Alone in the Dark: The Grandfather of Survival Horror || A Retrospective, Critique and Analysis
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- čas přidán 6. 08. 2022
- Hey kids,
Welcome to my new video! In this episode's retrospective, we'll be taking a look at Alone in the Dark, a classic video game that was one of the groundlayers of survival horror in video games along with Sweet Home and Project Firestart.
We'll be doing a comprehensive deep dive into the development, lore and reception on release with this review. We'll also take a small look at how the game influenced games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill in turn and laid the groundwork for the use of horror in videogames.
Let's take a look at one of grandfathers of Survival Horror.
Special thanks to @longplayarchive @YourFavoriteSon1 for both helping with footage and helping with the overall idea of the video.
Enjoy the video, kids and I'll see you all next time when we review Alone in the Dark 2.
#aloneinthedark
#gamereview
#review
#retrogaming
#retrospective
#analysis
#survivalhorrorgaming - Hry
Amazing how Carnby can eat everything he finds around in that horrible situation. A cold blooded man...a true reptile.
Think of it as a bit of a DOOM situation. Carnby isn't stuck in Derceto with the monsters. They're stuck with him.
I remember playing this game when I was 5-6 and having nightmares for years, because I thought the Zombie Chicken was gonna jump through the window! Great video!!
Same here! That first enemy definitely was a wake up call back in the day. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Cluck
Cluck
Bwack
I'm three minutes in and feel the need to tell you have the perfect voice for these kinds of retrospective videos.
Thank you so much! I'm currently finishing up the work on part 3 and the series after that so I hope you enjoy them!
Tank controls are not the reason why most classic survival horror games are a bit cumbersome to control. Yes, it is pretty awkward for most players because it takes time to get used too. Tank controls can be as tight as the controls we come to think of as standard. Resident Evil games are actually very tight and responsive despite having tank controls. I can execute very tight manuevers, and I mastered those controls within a day or two when I was a 10 year old child. The response time of your inputs are pretty much instant in the Resident Evil games. What makes Alone In The Dark cumbersome is the purposeful delay, slow movement, and slow attack speed with the inputs that slow the game down a bit more, and that helps to create the pace of the game which needs to be slower than usual. It becomes a game of timing, and subtle execution. Tank controls were not made to create fear, or stress. You can get as good at tank controls as you are at normal controls, even in Alone in the Dark. Tank controls were created because of the fixed camera. With tank controls, every time the camera angle changes, you do not have to adjust the directional inputs accordingly, because you only have to hold forward, or back while pivoting your character right or left to stay on course. Tank controls were created out of necessity, and functionality, not to create fear, or stress on the player although that can be a secondary effect for players who are brand new to the concept.
At 5 and a half megabytes, this game took up almost a quarter the hard disk of my grandpa's 286 PC. Playing it with only 640k of RAM was quite treacherous too, as once in a while the game would bug out and slow down to an absolute crawl while the hdd went nuts. Still - one of my childhood favorites, even though I was just a dumb preteen with zero knowledge of english.
I think I was able to sequence-break it on my first playthrough, entering the underground waterways section without defeating the pirate or opening the trapdoor in the study. Moved aside the barrels in the cellar and kept trying to juke the worm until finally running past it.
Oof yeah, I remember it was a chore to run on our ancient family rig. Definitely part of the nostalgia factor cause these days it would just piss me off if it wasn't running at a stable 60fps 😅
I'm here because my son told me to watch this and I was not disappointed
Thank your son for me!
Top man, great analysis and retrospective again!
Much appreciated!
I love how you explain why I love tank controls (and fixed camra) it is very Underappreciated, misunderstood and underrated.
Dude talk about timing, you uploading this just before the new remake is announced, great video!
That was completely unexpected as well but you're right, the timing was impeccable 😂
@@thedadliestman hope your video blows up dude, it's very well made!
