Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001)

I played Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare on PC many years ago, but never got very far and remembered almost nothing going back in. Revisiting it now, it immediately feels like a Resident Evil 2–style game: tank controls, stiff movement, questionable voice acting, and two playable characters with different starting points.

One of the first things that threw me off was that the analog stick doesn’t control movement at all—only the D-pad does. Instead, the analog stick controls the flashlight. Once I realized that, I actually found it pretty clever for a 2001 game. The dynamic lighting and shadows are surprisingly effective, and the 3D character models blend well with the prerendered backgrounds.

Saving is limited by amulets you find, but at least you can save anywhere, which is a nice compromise. The story is mostly told through journals, although the game seems to think dumping 17 pages of text on you at once is perfectly reasonable.

Unlike Resident Evil, ammo initially feels plentiful—or so it seems. In practice, even a regular zombie can take three shotgun shells, which quickly changes your perception. Keys are another familiar staple, but here they’re especially annoying: rooms aren’t labeled, Edward doesn’t use keys automatically, and you have to rely on the key descriptions. Those descriptions aren’t always reliable either—a key labeled “1st Floor” can open a door on the second floor.

The moment that really made me stop and reconsider was the Library boss. On my first attempt, I burned through all my ammo and died. I assumed I wasn’t meant to fight it yet, but the doors are locked, so there’s no alternative. The boss occasionally performs a slow-motion attack, but the game never explains what you’re supposed to do. Dodge? Run? After consulting a guide, I learned this is when you’re supposed to counter. I tried again and… wasted all my ammo again. Eventually I found a YouTube video explaining that the boss is actually bugged and needs to be hit on a very specific frame.

Earlier I mentioned ammo being abundant—that’s only half true. It isn’t evenly distributed. By the time I left the mansion and reached the second disc, I was nearly out of everything.

At this point, I wasn’t sure whether the second disc was less playtested, or if I was simply running out of patience. The stone circle puzzle completely stalled me. Carnby says you need to call Eileen to decipher the inscriptions—but when you do, nothing happens. I thought the game had glitched and checked a guide. Apparently, you’re supposed to interpret one of the inscriptions yourself. How exactly I was meant to deduce the correct meaning is anyone’s guess.

Then there’s the statue in the greenhouse. I assumed it needed to be pushed, tried a few times, and concluded I was on the wrong path. Turns out it does need to be pushed—just from a very precise angle.

The final section, where Edward reunites with Eileen and you run through the caves together, is actually quite nice. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last. Edward is quickly pulled into the “World of Darkness,” leaving him alone again.

At first I thought this was some kind of Giger-esque alternate dimension, but since the radio still works, it’s apparently just the caves beneath the island. You’re given a lightning gun, plenty of ammo, and thrown into an area with what feels like endless enemies. It’s not exactly survival horror. What makes this section even stranger is that the developers clearly put effort into creating many unique backgrounds—yet the optimal strategy is to sprint through them as fast as possible to avoid fighting.

The final boss is Alan, now transformed into some kind of hulking zombie. After damaging him enough, you’re able to grab a spear—something the game never really telegraphs—and stab him to death. Because apparently, when a rocket launcher isn’t enough, the real solution is a spear.

By the end, I had zero motivation to play the second scenario. That’s a shame, because Eileen’s playthrough does seem meaningfully different. She starts in a completely different location, and Edward never visits the fort or meets Obed, the “less evil” brother. As a result, major story beats—like Obed’s transformation—are never explained in Edward’s route at all.

This entry rebooted the classic survival horror franchise with a darker, more cinematic tone inspired by Resident Evil. There are two MCs to play (another trait from RE) Edward Carnby or Aline Cedrac, exploring a mysterious island full of supernatural horrors. The game features fixed camera angles, tank controls, and puzzle-solving mixed with combat against shadowy creatures. Its lighting system was a standout for the time, flashlights dynamically illuminated environments, creating a tense atmosphere.

This was especially awesome at the time simply because there was no other game trying to use any lightning mechanics because of the technical limitations of the PlayStation platform. While the atmosphere and graphics were praised, it didn’t quite reach the polish or tension of its genre rivals. Some people criticized it for being more limited compared to other similar games at the time, though in my opinion the limitations makes this unique, not every game should be judged by the same rules since they don't intend to deliver the same experience.

There are plenty of contents o this one since you can play using two MCs, different stories and gameplay, and back in the PlayStation 1 era you had two CDs for this, so there are plenty of a good time to be had here. I highly recommend not skipping this one, I consider it one of the best survival horror of all time, and a must-play for fans of the genre.

After being disappointed with the newest Alone in the Dark remake, I was wondering if any of the older games would still hold up. After a bit of research, the new nightmare seemed to be the best bet - and it definitely was worth a playthrough.

The game that inspired Resident Evil had now been inspired BY resident evil. There’s the classic mansion, inventory puzzles, tank controls, pre-rendered backgrounds, etc. One thing that really impressed me was the flashlight. Somehow they made it work perfectly shining on background assets despite them being flat- I have no idea how.

