UGO writes: "Many gamers are going to buy Eden Studios' Alone in the Dark and instantly take a liking to the game's all together different approach. The episodic format, the highly stylized cinematic set pieces, the HUD-free presentation, the first/third person gameplay, the 1:1 analog controls for two-handed weapons... there's a lot of forward-thinking stuff to latch on to. However, no matter how enthusiastic the gamer, all will eventually be given pause. Maybe it's a car getting inexplicably lodged in some invisible part of the environment. Maybe it's a needless death because the camera didn't catch up to the action quickly enough. Maybe, just maybe, the game will even crash and take with it any progress you've made in an episode. These problems will occur, and then most will pop up again. In the end, the gamer will walk away in a state of disappointment, saddened over the wasted promise of so many great ideas."
Alone in the Dark developer Pieces Interactive has been hit with layoffs a month after its release, as per the latest information.
That genuinely, genuinely sucks. The reboot has clear flaws, but it really felt like a solid first step for this team to receive *greater* investment.
That's standard. Teams are together for a Project, after its done some..and sometimes most devs are fired until the next Project is in the works and people are needed again. Only the core members stay in the time between the hot phase of the game development.
What’s annoying is people don’t understand how contractors work, either. All of this is uninformed knee-jerk reactions without any understanding of how employment works in this industry. There are key developers and staff that stay with a studio/publisher, but often times it’s a hire per project and then seeking new employment for a project. That’s how it’s always been…
That's a fair point too. I would say that in light of its tepid critical/commercial response and ongoing mass layoffs across the industry I think it's understandable for fans to worry about the longer-term implications. We'll see how it plays out in the future.
VGChartz's Lee Mehr: "In one sense, it feels strange to even think Pieces Interactive had big shoes to fill with this series' legacy. Given what's come before, did it really? And yet, even when considering the last two flops over a two-decade span, there's still something about Alone in the Dark emblazoned on a title screen that carries a sense of revered history. In that respect, perhaps this reboot's best accomplishment is in honoring that spirit through its inventive world. It's also fair to emphasize knocks against its survival-horror design, some puzzle-solving, and so on; it certainly won't be considered a trendsetter like the 1992 classic. Still, the amount of goodwill wedded to its brighter qualities makes for something that dawdles the line between unfortunately-flawed and impressively-enticing."
The new Alone in the Dark remake doesn't do anything especially noteworthy, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's just... cromulent.
