So I decided to play, Alone in the Dark... not A new Nightmare, not 2008's Alone in the dark and definetly not Illumination (I don't play many mp games cuz socializing scare me). Just good old DOS Alone in the Dark... well not DOS I played the 3DO port that has the godly addition of a dedicated run button besides the double tap run mechanic that works like shit on DOSBox.

But then again, this game is not scary. It is widely regarded as one of the predecesor of the Survival Horror Genre that Resident Evil popularized but it has more in common with classic adventure games like King's Quest than, let's say, project Firestar on the C64. Even tho it has like everything in the horror fiction of the time:

• Based in a mansion in the outkirst of town
• Inhabitants are not there for spooky reasons
• Filled with monsters
• A basement (or attic) were spooky rituals/experiments were held
• Tank Controls

And I think is this part of the horror game genre I like the most, there being "horror themed" instead of just scary, there is good scary games but I don't care for them.

So in the end Alone in the Dark was hella fun, the atmosphere is just right, the puzzles are not that dumb that you will be stuck if you don't pay attention (except for the one with the statue jfc) and it has, and im not kidding, the BEST FUCKING USE OF AUDIOLOGS. Some of they are optionals, some of them give hints about the puzzles but every one is well acted and explains what happened in a serious manner.



The voice of the owner of the mansion going crazy as he learns about things he should not know and see thing he should not see as he was searching for what drove his father mad is truly interesting and is not at all scary. It has more of a "Telltale Heart" type beat to it than Exorcist or The Ring. Nothing in there is like scary happening to you but mostly is something that already happened and turned someone mad and could happen to you. Would the beating heart of the dead man drive you crazy as well?.



Also the game is just having fun with horror. Like it borrows from several authors to make puzzles and monsters (including videogames favorite racist) in a way that it just wanted to be something cool. You wanna read the necronomicon and die from it? sure thing. Wanna serve some soup to zombies? We got it. Wanna fight a ghost pirate scooby doo style? this is the game for you.

Nowadays the game gets a lot of slack for its adventure game roots design thinking, like knowing that it's a game and that you can die and save scum. So sometimes part of the fun is learning things ahead of time, die trying and go back again. And the game is fairly short, like 2 hours with no error and 3 if you play blind. I would recommend playing this blind but everyone should play this the way they want. Tho I do prefer the console versions for that run button but you do lose 3 save slots and that sweet sweet sweet font that will defo go into my compilation of fonts that fuck.