@@VoidNoctem Thanks! We'll see how it does, maybe part 2 will give it a boost
Very cool video, good work :) I love horror games, the adrenaline rush after the jumpscares and the great stories behind all of this. Can't wait for the incoming new 'Alone in the Dark', I hope that this will be a good continuation of this series. I'm also a big fan of series/games like: 'Silent Hill', 'The Evil Within', 'Layers of Fear', 'RE: Biohazard + Village', 'Soma', 'Alien Isolation', Cthulhu games and many more (too many to write them all here) XD
Thanks Novinka! I'm really happy it's gonna get remade, it honestly wasn't even on my radar when I made this video. To be fair, combat can be included but I think they also need to work on alternative ways to get through combat, that's part of what made this game so fun for me.
This was fantastic, this game has always been an absolute favourite since I was a kid. Great work mate
Will there be anymore of these on the other alone in the dark games?
I'm working on the others but cause of work they take a bit longer than I'd want to 😄
Great review. Subbed. Game scared me as a kid on 3DO. The good ol days lol
Thanks so much! I remember not being scared as much except for the first game with the zombie chicken, that scared the heck out of me.
You sir have my attention. Subbed!!
Thank you so much!
Спасибо автору что вспомнил эту игру!Это настальгия....одна из любимых видеоигр,играл на 486-ом....таких интересных игр больше не делают.
You're very welcome! I think the 486 was the one I played it on originally as well. I'm sure my dad still has that old thing somewhere on the attic.
This video essay was so well done! Thank you for covering this. I’m starting to try and catch up on the series now that the remake is on the way. Looking forward to you futures vids.
Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm happy you revisited this classic. Part 2 will be dropping soon as I had some issues with recording from Dosbox but keep an eye out 😁
Excellent retrospective, one of my favorite games from my childhood, truly a classic.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. 😁
nice video man, subbed : ) i havnt played any of these yet, just bought them all. thanks!
Thanks! Enjoy them, they're definitely worth it if you grabbed them for a good price.
These are great retrospectives. Can't wait to see what's next. Maybe ff8 and 9?! 😮
I definitely want to cover FF8 because of my experiences with the game. FF9 is iffy for me, I left the series until X hit so I never finished a full run, only a normal story playthrough.
I missed out on a lot of Survival Horror growing up and didn't get into it until Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube. While I like to learn history of where genres come from, games like this, or early RE1/2/Zero, I just can't see myself going back to play it today. Also, when it's this stringently married to cryptic puzzles and absurdly low ammo I just check out within 20 minutes lol. But I respect that it took this to get us where we are today. Nevertheless excellent narration and can't wait to see what other retrospectives you have up your sleeve. Good stuff! 😇
Very good video! keep up the good work..it will pay off in the long run!
greetings from Europe
I'll try my best. I bring out videos at a slow pace but I try to be as comprehensive as possible 😄
Your voice narration fits perfectly. Great video.
You desserve more views bruv', i wish you success in your later youtube carreer.
It'll come in time. Thanks for watching this one 😁
Excellent video. AitD is seminal and classic in every regard, definitely in my top 10 games of all time list.
Great video! Started this game yesterday and was looking for a video essay on it! Good work 🤞
Thank you so much! I'm trying to get part 2 out this week but I'm fitting editing in between work. Glad you revisited this classic!
Very cool videos! I like how it's both a review and walk-through, kinda
Discovered this series back when Resident Evil 2 was out for the pc, I went to the walmart equivalent in my town looking for it, but they had no copies of it. They did have a special collection of the 3 Alone in the Dark games, which I got feeling as "poor man's Resident Evil", but of course I was wrong, and Alone in the Dark became one of my favorite franchises, replayed the whole trilogy many times
Still got the cds, and recently bought the games at GoG
Btw, try hitting the dining room zombies with the rifle or sword when they're "asleep" on the chairs after putting the soup on the table. They fall alongside the chair, dying in one single hit
Your personality,effort makes it worthwhile to listen to as well as learning lot of things. History of games, movies, stories have an ending
l wish one day you review Niche games, like Thief for the King of immersion and stealth. Of course they could be already analyzed.
One of the most Niche games for sure, is Lifeline on the PS2. Voice recognition is really fascinating, despite how much we have progressed, there is a lack of voice action adventures.
