Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Alone in the Dark: Illumination is the sixth entry in the AitD series, a supposed reboot to the series that also doubles as a remake to the failed previous 'reboot' of the series, the 2008 Alone in the Dark game. The game supposedly releases late this year (or in the next couple months) at Holiday 2014, but the developer and publisher have been so quiet on this game and there is so little information (and the information that is happens to be so scattered around), that I feel that even those that are aware of this game's existence really don't know what it is.
Being a horror enthusiast, I decided to take the plunge and pre-order the game. But after pre-ordering, I got really curious to look more into the game as there has been very little said at all about it, and honestly I knew next to nothing about it. After much research, I've come to know a bit more about it, I kind of want to compile this all in one place (something the developer and publisher seem to not be doing quite yet), and really I just kind of want to discuss this game. Also some new information was released and the game has a very limited pre-order promotion sale on Steam to November 3rd.
Alone in the Dark: Illumination Teaser Trailer
Alone in the Dark: Illumination is being developed by a new studio called 'Pure FPS', which includes people who worked on Dead Island, BioShock Infinite, and Battlefield. They seem to be stationed in Europe, as the website lists all the credits of the game to be under Atari Europe. The game is being developed with the Unreal Engine 4. Like the game, the team itself is rather mysterious, lacking some fleshed out details.
However, despite the name of the company, Alone in the Dark: Illumination is not actually a FPS. It has a camera-angle akin to something like Resident Evil 4, but pulled back (this is from the single clip of gameplay of the game that was shown at the recent Alienware News Stream on October 27th, where the game was shown briefly. However, it was off-camera and off-focus, terrible quality, and you can't really tell too much, but it at least made it 100% certain the game has a RE4-esque camera rather than a FPS one).
The game in question is a action-horror title, though with elements of a survival-horror game. It also is another attempt at rebooting the Alone in the Dark franchise, but also is a remake, specifically of the 2008 Alone in the Dark game, which they seem to want to try and do better.
Before we had any real information on the game, we had these screens:
When these screens were released a few months ago, Atari described the game as an action survival-horror game, which has a co-op feature and focus. Players take the role of one of four characters, each with different 'roles', weapons, abilities, and story. To break them down simply...
To copy and paste some descriptions;
The Hunter
As a direct descendant of Edward Carnby, a hero of the original Alone in the Dark, the Hunter grew up enthralled by the adventures of the “Supernatural Private Eye.” He knew every detail of every case, including the notes of the strange creatures encountered. His grandfather was his mentor and as such the Hunter vowed that he too would help rid the world of the evil Darkness.
Primary Weapons and Abilities: AK47, M4, P90, Flamethrower.
The Witch
Primary Weapons and Abilities: Colt, Lightning Strike, Creature Control, Lightning Crawler.
The Priest
The son of the nation’s most influential religious leaders, the Priest trained from a young age to combat the forces of darkness. With his enhanced abilities to heal and purify even the most extreme cases, the Priest has become a leading warrior in the never-ending battle against the darkness.
Primary Weapons and Abilities: Heaven and Hell, The Lord’s Blinding Light, Cleansing of the Sinners, The Binding Word.
The Engineer
The daughter of the Chief Engineer of the world’s leading computer hardware manufacturer, the Engineer was born to work with electronics. While other children played with plastic blocks, she was making remote-controlled robots from parts she found in her father’s work shed. Making gadgets filled up the Engineer’s free time. Her goal is to create mechanical items which could rival her father’s groundbreaking work.
Primary Weapons and Abilities: Beretta, Pump Shotgun, Tesla Wall, Comet.
----
...So basically, it's a class-based action-horror game with a co-op focus, and that's about as far as you'll get looking into the game's official sources. That and the game supposedly has a large Lovecraft theme, especially in its monsters, and takes place in the town of Lorwich, Virginia (fictional).
However, there is more loose information on the game, it's just been scattered around.
The game actually does have a single player mode, but I guess somewhere along the way they decided to focus on the co-op mode. The story mode revolves minions of Cthulhu kidnapping friends of the Hunter (who you start off with), and you have to go rescue them. As you rescue them, you unlock them for use in single-player, and probably build up to a finale with Cthulhu as he's the big baddie at play here it seems (or is he?).
