Atari’s 2008 reboot of its almost prehistoric “Alone in the Dark”-Franchise is an overambitious mess of a game that tries many interesting things but gets very few of them right. There are some very cool ideas scattered around but they are let down by the jankyness of the controls and overall poor technical framework. I played the PS3-version titled “Alone in the Dark: Inferno” (for some reason) which is supposed to be the most polished incarnation of this game. That being said, it still is a mighty unpolished experience. I cannot begin to imagine in what a terrible shape the PS2- or Wii-ports must have hit the market back in 2008. I will not blame the game for its mediocre graphics and framerate because they are pretty much what you have to expect from a mid-budget survival-horror-title from that era. The point is that it somehow mostly holds together. I had a few stutters here and there but it didn’t crash and the loading time is quick, which surprised me the most. The technical problems are rooted mostly in the gameplay. As I mentioned, this reboot was insanely ambitious for the time and tries so many things at once but fails at making it intuitive for the player. A good example are the physics of environmental objects. Most games, even today, do not bother with this kind of interaction and I guess there is a reason for it. In “Alone in the Dark” there is a good number of objects you can move by running into them, or even pick up and destroy. Not a bad thing on paper but it often conflicts with the underlying architecture, making it hard to overcome moveable objects, for example in tight corridors. This becomes an even bigger obstacle when you are behind the wheel of car. Yes, you can drive cars in this game, a mechanic that has become kind of infamous for its clunkyness and is representative for the reputation of this game. Again, this mechanic isn’t entirely bad. Some cars are locked but you can gain access to them by shooting the windows. If there is no key you can then start the car by connecting some wires. There are many other ways of interaction with cars. You can turn the lights on and off, move between the seats, find objects on the inside, shoot the fuel-tank or (if you have a knife or a screwdriver) cause a leak which can be lit on fire and leads to a massive explosion. Also, you are able to drive in first and third person, monsters can jump onto the car and slowly rip it to pieces etc. etc. The ambition here is obvious and just one example. They wanted to give the player as many opportunities as possible in almost every gameplay-mechanic. I was reminded of “Day Z” quite often, for better and for worse. The downside, like in “Day Z”, lies in the execution of the core-mechanics. For example, there is a lot to do with cars but driving feels terrible. You constantly get stuck in trees, cracks in the roads or streetlights. See, the central park, the setting of the game, serves as some kind of hub-world. Not a bad idea but also not exactly a racing track. This problem transfers to stuff like the crafting-system, the combat, the climbing-sections, puzzles and so on. Nothing works in ways that are satisfying or intuitive and you can’t help but wonder how it got released the way it did. This may not come as a surprise but the endgame, as in most videogames, reaches new highs of awfulness. You just want it to end because, by that point, you have learned every mechanic in the game and it starts to get tedious but no, they force you to do the same mind-numbingly boring side-quest over and over again before they let you enter the final stages. At least they were generous by not putting a terrible boss fight on top of this mess. Instead, there are a few annoying climbing-sections, some fairly decent puzzles concluded by an uninspired choice-ending (à la Far Cry 3 or whatever). The story is the most downright boring part of this Reboot. It’s hard to follow, has hollow characters and had me abandon any involvement very soon. Edward Carnby is your typical grumpy hero, here, at least, voiced by the iconic James “Max Payne” McCaffrey. The dialogue is full of profanity and so stupid that even his delivery can’t save it. The plot involves something about the reincarnation of Lucifer and the end of the world. I could not remember another thing when the credits started rolling and my guess is that I am not the only one who felt that way. My advice: do not play this game for the story! In the end this is an often frustrating yet fascinating and experimental abnormality of a game that is way more interesting in its failure than many polished but formulaic titles today. It really tries to do new things everywhere and I would recommend it for that alone.