A really annoying thing with the game is the frequent changes between a fixed camera position and a 360° free camera pan. This often confused and disoriented me giving me a hard time walking straight, a real issue when walking on narrow ledges on a building!
Another thing I really disliked, was the fluid transitions between cinematic and play-mode with no indications, which often caught me a bit off-guard, as very often the dialogue in the cinematic wasn't finished before I was meant to take an action. Realising these switches too late proved fatal in which case I had to redo the sequence.

Speaking of camera angles; a cool feature is that you can toggle between 1st person or 3rd person view. This let's you experience the game in your preferred play style, though some passages have to completed in only one of those views and also each view affect the way you interact with objects, which I learned the hard way: I was stuck in a room with a locked door, so I picked up the fire extinguisher, which was placed conveniently close, and used it to successfully smash the door open by clicking the left mouse button (default for using whatever item you may be holding).
I then enter a hallway with flames covering the only way out. Still holding the fire extinguisher in my hand, it is clear I am meant to put out the fire with it. I click the left mouse button again which just makes me swing the fire extinguisher wildly at the flames, of course having no effect.
I then refer to the manual which says:
"Left mouse button: Use."
"Left mouse button: Hit."
Huh, now that doesn't make any sense at all! I frantically clicked the left mouse button to use the fire extinguisher, but nothing. Edward was still just swinging the extinguisher fiercely at the flames trying to scare them to recession. After a while threatening the flames I finally discovered that toggling to 1st person view and then clicking the left mouse button will let me use the extinguisher for what it's meant for: putting out fire.

Fire seems to be the key to this game in many different ways. I quickly learned that the gun had little effect against the zombies and was better saved for using in the puzzles, while fire proved a much more efficient weapon.
I had a lot of fun experimenting with the various ways to use fire. For example, I could pick up a table leg, hold it into some flames and swing the alight piece of wood at my enemies. Or at other times the same technique made a great torch to light up dark areas.

Should you end up in sequences that you have a hard time getting through, the game has a nifty DVD-like menu that let's you skip sequences, however it was hard to resist the temptation to skip some of the more challenging sequences that I couldn't complete in the first tries, making me impatient with having to do it over again.
It is more rewarding to solve the puzzles/kill the zombies without "cheating" and the last episode is locked anyway - you'll have to have completed a number of sequences to unlock it.
Every episode (in a total of 8) opens up with "Previously in Alone in the Dark" cinematic giving a neat recap of the key events in game up until the episode you're at. The storyline itself is very exciting and every episode ends with a cliffhanger that made me itch to continue to next episode straight away.

The graphics are good and realistic, especially the way fire works and reacts with different materials. It's clear that there's been put a lot of work into the visual part of the game and the environment and models look great, however I felt the animations could have done with a bit of polishing. There were times where the movement felt sluggish and awkward and controlling a car in the driving sequences was so horribly twitchy that it left me with the impression that the development of the car sequences haven't got the same attention as the rest of the game.
The music, voice acting and sound effects added up to the realistic feel and although there were quite a few places that made me jump in my chair, I would have expected the combination of the well-done graphics and audio to create a more intense atmosphere in the game, but the constant annoyance over the random camera view switches was enough distraction to never really get me fully involved. And on several occasions when the character speech continued with no lip movement I couldn't help letting out a chuckle, thinking back on poorly dubbed kung fu movies.


I don't doubt that Eden Games had a great ambition with Alone In The Dark, with a lot of fresh ideas for the gameplay, for example the flexible use of items in your inventory or the combat system allowing you to fight with whatever is at hand, and a well-presented plot with peaks and twists wrapped in great graphics.
Unfortunately the constant frustration with things like the annoying camera position switches, non-synchronised voice acting, and bugs where some scripted events don't work in 1st person view, caused unnecessary distractions and I never really felt that all the good elements in the game came together in a greater unity, leaving me alone in the dark with a flat experience.

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