Alone in the Dark 2 - Pirate Shenanigans

Written by Andy Panthro

Grace is of an age where the basement is too spooky.

I will fully admit to looking up the first of the steps I needed to take in this section. I had arrived back in the kitchen of the mansion as Grace, and all I had found was a key on the floor. If I tried to leave this room to get to the main door (or the stairs up or down) a pirate would come and catch me.

I tried ringing the bell again, assuming the key might be for something back at the ship, but you get a message saying you’re not done here. Good that it’s not letting me leave without getting whatever items I might require at least! A quick check of a hint and it turns out the key is for a cabinet in the kitchen. The trouble with this cabinet was, I had completely assumed it wasn’t able to be opened, because there was never a message when I tried to interact with it. Often a locked door or cabinet in this game will give you a message if you try and interact with it.

Anyway, the kitchen cabinet contains two items, an ice box and molasses. I tried using both, and grace dumps them out on the floor. I immediately assume I’m supposed to use these as traps, so I reload, and then pour the ice out on the floor. Next, I get the attention of the pirate and make him follow me into the kitchen, where he slips on the ice and dies! Score another one for Grace.

A pirate stuck in molasses, this section is a little “Home Alone” inspired.

Now I can explore this floor, which seems to have nothing of note. I doubt there will be anything downstairs, so I check that first. Grace says she’s frightened of these stairs, so that’s out. And the front doors are closed and give me no message at all. So upstairs we go! At the top of the stairs there’s another pirate waiting, so this time I use the molasses and the pirate is stuck in place. I hope that’s enough, and go to explore the rest of this floor.

In the billiards room/library, I find a music token on the billiards table, and when I go through to Jack’s hidden room I get a “vision” (I guess they couldn’t figure out how to otherwise give us information?) although the picture is not super clear. Worst case I can use every item on everything in the room I guess. The picture seems to show someone opening a cabinet and the captain’s cane is next to it. On a closer inspection it seems like this is the Captain’s cabin on the ship, rather than Jack’s room in the house.

Not a particularly helpful vision, given it shows a different room and a different cabinet.

The only thing I can think to do is use the music token in the organ on the ground floor. However when I try, it tells me “an evil force blocks the passage” so that’s not helpful. The door to the bedroom on the upper floor is closed, and I’m not sure what to do so I check my hints again. Apparently the staff should be usable in Jack’s room, but I guess I was in the wrong spot, trying a couple more times I find a key and a book.

The book mentions a chicken leg (which I have), chalk (which I don’t) and a mirror fragment (which I also don’t have). Also a staff, and I assume the captain’s staff will work as well. These are all required for some magic, although I’m unsure at this point exactly what for, I assume sending Jack and his compatriots to hell. After getting the book and key to the irons, the door to the lady’s chambers is finally open. In her ritual room, the place where Carnby previously teleported, the stone slab on the floor has an impression that would fit a staff, so that seems an obvious thing to try.

The spinning captain's staff transforms.

We get another fun little animation, as the captain’s staff spins around and turns into some sort of voodoo staff. The game called it a “Loa Staff” which seems based on Haitian traditions. Also, Grace is teleported back to the ground floor. She still can’t go downstairs, and still can’t use the music token in the organ. The only thing left is using the bell, and this time Grace is transported back to the ship. However, the two little chefs are waiting and so Grace is captured again.

Back in the brig, but not for long.

We find ourselves back in the brig, and it took me a little while to see what was expected of me. None of the buttons seemed to be doing anything, as Grace is being held in the foreground and Carnby struggles with his chains in the background. After a while of pushing the arrow keys, I realise that I’m actually controlling Carnby, and need to move his chained arms around until he can grab the key and unlock his chains. Then we need to save grace, as the pirate that was holding her drops her and draws his sword.

I found this quite simple, punching the pirate until he turned into a skeleton and fell to the floor dropping his sword. However I found Carnby stuck in place so I had to reload and try again. This time I ran out and fought the pirate, as Grace ran off. In the next room, another pirate was waiting but quickly dispatched now I had a sword, and this one dropped a tommy gun. I expect more combat in this section, and surely we can’t be too far from the end of the game.

The big pirate dies (I never managed to get the bottle on the back right, but did get two mail shirts)

Exploring this deck, in the corridor is a pirate who drops a pirate pistol and a short fuse. Another door is locked, and another door has a large pirate in a room full of bottles. I also get two different mail shirts which I use immediately, with no idea if this is helpful or not. In the final room on this floor is a dual pistol wielding pirate, who I run up to and cut down with the sword, assuming saving the ammunition is going to help later.

In another door, that somehow previously I’d missed, I find a furnace room. Two pirates wait for me here, and one of my mail shirts is used up in this combat. In here I find a poker, some pliers, and a key. The key opens the door to the gunpowder room, where I fight a man in a powdered wig. He drops a keg of powder and a door talking about a ship being blown up. Now I have a fuse, and some powder, I just need a way to light it up!

A fully working furnace, on this wooden pirate ship.

Now up to the next deck, I find a locked door, a room full of bunks with sleeping pirates, a room with a cannon and a sleeping pirate (who later wakes up and kills me). This was tricky and again I struggled and had to search for a hint. The combat in this game sucks and when the sleeping pirates wake up it’s basically game over. The normal “push” command doesn’t work, you have to run up to the cannon and push it, something that would never have occurred to me and even if it had it took me a dozen attempts to get this to work properly.

When the Cannon is now in place, you can put the gunpowder keg inside the bunk room (there’s even a small circle on the floor to indicate where to place it) and then use the fuse and then the poker on the cannon. This explodes the gunpowder, destroying the bunk room entirely and killing all those poor pirates in their beds. In the remains of the room there’s a flask and some gold coins.

Exploding the bunk room.

Again, how you would figure this out I have no idea, but standing outside the kitchen door and using the gold coins will tempt the little chefs to come outside. Killing them, I move into the kitchen and there’s only a flask in there. Through the back door, there’s a meat locker and the big chef with the blowpipe is in there, but he doesn’t last long against Carnby’s wild swings of his pirate sword. He drops a metallic Jack of Diamonds, which I use to get through the final locked door. This gives a little cutscene where the witch lady uses her magic to stop Carnby and lift him up in the air, immobile. But don’t worry, Grace is back to save the day.

A brief Carnby interlude ends.

Not proud of the need to consult a guide more than once this time! But I think we’re surely nearing the end and hopefully the next entry of this will be the finale.