Alone in the Dark 2 - Final Rating

Written by Andy Panthro

I started this game knowing that the first one is a classic of the genre, and helped define what we would later call “survival horror”. A sequel, especially with quite a short development time, was always going to be a challenge. There was definitely more of an action focus this time, with a desire to make something a bit more exciting and cinematic than the first game.

I think it’s fair to say if you’ve played this, or read my posts, it doesn’t quite live up to either the expectations generated from the first game nor does it provide the action-packed experience that seemed to be the goal.

Unfortunately this is in part due to the nature of the game itself, the design of the game gives you quite limited movement options and doesn’t lend itself to quick movement or combat. There were too many sections of this game that became quite frustrating as you can become very easily stun-locked by enemies, as their attack cycles were too fast. As for attacking yourself, the fixed camera angles and tank controls mean aiming is a tricky procedure and it can often be difficult to get the right angle to attack.

At times this really does stretch the limits of what you might consider an “adventure game”, but there are items to use, puzzles to solve and places to search. Certainly as the series progresses, future games will continue to move towards action rather than adventure, and outside of the remit of this blog.

Alone in the Dark 2 - Won!

Written by Andy Panthro

Hey, can you teach us some magic?

We begin this section in control of Grace again, although not for long. With Carnby out of action, it’s time to get to work. Grace only has a couple of items available, and there’s nothing to be found in the captains room. There is a large statue of the captain next to a locked door though, and by putting the loa stick into the captain’s hands, the door opens.

Inside is the witch lady Elizabeth, who is busy keeping Carnby suspended in the air. There doesn’t seem to be anything to pick up in the room, so instead we remember the advice from an earlier book about voodoo (we picked this up as Carnby in the gunpowder room, if I didn’t already mention it) and wave our chicken leg at the veve (a ritual symbol) in order to break the spell. Not sure how much this really mirrors actual Haitian vodou practices, but it causes the witch lady to explode in another fun animated scene. 

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.

Alone in the Dark 2 - Saving Grace

 Written by Andy Panthro

So long as we don't have to redo that maze!

A potentially fun little swap here, we shift from the main protagonist of Edward Carnby to the young child Grace, who was the Hero of Halloween in Jack in the Dark. As before, Grace can’t attack or fight anything directly, so no more brute forcing things with a tommy gun. We take control with Grace having left the mansion, and hiding behind a statue.

Of course my first thought is, “what if I just leave?” and I try walking towards the front gate. Alas, there is a zombie there with a gun, and this results in a game over. This time, instead of Carnby being thrown into the sea, he is instead suspended by his feet above the pirates as they party on the deck of their ship. 

Alone in the Dark 2 - Clowning Around

Written by Andy Panthro

The creepy teleport room, where I began today

It’s been a little while since I played, it’s not always been the most fun experience, so I put it off for a while. Last time, I’d just been warped to a new area, and it just seems to be either another building or another part of the same house. The room I start in seems to be some sort of ritual area, not sure why it’s there other than I guess if the others can use it to warp around like a teleporter. In the corner is a flask, which I drink immediately, as the health points stack.

Alone in the Dark 2 - Wining and Dining

Written by Andy Panthro

Party time.

I have tried my best to fully explore upstairs, so the only other places to go are locked doors, filled with trigger-happy zombies, or the kitchen. I managed to get past the trident statue by staying as far away as possible, although later I found out that I had just lucked into the solution of how to pass this obstacle (it depends on the colour of tile you step on, apparently). 

In the kitchen, the little chef sometimes wanders in but does not attack. The other chef mentions that wine opens doors, and tells me to eat. There’s food on the counter, and I can indeed eat the eggs without any problem. However, after being in the kitchen for a minute, the larger chef opens what looks like an ice-box, and takes out a blowpipe. Annoyingly, this means I have to try and kill the larger chef, which is easier said than done. After his death, I can loot the rest of the kitchen.

Alone in the Dark 2 - Play Your Cards Right

 Written by Andy Panthro

Red herrings.

Last time, we found ourselves in the basement of the mansion. After dealing with many machine gun zombies, finally we’re getting some puzzles and the game feels a lot better for it. I basically have two options here, to go upstairs or to go into a side room that sounds like gunfire. Since I want to finish up down here before moving on upstairs, I check the side room.

