As I have said about other classical franchises, the reboot of the franchise offers a great opportunity for newcomers to join. Alone in the Dark was a franchise I have only heard of and read of, and haven’t dared to try to play it. Even after the announcement of the reboot, I had thought only of the actor, David Harbour, playing as Edward Carnby, not much else. Aside from it being a horror game, I didn’t have much else to go on as a newcomer.

Before I start discussing any other elements of the game, I do want to clarify Alone in the Dark is not the traditional lovecraftian horror as some reviews are suggesting. What makes a game a lovecraftian horror would be a topic of debate, but I would at least expect the horror of unknown, something beyond our comprehension. The game barely touches the sense of horror, only to escape into comedic relief of 90s game. And truly, the real theme of the game, as a modern gamer, would be how much has it been able to pull itself up against the modern horrors.

In my playthrough as Edward Carnby, the recurring protagonist of the franchise I’m told, the game is hardly a horror game with all the weapons and tools at disposal. The game gleefully drops — it is only my suspicion, but far too many crates were simply empty — ammunitions for your guns. There are breakable melee weapons that cannot be less distinct from one another, but given how abundant the ammunitions are and how quickly melee weapons break, they make one unreliable toolset. As for the throwable, supposedly a distraction making stealth mechanic, my experience with them was that they are either ill-positioned or never necessary in the first place. In fact, the overall combat does not require much strategy nor stealth. With limited types of enemies, a player can easily fight them head on.

As many horror games have adopted puzzles to motivate players to go against their instincts, which is to simply flee from the horror, Alone in the Dark is also puzzle heavy. The game rehashes jigsaws with reality-infesting horror vibes. Not only jigsaws rarely work on video games, the puzzles usually consist of only 9-pieces. Again, I believe the difficulty is set for someone who has no experience in video game, much like how many games of the 90s were.

At the time of the writing, Alone in the Dark is available as part of PS Plus’ monthly game for June 2025. For a game that is hitting PS Plus, far too many bugs and glitches stop the game’s progression. Sometimes mission-critical monologue wouldn’t play, so I had to reload the segment only to hear how to proceed from the mouth of Carnby. I can’t even count how many times I got stuck in a place and had to wait for enemy to push me in general direction or couldn’t interact with mission-critical item because the prompt wouldn’t show. I doubt the game released a year ago would get anymore attention it needs to patch the bugs.

Conclusions: Perhaps for Nostalgia?

I don’t know what to make of Alone in the Dark. It’s not a survival horror like Resident Evil, The Evil Within, or Dead Space, but it certainly has some elements, being able to fight back in the face of of calamity, that resemble survival horror. It’s not a lovecraftian horror like Amnesia, but speaks the same tone, complete lack of faculty against enemies yet unyielding will. Unfortunately, it’s not proficient in neither. The game may have touched on nostalgia factor for some, which I cannot share, as I haven’t played the original 1992 title, or perhaps its lighthearted nature is enough to hit the wider audience. Either way, the game didn’t speak what many modern gamers would want from a horror game in 2024, and now in 2025.