Welcome back, gaming fans! The Alone in the Dark franchise is returning with a brand new reboot. This re-imagining shares many similarities with the original game, including a big emphasis on puzzles, limited resources, exploration, and challenging encounters with enemies. You choose to play either as Edward Carnby, a hard boiled PI, or Emily Hartwood, a woman who is searching for her missing uncle. They traverse Derceto manor, a mental institution that has a long and dark history. Along the way, they encounter conspiracies, shifts in reality, and Lovecraftian monsters. I was throughly entertained with my experience, but some people might find the gameplay frustrating. Here are my tips and tricks for surviving Alone in the Dark.
Shoot and Run This is a traditional survival horror game. It’s not an action horror game like Resident Evil 4 or Dead Space. That means resources are very scarce and your movement has limitations while shooting. Enemies hit hard and they can take a lot of damage before dying. So, you’re better off shooting a couple of times and then running away to the other side of the area. Rinse and repeat until the enemies are gone in a given location. You’ll take less damage and waste fewer bullets. Check the Map Frequently The map is simple with minimal detail. However, it has useful indicators. The map labels each room and major entrances or exits. Red indicates locked doors or inaccessible areas. Green means the area is now available or unlocked. Rooms become blue after you explored and collected everything. They remain pink when you still need to solve puzzles, collect items, etc. Keep in mind, many puzzles and collectibles only become accessible when you reach certain points of the story progression. Take Some Time to Explore the Environment This game is pretty scary and enemies can lurk anywhere. Granted, it’s still worth your time to explore each location thoroughly. You’ll find collectibles, health potions, ammo, and important items for the story. Overall, this little bit of effort will make you feel more secure during combat sections and you’ll solve puzzles faster. Generally speaking, the game doesn’t have timers except in a couple of sections. Explore at your heart’s content. Alternate Your Weapons Ammunition doesn’t grow on trees in this game. Unfortunately, some enemies are real bullet sponges and it’s necessary to dispose of them to unlock many areas. Alternating your weapons can be an effective way to conserve ammo. You gather a handful of weapons along the way, including a handgun, shotgun, and machine gun. The later part of the game also unlocks a flare gun. The shotgun is useful against stronger enemies. It takes a while to obtain the machine gun, but this weapon can wipe out crowds of monsters. Collect and Read Documents Some of the puzzles feel a bit confusing. It’s necessary to collect documents throughout the environment and read them. Many documents will give you hints, passcodes, and additional information. It will help you solve those pesky puzzles and move through the main story. These documents are worth your time anyway because they provide backstory, lore, and character development. Adjust the Lightening When Necessary I found some areas really dark, especially the nightmare areas that were infested with enemies. You can adjust the lighting in the settings at any time. If the lighting is too dark or bright for your preference, there’s no penalty to make adjustments. You might find enemies hiding somewhere if the environment is a slightly less dark. Also, you’ll find more resources if the lighting is better. Keep Hunting for Resources You might run out of bullets and health items during enemy encounters. I had some luck by running around the environment under pursuit. Sometimes ammo, melee weapons, and health items will randomly spawn in the environment if you’re in a pinch. This game doesn’t include a stamina meter, so keep running! Spam the Dodge Button Here is one of the most useful mechanics during combat. Considering your movement is pretty minimal while firing a gun, it’s essential to avoid enemy attacks. You can dodge incoming attacks at any time. I must say, the dodging mechanic isn’t entirely accurate. Granted, it can be effective if you dodge continually, especially during confrontations with more than one enemy. Again, you don’t have to worry about a stamina meter. Unlock Shortcuts Keep an eye on your map for unlockable doors and passageways. Shortcuts are very handy in Derceto mansion and other locations. These shortcuts can help you save time, backtracking, and avoid unnecessary enemy encounters. It’s worth noting, enemies don’t give you special items upon death. Unlike some horror games, you won’t receive ammo, health items, or EXP. In fact, Alone in the Dark doesn’t feature any RPG mechanics, such as a skill tree, increased health, or weapon upgrades. Always Carry a Melee Weapon The gameplay can be rather clunky, especially the melee combat. It’s definitely more effective to kill enemies with gunfire. With that said, you should still carry a melee weapon at all times. You can easily bring down a single enemy by mashing the melee button. These weapons break after brief use, but you can find more of them scattered through each location. Unfortunately, you can only carry one melee weapon at a time. When your weapon is close to breaking, swap it out with a new one. Talk to NPCs on a Regular Basis The NPC characters are really weird, but they have a lot of useful information. The employees and patients of Derceto manor will provide important details for story progression, collectibles, lore, and more. Some people enjoy playing as both Edward and Emily because the NPCs give different conversations depending on the protagonist. Keep in mind, many conversations are not optional. You’ll wander around lost until a specific conversation unlocks the next objective. Save Your Progress Often Don’t you hate hard crashes and game breaking bugs? Modern video games are far from perfect and many of them have a problem with serious glitches. You can save your progression manually at any time. The game also provides many auto saves throughout the story. If the game crashes or you encounter a mysterious roadblock, simply go back to an earlier manual or auto save. This method should solve your issues. Avoid Useless Mechanics A couple of things don’t work very well in this game. You can use Molotov cocktails to save ammo. However, they don’t usually cause a fire until you fire a bullet to ignite the fluid. That means you’ll waste a bullet anyway. Also, the enemies will run after you while they’re on fire. When they get close enough, you’ll catch on fire too. I don’t think the stealth mechancis are very good. Technically, you can sneak around some enemies, but they found me most of the time. There’s no such thing as stealth kills either. If you sneak around enemies, they will remain in the environment. The game has one mandatory stealth section if you play as Emily, but it works because the environment has hiding places. If You Have Enough Ammo, Kill Everything Sometimes you can’t kill every monster. In fact, a couple locations have invincible stalker enemies. However, it’s best if you can clear all of the enemies in a location. This game requires a lot of backtracking and you should feel motivated to search for resources or key story items. Your life will be a lot easier if the enemies are dead when you’re looking for puzzle pieces, collectibles, the next doorway, etc. Ordinarily, enemies don’t respawn until you reach the next area, so you don’t have to worry about extra surprises. Play Around with Difficulty Settings It’s hard to pinpoint the best difficulty setting at first. Very few modern gamers are used to old fashioned horror games. Alone in the Dark has traditional easy, normal, and hard difficulty settings. Combat feels janky, especially at the beginning. So, I wouldn’t recommend starting on hard mode. You might want to start on normal or easy mode and bring the difficulty up if the game doesn’t feel challenging enough. Luckily, you have the opportunity to adjust the difficulty settings at any time. There you go! Now you’re ready to explore Derceto manor, unlock secrets, and destroy every monster in the game. Leave a comment if you have anything to say about this post. Maybe you know a few hints and suggestions as well. Thank you for visiting my blog and happy hunting!
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May 2019
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