As I mentioned last time, it turns out it sounds like gunfire because two burly guys with pistols are shooting targets on the other side of the room. Acting quickly with my battledore, I had dispatched them. The room has four posters of four playing cards on one wall: The Jack of Diamonds, the Queen of Clubs, the King of Spades, and the Ace of Hearts. At the other end of the room, are four pillars with pictures of each suit on their four sides. I am assuming I need to rotate the pillars so they match the wall pictures.

This took a bit of figuring out, as hitting the pillars did not always rotate them once. Then immediately I’m stumped, as I try Diamond, Club, Spade, Heart and it does nothing. Then I try them in reverse, still nothing. I’m curious if the suit means anything, or perhaps I’m just seeing puzzles where none exist.

Alone in the Dark 2 - A Barrel of Fun

By Andy Panthro

A classic locked door puzzle.

We return to the underground caves beneath Hell’s Kitchen, California. I’ve somehow lost my guns, and so I’m hoping the rest of this will be much more adventure game focused, and much less of a terrible third person shooter. There’s a large metal door blocking my progress, but thankfully I have quite an array of odd objects in my inventory, and surely one or two of these will help me progress.

Alone in the Dark 2 - I Am Not Amazed

Written by Andy Panthro

All work and no play makes Carnby a dull boy.

So last time I explored the start of the game, found a weird skip or alternative path, and instead chose to explore a maze. We all love mazes in adventure games don’t we? Don’t we? Uh… well nevertheless, this is the task before me. Now I’ve nothing against mapping my way through a maze, this one doesn’t even seem like the most complex one. What I dislike is the way there’s a gun-toting zombie behind every corner, not as a way to punish you for taking a wrong path, but just behind every path.

I have died so many times, and made so little progress. The zombies are far better at aiming their guns than me, and also seem to be faster on the trigger. If this were The Quick and The Dead, they are the quick and I am the dead. Did I ever mention I’m not a big fan of fast zombies? But I digress. Part of me thinks you’re supposed to just run past them, but the problem with that is some of them also seem to have useful items.

Alone in the Dark 2 - Shot to the Heart

Written by Andy Panthro

What if I just left?

I’m finally back! Apologies for the delay in properly starting this. After quite a long gap from the introduction post, I finally found the time and energy to resume playing this game. Hopefully my progression should be swift, although I had to refamiliarise myself with the controls, which are as awkward as ever. I can never get the hang of the proper tapping of a direction to run with any regularity. 

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.

Jack in the Dark - Saving Christmas (Won and Final Rating!)

Written by Andy Panthro

The toy shop back room is where we begin the finale.

 How can one small child save Christmas? Well, this isn’t any small child, this is a witch! And if there’s any magic in this world, surely this is the time for it. Already we have defeated the dancing puppet, and the soldier toys are back in their toybox. This has allowed us access to the back room, and with that a whole new selection of items and toys to contend with.

Jack in the Dark - A Nightmare Before Christmas

Written by Andy Panthro

You'd think a kid in a toy shop would be happy.

Previously, we had knocked on the door of this mysterious toy shop while trick-or-treating, and definitely got tricked ourselves. The door behind us is locked, and so we take charge of young Grace as we try and navigate our way through this curious place and find our way home.

The toys move around us, the eyes of a jack-o-lantern look down upon us. So much life and yet, we appear to be the only one here. Towards the back of the shop, two toy soldiers block a doorway. Towards the right hand side are the counter, and the displays in the window. Directly in front of us, a large open chest, which seems as good a place as any to begin.

Game 153: Jack in the Dark (1993) - Introduction

Written by Andy Panthro

The mysterious toy shop.

On this Halloween night, a young child by the name of Grace Saunders (age 8) is lost in the big city. She chances upon an old toy shop, and after knocking, the door opens. Upon entering the door shuts behind her, trapping her in this strange place full of weird, wonderful and downright creepy toys.

Happy Halloween everyone! It’s time for…

What do you mean it’s December? What a strange turn of events!

A very brief introduction.

Yes, while this game is set on October 31st, it was released in December of 1993, as part of a promotion for Alone in the Dark 2. Even the opening image of the toyshop has a Christmas tree outside! So it’s only fitting then that I should play this now, in the run up to Christmas, and with Alone In the Dark 2 not too far off in the future (I guess I have my work cut out for me).

I briefly played this many years ago, but I don’t think I ever finished it. In a change from the usual Alone In The Dark games, this one has no combat, but rather is more of a traditional adventure game, albeit in 3D which was not yet common. This is packaged with Alone in the Dark 1 on GOG.com, and was available in the 90s as part of the CD releases of both AitD 1, and AitD 2.

