PS3

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

PuzzleAdventure

Plays offline: Yes

Overview

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (alternatively and internally known as Alone in the Dark 4) is a survival horror video game and the fourth installment and first reboot of the video game series Alone in the Dark, developed by Darkworks and published by Infogrames. The game was released in 2001 on Windows, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and Game Boy Color. A PlayStation 2 version of the game was also released several months after and only in Europe.

The player is given the option of choosing which of the two protagonists they play as. Carnby's side of the plot is based mainly on fighting the monsters by physical means, particularly with his trusty double barreled revolver, while Aline's is more centered on puzzles. The two occasionally meet up, and the main areas of plot intersect.

Set on October 31, 2001. Edward Carnby's best friend and partner, Charles Fiske, has been found dead off the coast of Shadow Island, a mysterious island near the coast of Massachusetts. Carnby's investigation quickly leads him to Frederick Johnson, who informs him of Fiske's search for three ancient tablets with the ability to unlock an incredible and dangerous power. Johnson pleads with Carnby to take the place of Fiske and reopen the investigation in order to recover the tablets. Carnby accepts and makes it his mission to find Fiske's killer.

For the first time in the series, the game was based on console development and released as a multiplatform title. Darkworks handled the development of the PlayStation and Dreamcast versions, the latter being released one month after the former and featuring major graphic improvements. Spiral House ported the Dreamcast version to Windows. It was released at the same time of the Dreamcast version, but suffers from sound conversion issues which turn the overall soundtrack into noticeably worse quality renditions. Spiral House also ported the Dreamcast version to the PlayStation 2 and released it several months after, with the addition of lip synchronization for the polygon models during cutscenes.

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare was well received. The PlayStation and Dreamcast versions received "generally favorable reviews", while the PC version received "average" reviews, as reported by the review aggregation website Metacritic. GamesMaster gave the Game Boy Color version 90%, and The Sunday Times gave it the award of Game of the Week. As reported by Darkworks, The New Nightmare sold almost 1.4 million units by 2005.