Five minute read for two minute game (Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (GB))

Member Name: thole09

Product:	Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (GB)
Date:	22/01/09 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Graphics, Gameplay

Disadvantages: Short duration

"Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare" is described as a title from the "survival horror" genre of video games. As one might assume the player must "survive" something of a horror type fiction; creepy crawlers and other types of "evil" definitely follow the title heavily. This game comes across to me as a murder mystery in the introduction. The player's main character, Edward Carnby, embarks on a mission to uncover the truth about the questionable death surrounding a close friend. The plot then quickly shifts to mention a statuette believed to hold mystical powers used by remote tribal Indians. It is the player's quest to recover this statuette and unlock its power.

Text is featured heavily throughout this game, so literacy skills are essential. The player will frequently find him or herself engaging with numerous lines of text in order to be guided through the wasteland. I found these areas of reading to be excessive, intrusive and felt they took away from the general gameplay experience.

Gameplay itself is simple and requires no learning curve. The player will guide his or her character using the arrow keys through the area, and be instructed how to use recovered items using the "A" and "B" keys. There are areas of combat to repel evil creatures and this, too, was simple to master. The character is initially equipped with a small revolver which I found easy to "aim" and fire. The majority of this game features a following camera view suitable for the area being investigated whereas battle scenes are from a third person overhead view.

Graphics are good in this game, as the title was "ported" from pre-existing data. The game can be described as 3D which isn't often seen on the Gameboy Color console. I found some of the graphical areas to be blotchy but the overall impression of the video was good.

There are not much to review by the way of sound in this title. While in the wilderness there are a few animal calls and environmental sounds, but that is about as detailed as the audio becomes throughout the game. It is a rather enjoyable listen as the sound effects are appropriate for the areas. There are also fragments of music while reading through the text.

Overall this product is acceptable but not particularly engaging. I found it to be a simple and brief game which ended before it "really started". The title would likely be more geared towards an adult audience due to the necessity of reading frequently; although I found myself "skipping over" these parts a lot. I don't feel that younger children would enjoy this title due to the slower pace, text heavy style in which this was presented.

Summary: "Thumbs in the middle"