The toy shop interior, with a menacing looking jack o’lantern in the upper right

I’ll keep this first entry quite short, as this is probably going to be a short adventure (I hope so, my time right now is a little limited!). Our character, Grace, is in the now-locked toyshop, and can wander about freely, with a few objects in view to take a look at. There are only “search” and “close” options available as actions for now, but this does change when you pick up new items. We’ll get into more of the story and themes of this little adventure next time, which get revealed upon searching the area.

So we leave our young character for now. She is alone (apart from the toys), and in the dark (apart from the lights of the toy shop)... Who can guess what the rating will be?

Genre Hopping: Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)

Written by Andy Panthro

We talk often about what makes something an "Adventure Game", much like any genre this one was very loosely codified but I'm sure most of us would know one when they see one. Certainly we have already covered games that stray in some ways from accepted adventure gaming norms, most notably the Quest for Glory series which uses the classic Sierra graphical adventure gaming engine to deliver a fantastic RPG series.

The Ultima series was one of the earliest commercial RPG series, and one of the most popular through the 1980s and 90s. As Origin Systems developed this and other series, they were always wanting to be at the forefront of new technology and game design. The increased graphical fidelity of the Ultima series allowed them to increase the amount of unique characters, items, interactive elements and mechanics. The peak for this was surely Ultima 7, in which you can bake bread from flour and water, weave cloth from wool, and in the expansion pack even craft your own sword.

Alone in the Dark - Final Rating

By Andy Panthro

As I said in the introduction, this game not only brought 3D elements into game design in a new and interesting way, but also paved the way for what we now consider an entire genre. How well did it succeed? And how well does it perform as an “Adventure Game”? And most importantly, how will it score on a PISSED rating?

Alone in the Dark - Tree’s A Crowd (Won!)

By Andy Panthro

We left off as I had guided the private detective Edward Carnby underneath Derceto, and into the tunnels and chambers beneath. This area was ancient and surely constructed long ago, perhaps by the pirate Eliah Pickford or perhaps some of these were here before he took up residence.

Ahead of me are a series of stone pillars, and newly in my action menu is the “jump” command. A flying bug is somewhat in the way, but a couple of shots from the rifle is enough to remove that obstacle. Now the only problem is a 3D jumping puzzle on a 2D background with a very fiddly control system and an unreliable camera positioning.

The jumping isn’t actually that hard, but gauging the distance is the tricky part. I actually fell more often due to jumping a little too far, but the fall doesn’t actually harm you. The water breaks your fall I suppose, although it ruins your rifle cartridges and extinguishes your lantern. There’s a shortcut back to the start from here (and to the rooms ahead), but I intend to finish this game fair and square.

Alone in the Dark - Going Underground

By Andy Panthro

Most of the house is now open to me, and I have explored a great deal of it. What remains is a couple of rooms, and to make my way down into whatever catacombs, caverns and caves lie beneath this cursed house. Last time, I had conquered the library and the Vagabond, found useful tools and information, and was ready to head back down and figure out how to beat the pirate in the front room.

One interesting passage in one of the books was from “The Sons of the Sun and the Shadows” by Lieutenant Lope de Vega. He tells of visiting the Aztecs, of human sacrifice and a statue of the water goddess Chalchihuitlicue. On this visit, they enter the temple and see the great statue, clad in gold and jewels, coming to life before their very eyes. Captain Cortez cried for them to attack, but they were stuck in place. Their armour seemed bolted to the temple floor, and only thanks to Cortez killing the priest with a well placed throw of his dagger, they were able to escape. The attached picture of the statue looks a lot like the heavy statue I picked up from that small dark bedroom.

Alone in the Dark - History of the House of Hell

By Andy Panthro

Derceto, the house that cages me and kills me. Either by traps, wildlife or creatures from dimensions beyond ours, I face death at every turn, through every door, in every room. I knew the library held the key, if not literally then perhaps by means literary.

Alone in the Dark - Bows, Books and Vagabonds

By Andy Panthro

I was a little lost last time, but progress has been made! I decided to leave the statue and the book where they are in the darkness, having no space to take them, and turned the corner towards the gallery. Jeremy Hartwood was a painter of some talent, and had a gallery made in his house to display those pieces that presumably meant something to him, or maybe just couldn’t be sold.