thus Alone in the Dark is reborn

He was not yet ten years old when I first entered the Derceto mansion. Or at least when I started my game of the original Alone in the Dark. For weeks I learned, suffered and memorized every bit of that adventure based on sticks, trial and error, and I confess that the countless references to the works of H. P. Lovecraft y Edgar Allan Poe They passed in front of my face without my realizing it at the time. Of course, he was as terrified as he was fascinated. 30 years later, that damn building reopens its doors. How to refuse to return?

After being announced (and leaked) during the second half of 2022, THQ Nordic and Pieces Interactive have been relatively cautious about the renacer de Alone in the Dark. And it is not for less: the mystery is and must be a crucial element if you want to be faithful to the roots of the franchise. Being the first great success of the many steps in the right direction that is taking place with the project. That the project has the approval of Frederick Raynal, the director of the original game is equally or more important, but that doesn’t mean that bringing Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood back is a challenge in itself.

In iGamesNews We have been able to see first-hand how Pieces Interactive has risen to the challenge of reforging one of the most influential horror video games of all time. What is said fast. Alone in the Dark it laid several foundations on which sagas such as Resident Evil or Silent Hill were later sustained, soon became a trilogy.

Years later, the initials became their own franchise and, passing from hand to hand, they sought to find their own place in the meantime Survival Horror without ever recovering the original impact and depth. Diluting, little by little, the identity of that work ahead of its time.

Given this, three dilemmas: stay faithful to the original, adapt to what is expected of current adventure and horror games or step aside or give the whole a new approach. In Pieces Interactive have decided to do all three at once with the new Alone in the Dark: It’s a remake, of course, but it’s also a tribute to the original games full of nods to the players of the time.

But, above all, a new generation Survival Horror in which its protagonists have gone from having a handful of polygons to being digital replicas of none other than the winner of the Emmie Jodie Comer and nothing less than David Harbouralias Jim Hopper de Stranger Things o Red Guardian en el MCU.

Unsurprisingly, these stellar performances by Hollywood stars aren’t the only surprise the new Alone in the Dark has been saving up to date.

Return to Derceto 30 years later

“It feels like cultivating a seed that was planted 30 years ago and has grown into something darker and more sinister”

The image of the car parking at the entrance to Derceto is something that all of us who played the original, to a greater or lesser extent, have burned into our memory. That looked amazing back then, but in fairness today it’s not that surprising given that we’ve grown accustomed to photorealism in video games. For this reason, when two familiar faces get out of the car, the surprise effect occurs.

As in the 1992 game, in the new Alone in the Dark We will be given the option to choose between two protagonists who come to the mansion for different purposes. Emily Hartwood (played by Jodie Comer) is intrigued by the latest letter received from her uncle, while for the private detective Edward Carnby (David Harbour) This is a truly unusual commission.

That said, the first big difference compared to the classic, in addition to the renewed visual section, is that the game will be different depending on who we choose.

Pieces Interactive put a special emphasis when saying that this new Alone in the Dark had been designed to be played at least twice. Although, in the classic there are subtle playable changes, we will find that the way to interact with the mansion and the circumstances are different, creating two parallel stories.

And not only that: in the 2023 title there will be other tenants in the Derceto mansion and wherever our investigation takes us who will treat us differently depending on who we are playing with. Besides those nightmarish creatures willing to give us more than one treacherous shock, of course.

Lovecraftian suspense, “noir” narrative and a special affection for the classic trilogy

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How come there are more people in Derceto? Well, technically the Alone in the dark de Pieces is not a simple remake in which the pieces have been rearranged, but has been created to give consistency and inherit elements from the original trilogy. Including the participation of the small Grace Saunders, who we met in the sequel, in this story. But, as we mentioned, the attitude that each character will have with us will be established by the chosen protagonist.

The same applies to locations. We have been able to see rooms and halls exactly the same as the Alone in the Dark original starting with that attic where the game starts, but also areas that will mislead those who know the saga inside out. And the same applies to puzzles.

Always staying under the setting of the time through an aesthetic that swings strongly between the Noir genre and Lovecraftian terror. Which brings us to the other point of interest: the creatures that will come our way.

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Throughout this Survival Horror we will have to face nightmare creatures. And, while the tank-like control system and attacks of the original Alone in the Dark were crazy for the time, Pieces relies on much more current references when it comes to rebuilding this new starting point for the saga with a third-person camera and more and better combat options.

Which does not mean that, as the director told us, the bullets in the game are numbered, so we must be quite careful when pulling the trigger.

However, there is a third push that will seek to round off the already elaborate setting: the composer Jason Koehnen has created a sound and a soundtrack based on Doom Jazz in order to tie all the influences put into the game, give rhythm to the combats and texture to the investigations and, above all, keep the player intrigued and with their guard up. .

Alone in the Dark will return in time for Halloween, but you can start wandering around the mansion now

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One of the most significant scoops that Pieces and THQ Nordic gave us was the project’s release date: Alone in the Dark will be released on October 25, 2023, rounding off an exceptional year in which all the great classic horror sagas are back and the current ones will manifest themselves on PC and consoles in one way or another. However, it will not be necessary to wait for the end of summer to set foot in the iconic mansion.

The homage to the classic trilogy begins today, and if Infogrames launched Jack in the Dark as a great appetizer Alone in the Dark 2 on Christmas 1993, Pieces does the same by offering a spoiler-free prologue on all platforms aptly titled as Grace in the Dark. Among other things, because as on that occasion we will control Grace Saunders.

Grace in the Dark it’s not technically a demo. In fact, as Mikael Hedberg, the director and screenwriter of the new Alone in the Dark, told us, it is an exceptional opportunity to walk relatively freely through the Derceto mansion with little Grace in which there is no combat system. , but exploration and a little bit of narrative.

And, for that matter, a small great advance for fans of the saga who had a hard time in their day and today we comb gray hair.

Alone in the Dark will return on the eve of Halloween proposing to find out what corrupts the cursed mind of Jeremy Hartwood through two points of view. A return to the roots of a genre that has evolved tremendously over the last three decades and, at the same time, a reunion with a story that left a special impact on an entire generation.

It’s still too early to tell if we’ll feel the same chills, shocks and shocks of that time, but Pieces Interactive has made one thing clear: they love the original trilogy of Alone in the Darkand that is already a good step in the right direction. Even when the road leads back to Derceto.