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Alone In The Dark Review ( XboxOZ360): And The Night Goes By So Very Slow.

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From XboxOZ360:

""You know what?" mutters Edward Carnby (the protagonist of the game) after blowing up a vampire-bat-creating-blob, "I'm dreaming of a beer". Believe me, so was I.

Carnby himself actually says it best when Sarah, the obligatory sexy side-kick, says: "Just one more problem.", and he exasperatedly replies: "And I'm supposed to find this surprising?" No, unfortunately.

In this game the problems overshadow the brilliance, and the player ends up feeling that frustration too often darkens the fun."
6 / 10
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xboxoz360.wordpress.com
gaminoz - contributor
Published: 504 days ago | Review | PlayStation 3 | Xbox 360 | Wii | PlayStation 2
 
 

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XboxOZ360 - 504 days 3 hours ago
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I really had high hopes for this game, and was keen to grab it. however, after playing both the demo and the retail game, it's not one that has me wanting to go back to and even get into,let alone finish.

Atari as a Distributor does and excellent job, as it's job as such is simple. Help the developer and publisher get the game out.

As a Publisher, it has a bad habit of forcing deadlines on games and making developers cut corners to finish a game, no matter what. It's one of the main reasons Codemasters now do their own developing and publishing, but allow Atari to distribute some of their titles such as DiRT and Grid and a few more coming up under the Codemasters banner.

But generally, those games published by Atari are a different matter. Even the advertized character looks nothing like the in-game character, and instead of 'pop-in' within the game, we have 'pop-out' !! Where chunks of building falling from upper stories simply "disappear" before hitting the ground as if someone just plucked them from the sky.

The premise and basics are there for an excellent game if Eden were allowed to do their job, which by the looks of their development diaries was coming alone really nicely. But something happened somewhere along the line. Something that has caused this game to stumble over its self - unfortunately.

Mind you, I'm still getting the Collectors Edition and will be leaving it sealed - for now. I have a full retail version that probably won't get much play-time, so why open a perfectly good CE, which I must say tops most others hands down. At least they got that bit right.
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gaminoz - 504 days 3 hours ago
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Yeah I loved the soundtrack! More special editions should include that too!! (if the sound is good...)
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solidsnakus - 504 days 1 hour ago
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" however, after playing both the demo and the retail game,"

theres a demo???in what region? i had no idea.
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gaminoz - 504 days ago
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I think you need to have a debug unit or something to play the demo? In other words be in the media....
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gaminoz - 504 days 3 hours ago
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Yeah this game needed some serious reworking in some places. Anybody play it and actually enjoy it out there?

Award for most dissappointing game so far this year.
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Superfragilistic - 504 days 3 hours ago
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I never trusted Eden Games, but nonetheless this is incredibly disappointing.

No wonder Phil Harrison doesn't want Atari doing any more single player titles! lol
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Acj2323 - 504 days 3 hours ago
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I have not yet played this game nor any of the other games in the series, but I did her this game was a bit of a flop and needed to be reworked
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XboxOZ360 - 504 days 2 hours ago
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There's a significant difference between the 3 different Atari's now.

The one Phil Harrison is in charge of is the UK one and is CEO/President of the parent company Infrograms, which also have stakes in the Australian Atari publishing & Distribution house. Infrograms UK are the only Atari branch which will be doing In-House Development, and the rest will be publishers, with Atari US being strictly a Distribution outlet for Nth America, with no publishing abilities or development studios attached.

This creates a huge amount of confusion within the industry, as most ppl simply see the word Atari, and associate it with one major company, when in fact there's 3. You'll find less and less being 'developed" by Atari, and more published overseas, with local outlets simply acting as distribution outlets.

I only hope they take a hands-off approach like they have with Codemasters, as I believe AITD was the last of Atari's "joint" projects . . and you can see why. Especially when you throw it up against COdemasters Grid and DiRT, then compare it to the Atari Published V8SC's 3 that Codies did. They hated it - hence the shift to Codies opening their own In-House Publishing arm, and using Atari as its distribution arm.
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MasterOne - 503 days 19 hours ago
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I played it and it was horrible. I quit playing after a couple of hours due to the control problems. I won't mention this is made worse by the fact that you have to burn enemies to kill them. This is one worst games I have played in years.
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gaminoz - 504 days ago
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Good thing Resident Evil 5 is coming!
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XboxOZ360 - 503 days 23 hours ago
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Well after seeing Resident Evil 5 from E3, I'd have to say that one is shaping up much better than this one did . . . The various walk-throughs showed how you use your partner in co-op, which would have been a nice touch in AITD . . but alas, that was not to be . . . Hopefully with further updates, as it is eposodic, that there may be some "adjustments' with the game-play via a patch. One can only hope - and pray.
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darkmurder - 503 days 22 hours ago
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Ugh and I was going to buy this, the IGN review was a bit too harsh I think though.
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gaminoz - 503 days 21 hours ago
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They may have been reacting to the frustration and lack of fun...but there are good things about the game...just not enough to want to play it!
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Immortal Kaim - 503 days 22 hours ago
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I still might give this game a try, it is disappointing hearing how the game turned out though.
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6 Spydiggity | 503 days 13 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show
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gaminoz - 503 days 10 hours ago
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While I agree that there were some elements in Uncharted that should have been smoother, I love that game. In fact it's one of two games I've actually kept on the PS3...I do most my gaming on the 360. It doesn't innovate so much, but Alone tries hard to innovate and it works sometimes and fails other times miserably. One I found fun, the other one was just frustrating.

I'm afraid Alone isn't in the same league as Uncharted...even though there are some things Uncharted needed to do better. Alone has some of the worst level design I've played....unfortunately because I like both adventure and survival horror games.
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