XboxOZ360 writes:
Atari today announced that development is complete on the highly anticipated action survival game Alone in the Dark, and the game is on track to ship 3 July in Australia and New Zealand for Xbox 360TM game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PC, Wii and PlayStation® 2. The PLAYSTATION®3 version is scheduled for spring 2008.
"'Central Park is hiding a secret. Over the course of one apocalyptic night trapped in Manhattan's vast parkland, hero Edward Carnby must fight the unimaginable to survive and uncover the earth-shattering truth. New York will never be the same again.
Developed by Eden Games, Alone in the Dark for Xbox 360 and PC aims to change what gamers expect from action games with a ground-breaking reinvention of the classic franchise which debuted in 1992 and created the survival horror genre. Continuing the legacy of innovation of that first game, the new Alone in the Dark re-imagines the genre with engrossing cinematic presentation, compelling gameplay challenges and a thrilling narrative story arc..."
Alone in the Dark developer Pieces Interactive has been hit with layoffs a month after its release, as per the latest information.
That genuinely, genuinely sucks. The reboot has clear flaws, but it really felt like a solid first step for this team to receive *greater* investment.
That's standard. Teams are together for a Project, after its done some..and sometimes most devs are fired until the next Project is in the works and people are needed again. Only the core members stay in the time between the hot phase of the game development.
What’s annoying is people don’t understand how contractors work, either. All of this is uninformed knee-jerk reactions without any understanding of how employment works in this industry. There are key developers and staff that stay with a studio/publisher, but often times it’s a hire per project and then seeking new employment for a project. That’s how it’s always been…
That's a fair point too. I would say that in light of its tepid critical/commercial response and ongoing mass layoffs across the industry I think it's understandable for fans to worry about the longer-term implications. We'll see how it plays out in the future.
VGChartz's Lee Mehr: "In one sense, it feels strange to even think Pieces Interactive had big shoes to fill with this series' legacy. Given what's come before, did it really? And yet, even when considering the last two flops over a two-decade span, there's still something about Alone in the Dark emblazoned on a title screen that carries a sense of revered history. In that respect, perhaps this reboot's best accomplishment is in honoring that spirit through its inventive world. It's also fair to emphasize knocks against its survival-horror design, some puzzle-solving, and so on; it certainly won't be considered a trendsetter like the 1992 classic. Still, the amount of goodwill wedded to its brighter qualities makes for something that dawdles the line between unfortunately-flawed and impressively-enticing."
The new Alone in the Dark remake doesn't do anything especially noteworthy, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's just... cromulent.
I'll pass.