- The New Nightmare carries on the survival-horror series tradition of intense action and suspensefuladventure..
- Dark and strange atmosphere, conventional rules do not apply..
- The player must overcome his natural fear of the dark unknownand control Edward Carnby through the game's deep storyline..
Product description
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Edward Carnby, detective of the supernatural, returns to
investigate the death of his best friend, Charles Fiske, whose
body was found in the waters of amysterious island off the coast
of Maine. Carnby's investigation quicklyleads him to his friend's
search for three ancient s, which, whenplaced in a specific
location, will unlock an incredible and dangerouspower. Armed
with a flashlight and a pistol, Carnby must find the
necessaryitems to survive as well as the clues that will help him
escape hisultimate nightmare.
.com
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Edward Carnby, detective of the supernatural, returns to
investigate the death of his best friend, Charles Fiske, whose
body was found in the waters of amysterious island off the coast
of Maine. Carnby's investigation quicklyleads him to his friend's
search for three ancient s, which, whenplaced in a specific
location, will unlock an incredible and dangerouspower. Armed
with a flashlight and a pistol, Carnby must find the
necessaryitems to survive as well as the clues that will help him
escape hisultimate nightmare.
Alone in the Dark 4: The New Nightmare carries on the
survival-horror series tradition of intense action and
suspensefuladventure. Within its dark and strange atmosphere,
conventional rules donot apply. The player must overcome his
natural fear of the dark unknownand control Edward Carnby through
the game's deep storyline.
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Review
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Back in 1992, Infogrames developed a little adventure game set
in a Louisiana mansion. At the time, both 3D games and the
survival horror genre were quite new, and the result was a
classic PC game of suspense and terror. Originally titled Screams
in the Dark, Alone in the Dark was the first game to use fully 3D
characters on a prerendered background. It also took advantage of
the cutting-edge soundcards of the day to create a truly
absorbing experience.
Infogrames is hoping to recapture that experience with the fourth
installment in the AitD series, this time as the publisher.
Darkworks is taking over the development duties, and from what we
saw from a recent build, is doing an admirable job of capturing
the basic feel of the original. But unlike the previous version
of AitD, The New Nightmare will be coming out for a wide variety
of platforms, including the PC, Dreamcast, Playstation and even
the Game Boy Color.
The story continues from the original game... sort of. In Alone
in the Dark, players took control of Edward Carnby, a detective
of the paranormal who barely got out alive. But in The New
Nightmare, everything has been updated -- even Edward. Gamers
still control Carnby, only this time he's a hipper,
younger-looking dude with an itchier trigger finger. According to
the developers we spoke to, the name Edward Carnby stays the
same, but every 40 years it is bestowed on a young orphan who is
destined to live a life tiptoeing around creepy shacks with only
a 9mm and an industrial-strength flashlight to protect him.
This time, Edward is investigating the death of a good friend,
which occurred on the shores of the naturally mysterious "Shadow
Island." Since nothing mysterious ever seems to happen on the
topless beaches of St. Tropez, players shouldn't be surprised
that Edward must travel across the wintry island to uncover the
mystery of three missing s. Fortunately, he won't be alone
this time. Aline Cedrac is a young archeologist who gets caught
up in Edward's quest and pulled deeper into the mystery. Players
will be able to play as both Edward and Aline, alternating
between the missions to get a better feel for the storyline.
Also updated this time around are the amazing graphics. Darkworks
has been working hard to develop a proprietary lighting system
that makes the shadows and light from Edward's flashlight look
utterly convincing. While we only saw a few of the more than
1,200 prerendered backgrounds, they looked almost photographic in
their detail. Just as impressive are the subtle segues between
the in-game play and the profession CG cutscenes. In one
instance, Edward walked up to a carpet, and the game cut to an
animation of a serpent coming alive in the fabric and jumping up
at the camera. When the camera finally cut back to the game, the
transition was smooth and natural.
And just as smooth as the graphics is the clean interface. While
we moved about in the standard mode, no graphics or interface
cluttered up the screen. But when Edward or Aline pulled out a
weapon, a small green life bar appeared in the screen's lower
righthand corner, with the a corresponding ammo gauge on the left
side. They were slight and almost transparent, but they provided
plenty of information in a hurry. That sort of minimal
interference between the game and the gamer seems to be a
hallmark of Darkwork's approach to the project.
The gameplay itself should be familiar to fans of original Alone
in the Dark series, as well as other horror titles. Moving your
3D character through the prerendered environment is a snap with a
gamepad, and the intelligent camera system was always well
positioned in the action we saw. There are going to be 12
different kinds of weapons in the final game, which will include
everything from the familiar revolver to items a little more
supernatural in origin.
The 15 different kinds of monsters have been designed not only to
e the bejeezus out of us but also to react intelligently to
different stimuli. Some will react to light, either to seek it
out or to run away from it. Others will react to the sound of a
character's footsteps or even seek you out when your is
low. The hell dogs will also demonstrate pack intelligence,
circling around behind a player to take out the legs and then go
for the throat. It won't be easy getting Edward and Aline off
Shadow Island alive, but the developers we spoke to assured us
that while there is going to be plenty of gameplay, they aren't
going to artificially extend the game by making it
extraordinarily difficult.
The gameplay is going to be a balance of both action and puzzle
solving, with an emphasis on puzzles that fit into the tone of
the game. Saving games on the consoles will be handled via
amulets that have to be discovered, but, once found, will allow
games to be saved anywhere. PC players, however, should be able
to save anywhere at will.
It's a beautiful-looking game so far, and Darkworks promises us
that Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare will be ready to go in
the spring of 2001. Since the last AitD game came out five years
ago, there is some question whether the series has much clout
among gamers. And the market is a lot more crowded with horror
games these days than it was back then. But Darkworks is taking
its time with this one, and if the version we saw is an
indication of the final product, we're looking forward to being
alone again. -- DailyRadar Review
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