However, if you play co-op, then everyone's together from the get-go, but it follows the same levels... Kind of. Apparently, a big feature in this game is some randomization features. Enemies will be random, but also level design and course will be random. A simple example given by the dev, in one playthrough of the level a door may be open, but in the next it may be locked. There will be multiple possible paths through levels, and more possible random enemy set-ups from that. On-top of this, the levels have a dynamic quality to them and actions made in the levels can drastically change the levels themselves. They have not fully gotten into details of what this means, but it's a heavily advertised feature that the levels will change dynamically and what paths you take or what happens in the level based on things you choose or change in the environment
The game follows a Left 4 Dead structure, where there are four campaigns with multiple levels in each campaign. While the levels can change drastically, there is a set point A and point B, and you ultimately fight your way to point B to a L4D-style safehouse. However, a slight twist here is that the safehouses have large heft vault-like doors that will slowly open, making them potential 'last stand' spots as you hold off and wait for the door to open.
And then there's the enemies themselves, listed as Lovecraftian based. The enemies specifically named are Roof Walkers, Shapes, Spawns, Goblins, Demons, Ghouls, Hell Hounds and Reapers. However, we've only seen two of these (the one in the above screenshot, and one in an upcoming screenshot below). And there's a twist here that changes the gameplay dynamically and makes it something more akin to Alan Wake. Apparently, the enemies are a force known as 'The Darkness', and are impervious in the dark. You need to destroy their shadow barriers, and use the environment to your advantage, as well as the difference between light and dark. Some enemies can't be killed unless they're bathed in strong light. Characters can create light sources in different ways based on what class you play as. You can also use the environment to create light sources, or use your weapons to reveal light or to create some sort of light source. An example, the Hunter has a flamethrower. It burns out quickly, but he can burn enemies with it, which is effective as it creates light and sets them ablaze... But he can also burn certain things in the environment, which creates light that stays around much longer, and can be used for a very different purpose. Similar things exists for all the characters.
Also, from a few previews that have been released from people who played it behind closed door at PAX Prime, they claim that while the game is an action game, it has some design stuff similar to a survival-horror game. For example, apparently in the demo they played, ammo was very scarce, and actually it was sometimes much better to run and try to evade your foes that take them on, or keep them back with light and other environmental things.
These screenshots were also just released:
The game also has been put up on pre-order on Steam, and apparently has a limited time 'Eldritch Edition'' for those who pre-order before a specific date:
Apparently includes some costumes, gun skins, and access to the beta of the game, which goes live in late November.
Basically, the vibes I understand from those who have been played, those who will share, is that this game is essentially Left 4 Dead x Alan Wake x Lovecraft, with a Alone in the Dark paint. I don't find that a bad thing, but to see how the game itself is (which I guess I'll know sooner than most, as I decided to blindly pre-purchase it, so will be getting into the beta).
---
What I'm curious about is why they're being so hush on not just this game, but a couple other projects they're working on. The couple impressions that played both games had neither particularly negative and neither had a real PR spin on it either, it sounded like they thought it was interesting and solid and be interesting to see where it goes, but the developers have shown nothing to how it goes so far. I expect they may loosen their lips some come to the fact the beta starts in less than a month and you can now pre-order the game. But the game seems so far under the public radar right now, in big part because Alone in the Dark is hardly a household name these days nor does recent entries in the series (by recent, I mean 6 years ago of course) give reason for confidence, that this silence seems weird, but is it to hide a crappy game, bad marketing, to keep the game illusive as opposed to illuminated, do they have faith in the word-to-mouth the game may spread?
Many will write it off simply for the fact it's a co-op action-horror game, but I think it sounds promising enough if you're okay with a horror-action co-op game, I'm just wondering if it can deliver on its ideas, and I sort of want to talk about it. I have found myself strangely intrigued by the title, maybe for the fact it's so ambiguous right now. Wanted to sort of collect everything we know, as well as post the new screenshots and pre-order beta deal.
Sound interesting or promising, sounds terrible and misguided, could be fun, likely going to be terrible? What say you GAF, to Alone in the Dark: Illumination?
Being a horror enthusiast, I decided to take the plunge and pre-order the game. But after pre-ordering, I got really curious to look more into the game as there has been very little said at all about it, and honestly I knew next to nothing about it. After much research, I've come to know a bit more about it, I kind of want to compile this all in one place (something the developer and publisher seem to not be doing quite yet), and really I just kind of want to discuss this game. Also some new information was released and the game has a very limited pre-order promotion sale on Steam to November 3rd.