I'll definitely give more niche titles a go, I have a ton of them in my cabinet to review later on!
I just found you and I enjoyed this video! Immediate sub!
I love the possibility of pushing the wardrobe to block the chicken, I was so surprised when I did this by accident as a small kid.
It was a mind-blowing thing to be able to do this back in the day 😁
Hi there, I just wanna thank you for your material. I'm currently writing a script for my viedo essay about the inspirations for Resident Evil and your work is one of my sources ^^
Oh! Be sure to link me when you put it up!
@@thedadliestman Alright I'll be sure to put in English subtitles for you ^^
@@monik911hsm Thanks! I appreciate it!
Fantastic review. I've watched all 3 of the series you made on Alone In The Dark and I agree with you that the first game was the most innovative and influential. I played the game when it was released and I have to admit that I struggled with the controls and puzzles, I never made it very far into the game, but I loved it despite that. It felt that all the mysteries and answers were beyond my reach, which left my imagination to run wild. Such and incredible game for 1992.
The only other game I felt captured the same off kilter camera angles, awkward controls, creepy mysterious story and innovative graphics was the 1994 survival horror game Ectatica. Well worth a look if you have not played it. As expected with a game of this era you will be luck to last 5 minuets before death.
Here's a review of the game, but to really understand it you have to go in cold and try to survive and work out what to do. It gives more of an appreciation of the story and the mystery.
czcams.com/video/Tis160twYc4/video.html
Someone actually mentioned this game to me before so it's on my list to check out. Thanks for giving me the heads up!
I dont know if it's because this franchise is getting a reboot or what but I've seen so many videos on this franchise and it makes me so happy. All people talk about is RE and SH. Nobody remembers this game.
I think it depends on being born at the right time and having the right interests during that time. Alone in the Dark definitely was a chore to get hold of back in the day in comparison with how easily software is available now. The game definitely left an impression on me or I wouldn't remember it for all these years, Resi and SH just had a way bigger marketing budget.
Whoa...what was the footage at the beginning of the video of what looked to be a modern remake of the opening attic sequence with the noose etc.?
Nice catch! It was an old remake project where they wanted to remake Alone in the Dark. Unfortunately it never got off the ground but the animation still exists with a bit of searching. I loved seeing it back in the day and I hate it never got made as it really caught the atmosphere of the series in my opinion.
Im big fan of classic horror games but the original AITD trilogy was the tough nut to crack for me, unlike something more accessible like The New Nightmare. You did a great job of introducing the game in exiting way.
It's definitely not for everyone to play the original these days. I'm gonna revisit new nightmare for sure along with the remake they announced.
damn finally a good essay on AITD, well played sir!!!
You're very welcome! Thanks for checking it out!
Great vid
I had no idea that they tried to get the CoC license from Chaosium! Really fascinating
Can't wait for the AiTD 2 vid
Thank you so much. It was really interesting going through the whole GDC presentation cause you really get an idea of what went on behind the scenes at developers, that's always a big interest of mine when I make these videos. I'll try to get the AitD2 video out soon but I might make another one in between. 😄
An even more interesting bit of trivia, the game Shadow of the Comet and by extension Prisoner of Ice are in the same continuity as this game as one of the books makes references to Shadow of the Comet (and I believe a book in Shadow references Alone in the Dark as well). Shadow and Prisoner both carry the Call of Cthulhu brand.
@@RogueDragon05 That's very interesting. Chaosium actually rejected AitD carrying the CoC branding because they deemed the game too simple. So now you'd be dealing with a continuity where part of the lore is in CoC canon but another part is outside of it.
@@thedadliestman Would get even more confusing if you consider the several different continuities in the AitD franchise itself I suppose. But I doubt they worried to much about that. In any event Shadow defiantly has more in common with Alone1 then its own sequel does at least in so far as "Lovecraftian" elements go.
Just finished it two days ago, such a great game.
15:49 I think you can avoid this zombie too if you won't touch the rug.
There actually is a way to safely read the Necronomicon and De Vermis Mysteriis in the game if you enter the secret room in the library and stand on the pentagram (or Elder Sign more likely) you can safety read both books.
