Game 158: Alone in the Dark 2 (1993) - Introduction

 Written by Andy Panthro

The first Alone in the Dark game has a special place in my heart, with its blend of action, adventure and Lovecraftian horror it birthed an entire genre. For the majority of that game, your protagonist is slow, thoughtful and must use their brain to overcome the challenges of the house of horrors they find themselves in.

Somehow Gordon Ramsey has been here for a century!

Jack in the Dark, which I covered before Christmas, continues in this vein. A young girl trapped in a spooky toy shop, having to use her wits and the items she finds to rescue Santa Claus. It is holiday themed, and so less threatening and more lighthearted, but the creepy toys and being set during Halloween fit with the themes of the series.

 

Just over 100 years ago

So perhaps you might expect another horror-themed puzzler, with a bit of action thrown in there for some added jeopardy. Perhaps you might expect it to set the scene in a similar way to the first game, giving you a slow, creepy introduction to the mysterious and haunted location we find ourselves in this time.

This looks extremely unsafe, I think I’d rather fight the zombies

Not quite this time. The game introduction begins by telling us it is the 22nd of December 1924 (If only I had time to write this back in December! Could have lined this up for exactly a century later!). The music is upbeat and quite a change from the tone of the previous game.

The creepy doll lies motionless on the floor

We see an older man, who yet seems to be quite athletic, climb over a hedgerow avoiding a zombie with a tommy gun. He makes his way to a large house, where he acrobatically clambers across the outside of the house, making his way towards a broken window.

Grace Saunders, hoping to be rescued

Inside this room we see a bed with a small girl on it, and a horrible looking puppet on the floor. As the man heads inside, he makes his way towards the girl presumably with the intention of rescuing her. She seems to recognise him, and smiles. Those of us that played Jack in the Dark will recognise the girl as Grace, from that game.

Elvira, is that you?

However at the same time, we see a brief flash of a spooky lady in some sort of crypt, and the creepy doll slowly sneaking up behind the older man. Predictably, this leads to the man being strangled from behind, the doll looking extra creepy with its clown-like appearance and huge grinning mouth.

Even worse in close-up

The spooky goth lady enters the room, the creepy doll disappears, and we know that Grace is still in trouble.

This kid is gonna need a lot of therapy after this

We cut to a bit of backstory, our private detective hero from the first game (if you chose him over Emily Hartwood, anyway) has received a telegram, and must make his way to Hell’s Kitchen, California. Wait, I thought Hell’s Kitchen was in New York City? Anyway, he has been informed of Grace Saunder’s kidnapping, and makes his way to the same place we just saw a man get murdered by a clown doll.

A pirate I was meant to be, trim the sails and roam the sea!

We follow with the opening credits, full of beautifully painted pictures of scenes of a pirate ship. This is to communicate to the player about One-Eyed Jack I suppose, you could be forgiven at this stage for being completely unaware that this is a pirate themed game, and not a more general horror themed one. Or perhaps a gambling den, given Twin Peaks, which was being broadcast at the same time as this game was released, had its own “One-Eyed Jack’s” casino.

“Hell’s Kitchen is cursed” Daredevil: Born Again streaming now!

The wrong sort of Jack with one eye (Twin Peaks, 1991)

This is where the action-movie feeling really ramps up, Carnby arrives two days later by yellow cab, before dropping a satchel in front of the main gate. As he runs away towards the camera, we all know what’s going to happen and a huge explosion blows the gates apart, as the title card flashes up on screen.

A quite impressive explosion

After the title card, we are finally in control. The zombie guard slowly picks itself up off the ground, and to get some practice in, I give it a bit of a kick. The animations for Carnby have evolved somewhat, his punches and kicks have a little bit more of a snap of speed, he’s obviously been working on his martial arts in between games.

I do get shot a little before the zombie goes down, but the creature does leave in his wake the tommy gun it was using, as well as ammunition and a flask of liquid. Given that it is now (in game) Christmas eve, I suppose all that leaves me to say is: “Now I have a machine gun, Ho-Ho-Ho”