Alone in the Dark Trilogy (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.0 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Stephen Poole
• Reviewed on: 05/13/1997
• Updated on: 04/29/2000
• Released on: 03/31/1997
• Originally published on GameSpot: Alone in the Dark Trilogy (PC) Review

When game publishers switched from floppies to CD-ROMs a few years back, many of them starting plopping their old titles on CD, adding some music and spoken dialogue, and re-releasing them. They called them "multimedia versions" or "enhanced CD-ROM versions"; we called them "shovelware."

Alone in the Dark Trilogy is indubitably shovelware, but fortunately the quality of what's being shoveled is so good that it's not only forgivable, it's actually welcome. Naturally, this collection of the three classic action-adventures from I-Motion holds no appeal for gamers who already own them. But if you're unfamiliar with the series or only have one of the games, this collection's a bargain.

The Alone in the Dark games cast you as private eye Edward Carnby (in the first game you can also play as a woman named Emily Hartwood), investigating a series of deaths and disappearances, all of which are linked to the occult or the supernatural. In the first game of the series, the stories of H.P. Lovecraft - and the demons and monsters he describes - served as a touchstone for the plot and puzzles. Monsters, demons, ghosts, and other evil creatures all are found in the two sequels, but without the heavy Lovecraftian references.

You play the game from a third-person perspective that's switched constantly, and the multiple "camera angles" give the game a distinct cinematic look and feel. Gameplay is a clever blend of gunplay and puzzle-solving: both action hounds and graphic-adventure fans will find plenty of satisfying challenges here, and the music and audio effects will help all but the most hardened gamers suspend their sense of disbelief and become wrapped up in the mysteries and dangers that await.

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