Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360)

It has been 83 years since Edward Carnby investigated the suicide of Jeremy Hartwood. Now he wakes up in an apartment in New York and is moments away from being shot by a group of bad guys. He doesn’t remember much and as he looks into a mirror, a man looks back at him that isn’t even near the age of 80. But as all hell breaks loose and mysterious forces tear through the building and the city itself, the question about his looks becomes one of many. To make things even worse, an old enemy decides to return in a search for a powerful stone. So for Carnby a race for survival begins and all signs point to Central Park.

Edward’s mysterious journey is divided into eight episodes that can be played in chronological order or can be accessed directly from the main menu. Once in the game, the player controls Edward either in a 1st-person or a 3rd-person manner either by switching manually or depending on the situation and what item he uses. If he picks up a fire extinguisher for example, the player will be able to extinguish fires with it if he is in 1st-person mode. In 3rd-person mode it instead becomes a deadly weapon or a battering ram.

This is especially important since Edward won’t find much ammunition for the pistols, shotguns and other weapons in the game. Instead he needs to be creative and use the items he finds or the environment for his advantage. Especially since most enemies can only be permanently killed by burning them, igniting a wooden chair at a nearby fire, or using a lighter and a can of hairspray are Edward’s best bets to knock them out.

Fire plays an important role in the game at all times. If not extinguished, it will slowly burn through anything in the vicinity and spread until everything burnable has been reduced to a smoking pile of ash. This behavior can of course be useful to Edward if he for instance wants to get through a closed wooden door and has nothing heavy at hand to force his way.