Alone in the Dark Quietly Paved the Way for the Future of Horror Games While I understand the temptation to throw Resident Evil under the bus when talking about the various ways that Alone in the Dark “did it first,” that’s not really fair to either game. It’s easy enough to see how Resident Evil’s improved visuals and various gameplay refinements made it the mainstream hit Alone in the Dark wasn’t. As we’ve previously pointed out, Alone in the Dark really just showed Cap com how to make a 3D version of Sweet Home. Still, Alone in the Dark has to be considered one of the most fascinating examples of how you don’t have to be too far ahead of your time to still be ahead of your time. With its tank-like controls, fixed camera system, blend of puzzles and combat, and even the way it utilized a kind of haunted house setting, Alone in the Dark offered a shockingly clear look at what the survival horror genre would become. It’s truly incredible to play this game today and realize it’s not some kind of “remake” of a more modern horror title, but rather a title that took horror gaming to a new level at a time when the idea that a game could be genuinely scary was still up for debate. Mind you, Alone in the Dark wasn’t perfect. Honestly, the game was considered to be technically rough even in its day. Its developers were aware of the game’s many technical shortcomings and feared that people would reject the experience outright because of them. Some reviewers at the time pointed those issues out, but most were more impressed by Alone in the Dark's boldness and the ways it showed how much its studio loved that genre. Beyond its technical innovations, the thing that really set Alone in the Dark apart was the ways it managed to establish tension through moments of quiet and relative peace. So many other games that came before just threw vaguely scary things at you like you were in a fun house, while Alone in the Dark took the time to let you breathe and really dread what would happen next. Just walking around the game’s mansion was more terrifying than pretty much every horror game that came before. Alone in the Dark sold fairly well, but it was perhaps a bit too technically demanding, too different, and too “slow” to be more widely appreciated in its time. It’s truly a shame that so many future Alone in the Dark titles struggled to evolve the elegant form of atmospheric horror that makes the original Alone in the Dark still stand tall against Resident Evil (and so many other horror titles) all these years later. Much like Alone in the Dark, it's always a little sad/surprising that the Ultimo franchise doesn't really have much of a presence in the modern gaming industry and is really only remembered by gamers of a certain age in the same year.
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