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While the original Resident Evil eventually popularized survival horror on the PS1, it wouldn’t have existed without Infogrames’ humble Alone in the Dark. The game – first released in 1992 and later ported to consoles like the 3DO – was a remarkable achievement: it featured a pre-rendered 3D environment in which you had to solve environmental puzzles related to the suicide of Jeremy Hartwood as private investigator Edward. Carnby or grieving niece Emily Hartwood.
After several shoddy sequels – including Eden Games’ botched 2008 reboot Alone in the Dark: Inferno – THQ Nordic resurrects the franchise with a PS5 reimagining of the original. Development has been underway since 2019 at Swedish studio Pieces Interactive, with SOMA and Amnesia: The Dark Descent fame Mikael Hedberg writing. The goal is to take the Derceto estate setting from the original and transform it into a truly terrifying backdrop for the modern era.
Because of this, there are some changes to the story. While you’ll still be able to play as both Edward and Emily—you’ll have to play through the campaign twice to see everything—Jeremy isn’t killing himself this time. Instead, the mansion is described as a mental asylum for the rich and wealthy, where things have gone wrong. As with the original, there are supernatural elements and they will have you exploring outside the mansion during key story sequences.
Based on some brief snippets of gameplay we’ve seen, the atmosphere looks dense. As with the original, the mansion is set in New Orleans, so the developer hired Dutch-based composer Jason Konen to come up with a sort of “dark jazz” soundtrack that perfectly matches the background mood. There will be pre-rendered cutscenes created by Metric Minds, who also worked on Sony’s tentpole PS4 title Horizon Zero Dawn.
The developer promises a combination of exploration, combat and puzzle solving. We got to see a very simple puzzle to complete a slide puzzle, but the team promises that these head-scratchers will get more and more complex as the campaign progresses. The combat feels a bit like a bargain Resident Evil 2, and it’s hard to shake off the comparisons to Capcom’s main remake, but with no release date attached, there’s time for those elements to be sorted out.
THQ Nordic seems very concerned about spoilers and has even created a bespoke ‘gameplay teaser’ – the publisher’s wording, not ours – inspired by Jack in the Dark’s infamous Alone in the Dark 2 demo. This will be on display at Gamescom and, as its inspiration, will see you step into the role of a young girl named Grace Saunders. At the time of writing, it’s unclear if this will be released to the public – but it’s safe to assume it will.
As mentioned earlier, no launch window has been announced for the title, but we expect this to likely arrive in 2023. It’s interesting how Alone in the Dark, a key inspiration for the original Resident Evil, is now following in the footsteps of Capcom’s franchise – but we’re optimistic, in part because of the writing talent involved in this project and the overall approach to doing the original justice. If nothing else, we’re confident this will be the best installment in the series since it pioneered the genre in the early 90s.
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