I really hope the new remake turns out at the very least decent, I'd love to see this franchise get back on it's feet.
Same here. I'm very excited about the prospect of this one being updated to a new generation. I just hope there's not going to be an emphasis on combat but more on exploration, that's part of what made the original so great.
@@thedadliestman I agree, a remake of Alone1 is never gonna compete with action heavy RE games, (which I love also) so they shouldn't try and instead focus more on old style survival & atmospheric horror and build up a dedicated fanbase around that. From the looks of things so far I'd say they are going in that direction, I was stoked to find out that Guy Davis from the BPRD comics was working on the monster designs.
nice analysis
Thanks!
Great video 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Great video on a classic that I've returned to a couple of times now. If you play modern games, you should check out the new game. It actually does the original justice.
Is it really? From what I saw from reviews it seemed to be pretty mid so I was waiting for it to go on sale.
@@thedadliestman Most establishment reviews are done through a very contemporary lens that measures something in the genre directly against the likes of a Resident Evil 2 or 4 Remake. It's not an action survival horror game, but it wasn't meant to be. It has heart, style, and atmosphere.
@@Cooldadder Thanks for letting me know! I just hit the buy button to give it a go but it's gonna have to wait until I play the other 2024 releases out of the way. The beginning of this year is wild.
At 2:05 where did this footage come from? Fan vid of a imagined remake? What is the source!?
Iirc it was either and abandoned remake tech demo or a fan remake. I'll see if I still have the link but it'll definitely be harder to find now that the current remake has been announced.
32:21 funny enough I did it first try not even trying XD
Well done! I died a few times on this because it was randomized and I huddled in a corner for too long 😅
@@thedadliestman I guess I got super lucky XD, btw your analysis was awesome, hope to see more videos like this in the future :p
When I was little, I often wondered just what Carnby has done to earn the Reptile nickname - couldn't been just the suit, right? Years later, I've read The Return of the Sorcerer, and to be honest, with a(n assumed) family like that, one would probably end up as cold and unflinching as a reptile.
I never read up on that one, I'll have to check it out!
Alone in the Dark 2 retrospective, please?
Working on it as we speak. Running into some issues with recording from dosbox so I might need to use some existing footage from world of longplays 🙂
The most immersive game I’ve ever played so scary
At long last he can return... after all, we gotta move this refrigerator. We gotta move this color TV! Sorry, the visual design of this game just made me think of a certain music video.
love to see other people also dedicated a video to this classic, come and check my take on it. Hope we can collab on something in the future
I'll definitely check it out!
Zombie chicken? I thought they were werewolves or giant rat beasts.
32:30 "If you touch them youll die instantly." not true. first they turn into those angry spheres THEN they kill you with one hit
That rifle looks an awful lot like a shotgun
Nothing cryptic about those puzzles. Nope. All pretty straight forward if you ask me!
Am I the only one who thinks Raynal looks like Mr.Bean or Mike Mattei?
He does, kinda. It was so hard to find footage of the guy. 😅
i strongly dissagree with alone in the dark being the Grandfather of survival horror as that title goes to sweet home on the NES in 1989
Free reign not free range 😉
Did I actually say that? 😂
how's it a survival horror if it's an absolutely typical adventure game?
there's zero survival, no hunger no thirst no body temperature
Good video but the audio is very, very low!
True, this was my second video so I was still testing stuff out. I do hope it improved in later videos.
@@thedadliestman hey man, don't overdo yourself. I am new to Alone In The Dark franchise, just trying to understand what this world is.
Keep up the amazing work!
@@iamtrying2690 Haha with my release schedule, I don't think overworking is the issue 😂.
Thanks for responding and thanks a bunch for watching!
@@thedadliestman I'll keep an eye out on your uploads man! Keep up the good work!
Also, I noticed your Fatal Frame retrospective, might there be any chance for KuOn and Siren? No pressure tho. 🙂
@@iamtrying2690 Funny you should mention Siren. I don't have plans to go through it myself but tangomushi just dropped a video about Siren.
Here's the link;
czcams.com/video/EIPU6-6LeOk/video.html