today THQ Nordic 2022 Digital Showcasedeveloper Pieces Interactive announced alone in the dark Reboot, due to release on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. There’s no release date yet, but during a closed-door preview event we were told the game is currently in “pre-alpha” – so don’t expect it anytime soon (though it’s been in development since late 2019) ‘).
Michael Paeck, executive producer at THQ Nordic, said recent games (such as Resident Evil Remake, Silent Hill and Dead Space) have leaned more toward “horror” than “horror,” and the team hopes this new game will return to the original 1992 game Alone in the Dark Special Edition. The team kept mentioning the rich, rich vibe of the first game, and how much it wanted to recreate that vibe in this new game—about 30 years after the original was released.
From the first trailers we’ve seen so far, the game appears to be similar to Capcom’s wildly successful Resident Evil remake. It’s a complete rethink of the first game, SOMA and Amnesia: The Dark Descent writer Mikael Hedberg will oversee the project’s narrative.
“Derceto Manor, the first Solo game had both characters and backgrounds, and that’s why we wanted to go back, at least in part,” Hedberg explained in the preview. “But we also wanted to understand when and where it happened – it happened in Louisiana, not typical New England [other horror titles have used]. The Southern Gothic element has it’s own flavor, which is not much explored in the game. ”
Hedberg went on to say that he “overanalyzed the story beats and the original’s settings” to extract more from the original game’s settings and locations. The game is a reboot, not a remake, then: Elements of the first game run through this title, but it has its own story and its own identity.
But it still borrows heavily from the first game: we saw our setting in Derceto Manor: a mental hospital for the rich and the rich. The game begins when Jeremy Hartwood, a patient at the facility, sends a letter to his niece, Emily, who is concerned and plans to see him. Getting bad vibes from his letter, she hired a private investigator (a mainstay in the series, Edward Carnby) to go with her.
Similar to the Resident Evil remake, you can play as Emily Hartwood or Edward Carnby to complete the game – and Hedberg told us “you need to play through it twice to get the most out of this game”.
The game isn’t just set in the manor: based on the preview, we’re told you’ll also open a portal to worlds beyond the manor itself. That means you’ll at least also explore the depths of the estuary, as well as the cemetery near New Orleans.
Guy Davis, a creature concept designer who worked with Guillermo del Toro on monster art and more for Pacific Rim, brought his talents to the game and created what you’ll see in the screenshots on this page monster. According to Hedberg, he “has a lot of room to extrapolate from the original game’s inspiration”.
You’ll need to use shotguns, pistols and melee weapons to fend off the strange creatures that are becoming part of this reality-bending. In true survival horror fashion, you’ll pick up what you find and fight back with monsters you encounter. There will be – like Resi – enemies that are invincible, so sometimes running away will be your only option. “Especially when your weapons don’t work as well as you think,” Paeck said. Intriguing.
From what we’ve seen so far, Alone in the Dark looks like a fascinating prospect from a young studio – and a great way for THQ Nordic to put its IP from Atari to work. We’ll obviously hear more about the release date soon – we just hope the developers don’t leave us (alone) in the dark for too long.
