Alone in the Dark In A League of its Own
This can still be said about the re-incarnation of the series for the Xbox 360 and PS3. The only thing that doesn't shine through are the awkward controls.
New ways to play games are becoming relatively scarce now as publishers usually go for easy money by making a FPS or a Party Game. When they go out of their way to make something completely different they usually try to make it as compelling as possible to try and intrigue the largely popular FPS shooter market (kinda like what Ubisoft did with Assassin's Creed did). This game however does not live up to the expectation (kinda like Assassin's Creed lol).
The story starts with you playing as a character with amnesia, which I know sounds cliché but it fits the plot and make it that much more interesting. It turns out you are the only one who stop the terror that is happening to Central Park (it's pretty obvious what the "terror" is if you have played it). Along the way the plot introduces you to new predictable characters including Theo, the wise old man you can learn a thing or two from, Crowley, the evil villain who wants it all for himself, and Sarah, the female.
It goes that you have to stop what is going on. Along the way though you will have to follow clues and solve puzzles most of which do not disappoint. The good news is though if they do infact leave you bored you are able to skip right by them with its DVD chapter select system. This addition is welcome as it means like a film you can resume from set intervals and watch what you want. Also if you do ever want to play it again to see the best bits (which is doubtful) you can quickly select them and away you go.
The major new mechanic though is the inventory system which unlike other games is actually well organised. In other games, taking GTA for example, I keep wondering "Where in the hell is he hiding those weapons?" and the only place he can attempt do doesn't much intrigue me. This inventory system however is done all by the pockets inside your jacket. He probably has too many pockets of sorts but again this is well executed. In actual fact the major problem you will encounter within the game is that there is just not enough inventory space but realism wins in my opinion and combating this problem is something you'll have to put up with. My advice is avoid, whenever possible, trying to solve this problem with enemies in the vicinity as the inventory is real time and you can still be hurt. Also when combining items together it is possible to make deadlier weapons like molotov cocktails, molotov cocktails with bullets put on it and others. These do not disappoint and give the player many opinions to kill the Humanz.
Upon becoming hurt you can go to the healing view to fix up all cuts. This is done with medical spray which miraculously heals all cuts except deep ones where a bandage is good enough. This I believe to be a nice idea poorly executed like many other ideas in the game.
Lets move into the bad. Lets start with controls. They are hard to adjust to but once you do they can still be kinda frustrating. See all buttons have a use. Some obviously more useful than others especially A which has multiple uses and can sometimes be frustrating because of it. Moving onto car controls. They are SHOCKING. What put the idea of making lampposts you kill your car with, a top speed you can reach no matter how badly damaged your car is and turning quicker than a hooker about to make more money.
Graphics were another thing I thought this game would win at but they are only good within the first few seconds of the game when your vision is blurry . After this they all quite clearly lacking. The lighting is the only good thing but when combined with last gen textures it doesn't really compliment it.
Overall I believe Alone in the Dark has tried to bring many more gameplay mechanics to games and has done it in such a way where it just doesn't seem finished. The ending leaves it open for a sequel (kinda) and if this does come to light then fingers crossed it will directly combat all of what is wrong with the game. If it does this then it may be one of the best games on these respective consoles. I guess now we wait.