Alone In The Dark: Illumination

humanji

Hey kids, remember Alone In The Dark?

Atari don't.

http://www.gamespot.com/videos/why-alone-in-the-dark-illumination-isn-t-looking-t/2300-6423420/

It seems strange that at a time when survival horror is having a bit of a resurgence that Atari would rather contract apparent newcomer Pure FPS to develop what seems to be a mix of Resident Evil 4 and Left For Dead with less atmosphere.

I'm no expert, but it seems a hell of a misstep to try and latch on to the 3rd person shooter market when even just a HD remake of the original would have people throwing money at them. Probably the idea of some marketing manager who took a look at the latest games with the biggest budgets and said "Me too!".

It's a pity, really. I loved the originals. The New Nightmare wasn't bad and had some great ideas in it. Even the last game wasn't terrible. It too had some great ideas. Went a little over board in trying to make it feel like a Hollywood blockbuster, but it seemed like something new.

But now they just seem to have given up even trying to make a game of the Uwe Boll film.

cherryghost

The ideas it brings to the table is 10 years too late.

gizmo

It's not in the least bit surprising to be honest. Atari, as they exist today, are not the Atari we knew and loved. They're basically a holding company for a bunch of IPs they have no real right to even touch. Case in point, farming out the once awesome Alone in the Dark IP to an untested developer made up of former staff from Plastic Piranha who were responsible for this nonsense.

Hell, even from the first snippet of gameplay in the trailer on the Steam page, they've managed to make Unreal Engine 4 look bland.

Retr0gamer

Atari are just a rebadged infogrames. I'm amazed they are trying to reboot this after the last game which was an absolute travesty and a bug ridden mess. I'm still interested in where this is going since it looks like a complete reboot.

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Atari are just a rebadged infogrames. I'm amazed they are trying to reboot this after the last game which was an absolute travesty and a bug ridden mess. I'm still interested in where this is going since it looks like a complete reboot.

The bargain bin, most likely.

muppetkiller

After the shambles this developer left Nether I'll be staying well clear till long after reviews are out.

Retr0gamer

Actually didn't Atari release that shambles of a horror game recently, it ended up on Jim Sterling's worst of 2014 list iirc. Hmm...

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Actually didn't Atari release that shambles of a horror game recently, it ended up on Jim Sterling's worst of 2014 list iirc. Hmm...

Yup, a second attempt at rebooting of the old 2600 game, Haunted House. The first one was this. Confused doesn't really cover that one either.

K.O.Kiki

muppetkiller wrote: »

After the shambles this developer left Nether I'll be staying well clear till long after reviews are out.

Sometimes I feel sorry for the 1-2 guys in a dev house with talent who have to work with guys who are just average (or plain bad) at their jobs.

Also, I wonder how much this could be fixed by throwing more money at it.

Retr0gamer

After going for a lot of interviews with developers it's amazing how many spoofer coders there are. When the guy that's had 6 months coding experience is far better than you they like to sabotage your interview

muppetkiller

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Sometimes I feel sorry for the 1-2 guys in a dev house with talent who have to work with guys who are just average (or plain bad) at their jobs.

Also, I wonder how much this could be fixed by throwing more money at it.

I wouldn't mind but Nether could be a classic. I can't remember how many hours i've invested in that game but the hacking made it so frustrating.

Mal-Adjusted

After watching that video, this is definately one to avoid. It comes off as every-third-person-shooter-ever, mixed in with sortof the combat mechanics of Alan Wake. I suspect that it was an original game at one point but was thrown into an old, non-relevant (but still well known)franchise to add a bit of interest to it, the way Yager Development's "The line" became a Spec:Ops game.
Because let's be honest...based on that video, if this was just called Illumination and wasn't connected to AitD, would anyone give it a second glance?

gizmo

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

After watching that video, this is definately one to avoid. It comes off as every-third-person-shooter-ever, mixed in with sortof the combat mechanics of Alan Wake. I suspect that it was an original game at one point but was thrown into an old, non-relevant (but still well known)franchise to add a bit of interest to it, the way Yager Development's "The line" became a Spec:Ops game.
Because let's be honest...based on that video, if this was just called Illumination and wasn't connected to AitD, would anyone give it a second glance?

Given the fact it's been built with Unreal Engine 4 it's unlikely that it's another game re-purposed for the licence. With that in mind it's even more unforgivable that this was built from the ground up to be a new Alone in the Dark game. Then again, its original name was Alone in the Dark: Online before it got the Illumination suffix. Make of that what you will.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

After going for a lot of interviews with developers it's amazing how many spoofer coders there are. When the guy that's had 6 months coding experience is far better than you they like to sabotage your interview

This game studio interviews or general programming, Retr0gamer? I remember you had started doing some dev awhile back, was curious to know if you had kept it up.

Retr0gamer

gizmo wrote: »

This game studio interviews or general programming, Retr0gamer? I remember you had started doing some dev awhile back, was curious to know if you had kept it up.

Game studio programmer interviews. Managed to get a lucky break in science which is where my phd is so I'm back doing that but bit tipping away at my own game project. If that ever gets finished is another story.

Star Lord

gizmo wrote: »

Then again, its original name was Alone in the Dark: Online before it got the Illumination suffix.

There's the root of the problem right there.

Mr Freeze

I played the Alone in the Dark 2008 game.

Not a hope will I play another one after that complete mess of a game.