Alone in the Dark hands-on

Friday 12 May 2006
"Only Resident Evil 4 has driven survival-horror forwards." So says Eden, the developer of Alone in the Dark for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. As arguably the great granddaddy of the entire survival-horror genre, Alone in the Dark hasn't really fulfilled its horrifying potential until now, but this next-gen regeneration of the classic series is already impressive enough to make us forget that Resi 5 hasn't even turned up to E3 2006.

The game takes place in New York, where a terrifying force has erupted from underneath Central Park and torn through the city. Alone in the Dark is massively ambitious - the game takes place in the whole of Central Park, as a free-roaming open environment, as you search for the paranormal power hidden somewhere under the park.

Above: The game takes place in Central Park where a paranormal power is hidden somewhere under the park

We were treated to a collection of real-time demos, showing off both the gameplay dynamics and the new technological wonders behind the scenes. The watchword for this dose of scare-tastic action is immersion, something we saw immediately as Alone in the Dark's hero, Edward Carnaby, woke up blindfolded in the first demo.

Like Half-Life, the game keeps you involved even during cutscenes, and we watched as the blindfold was removed and Atari's guide used the analogue sticks to blink and clear the character's vision.

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.