. On the other hand, FMV sequences look very good.

Sounds are average. The music can get annoyingly monotonous and the voice acting is less than adequate. I understand that the game had not been developed in an English speaking country, but they could have at least found one male and one female actor with decent pronunciation...

So, I definitely expected more from the New Nightmare, for all the good that did me... It did scare me a couple of times and several puzzles did get me going, but the downsides of the game were just too much so I could never truly relax and enjoy it...