Generally, the puzzles and mansion layout were pretty great. I definitely have some complaints though. Controls are super janky and unresponsive. A couple puzzles were definitely ridiculously illogical. And man - the ending section was a nightmare.

I wish the game ended after the mansion, but you are forced to go through cave after cave fighting soooo many annoying enemies. This section is completely linear and mindless and takes almost an hour.

I wish the weak ending was not something they borrowed from resident evil, but alas. I have still yet to play the Alene run, maybe it would be less tedious.

To me, it’s a mixed bag. I think it probably deserves more recognition so 3 stars seems fair, but that ending really made me want to give it a 2. Still, if you’re a 90s survival horror fanatic - don’t skip this one.

Importantly, I want to draw attention to the fact this is a review specifically of the GameBoy Color version of this game. There's a Playstation version that from what I've seen looks and plays significantly differently and in such a way it probably is much better and makes for a totally different experience, even though they're treated as ports of the same game. The importance of this preface summarizes my biggest issue with this version of The New Nightmare: while it is in some ways an ambitious title for the GameBoy Color, the platform just isn't the place for this kind of game and it shows, making for a barely playable miserable experience I embarked on more out of curiosity than enjoyment.

While presentation is generally something that can detract or improve a gaming experience for me, it's not usually a make or break aspect of a game's design. Here however, the frankly pretty awful presentation just ruins it. While all of the early Alone in the Dark games I've played feel pretty jank (and felt jank even in their time), the core third-person fixed camera angle style just can't really translate to the GameBoy Color. I haven't played the Playstation version but looking on YouTube, it seems to play in the more traditional style and actually looks like it might be kind of fun (it also appears to be about 4X as long). While you still get the pre-rendered backgrounds your vaguely humanoid pixel sprite walks on top of, the generally-evocative environments of Survival Horror games are reduced to blurry abstract pixel art that if you squint closely enough, you can make out what is supposed to be what for about half of the "assets."

Given the tiny screen/field of vision and pixel counts, the usual third-person Survival Horror combat also proves elusive. Instead of monsters jumping out of the hallways you explore, you get awkward random-ish encounters. I say "ish" as they actually appear scripted to specific areas, but it feels kind of like a classic JRPG where you're transitioned to a totally different screen to fight the enemies when you step onto the spot for one. This combat is plainly not fun and while it does still manage to incorporate resource management (and at least be visually-clearer than the general map-traversal), this gameplay is not fun at all. The AI is simplistically chaotic, making any actual maneuvering vary in effectiveness based on sheer luck. Eventually when you just accept that the combat sections are going to be no better than a prototype for an old arcade shooter, you can just try to plow through them quickly and get it over with.

The rest of the gameplay is a bit more typical of Survival Horror's traversal of a spooky environment looking for clues, keys, and items to put where they go to progress to new areas and enemies. Without the usual on-screen monsters, it ends up feeling like an occasionally-interrupted point-and-click adventure game. The layout of the mansion and this progression I felt was planned okay and the only bit of enjoyment (beyond my academic curiosity in how bafflingly dumb this game was) came from the reward of figuring out where this or that key went, which was often more a matter of trial-and-error than based on any real reasoning. Worse, as you might imagine from my description and screenshots, even making out what things are to try and reason about what items might go where is near-impossible. There's also sort of story scenes but they alternate between barebones simplicity and feeling like you're missing some deeper intriguing plot that's just not there. I think that tacked-on sentence gives the story the attention it warrants and I don't feel much more elaboration is needed.

Generally, I reserve 1-star reviews for games I regret playing, which so far has thankfully been a small category. Technically I wouldn't count this game as meeting that standard as I don't quite "regret" playing it. However, that's really only because I found myself fascinated by how bad this game was and how hard it was still trying to push on. Plus it's not a very long game, maybe 1-2 hours, so there wasn't much of a "wasted time" factor when it was just a 15-minute bedtime ritual for a week. However, I only even picked it up because it was available on Nintendo Switch Online and I might've felt even more negatively had I actually paid money for this. Ugh, I can't imagine getting this game as a kid as one of your few GameBoy Color games and feeling the need to make the most of it. Given I can't really recommend anything about the game, I think the 1-star rating is thus still fitting. However, I will grant that the fact the game even plays at all given the limitations is admittedly impressive in its own right and I'm weirdly tempted to try the Playstation version some day to compare to what they were trying to adapt.

1. Great use of lighting with the pre-rendered backgrounds
2. Creepy atmosphere and good music
3. No "ooomph" when you shoot the enemies, they react the same to a pistol and a shotgun.
4. Didn't save enough bullets for library boss, got frustrated and decided it's not worth restarting

I'm all about saving ammo in a survival horror game but the problem is you can't RUN around the enemies in this game because the corridors are too small so you HAVE to shoot them and waste bullets. Such bullshit!