Alone in the Dark: Illumination Teaser Trailer
Alone in the Dark: Illumination is being developed by a new studio called 'Pure FPS', which includes people who worked on Dead Island, BioShock Infinite, and Battlefield. They seem to be stationed in Europe, as the website lists all the credits of the game to be under Atari Europe. The game is being developed with the Unreal Engine 4. Like the game, the team itself is rather mysterious, lacking some fleshed out details.
However, despite the name of the company, Alone in the Dark: Illumination is not actually a FPS. It has a camera-angle akin to something like Resident Evil 4, but pulled back (this is from the single clip of gameplay of the game that was shown at the recent Alienware News Stream on October 27th, where the game was shown briefly. However, it was off-camera and off-focus, terrible quality, and you can't really tell too much, but it at least made it 100% certain the game has a RE4-esque camera rather than a FPS one).
The game in question is a action-horror title, though with elements of a survival-horror game. It also is another attempt at rebooting the Alone in the Dark franchise, but also is a remake, specifically of the 2008 Alone in the Dark game, which they seem to want to try and do better.
Before we had any real information on the game, we had these screens:
When these screens were released a few months ago, Atari described the game as an action survival-horror game, which has a co-op feature and focus. Players take the role of one of four characters, each with different 'roles', weapons, abilities, and story. To break them down simply...
To copy and paste some descriptions;
The Hunter
As a direct descendant of Edward Carnby, a hero of the original Alone in the Dark, the Hunter grew up enthralled by the adventures of the “Supernatural Private Eye.” He knew every detail of every case, including the notes of the strange creatures encountered. His grandfather was his mentor and as such the Hunter vowed that he too would help rid the world of the evil Darkness.
Primary Weapons and Abilities: AK47, M4, P90, Flamethrower.
The Witch
The Witch is the great-granddaughter of Emily Hartwood, the heroine of the original Alone in the Dark. After her various other-worldly encounters with Edward Carnby, Emily Hartwood began to dabble in the supernatural world. But unlike other occult practitioners she met, Emily learned only what she needed to protect herself. Her great-granddaughter, the Witch, followed in her footsteps and also studied the supernatural arts. From a young age, the Witch had a natural gift for magic, and her abilities far surpassed those of her other family members. The Witch swore to use her abilities to help others, and help protect the world from evil forces, such as those that terrorized her family.
Primary Weapons and Abilities: Colt, Lightning Strike, Creature Control, Lightning Crawler.
The Priest
The son of the nation’s most influential religious leaders, the Priest trained from a young age to combat the forces of darkness. With his enhanced abilities to heal and purify even the most extreme cases, the Priest has become a leading warrior in the never-ending battle against the darkness.
Primary Weapons and Abilities: Heaven and Hell, The Lord’s Blinding Light, Cleansing of the Sinners, The Binding Word.
The Engineer
The daughter of the Chief Engineer of the world’s leading computer hardware manufacturer, the Engineer was born to work with electronics. While other children played with plastic blocks, she was making remote-controlled robots from parts she found in her father’s work shed. Making gadgets filled up the Engineer’s free time. Her goal is to create mechanical items which could rival her father’s groundbreaking work.
Primary Weapons and Abilities: Beretta, Pump Shotgun, Tesla Wall, Comet.
----
...So basically, it's a class-based action-horror game with a co-op focus, and that's about as far as you'll get looking into the game's official sources. That and the game supposedly has a large Lovecraft theme, especially in its monsters, and takes place in the town of Lorwich, Virginia (fictional).
However, there is more loose information on the game, it's just been scattered around.
The game actually does have a single player mode, but I guess somewhere along the way they decided to focus on the co-op mode. The story mode revolves minions of Cthulhu kidnapping friends of the Hunter (who you start off with), and you have to go rescue them. As you rescue them, you unlock them for use in single-player, and probably build up to a finale with Cthulhu as he's the big baddie at play here it seems (or is he?).
However, if you play co-op, then everyone's together from the get-go, but it follows the same levels... Kind of. Apparently, a big feature in this game is some randomization features. Enemies will be random, but also level design and course will be random. A simple example given by the dev, in one playthrough of the level a door may be open, but in the next it may be locked. There will be multiple possible paths through levels, and more possible random enemy set-ups from that. On-top of this, the levels have a dynamic quality to them and actions made in the levels can drastically change the levels themselves. They have not fully gotten into details of what this means, but it's a heavily advertised feature that the levels will change dynamically and what paths you take or what happens in the level based on things you choose or change in the environment
The game follows a Left 4 Dead structure, where there are four campaigns with multiple levels in each campaign. While the levels can change drastically, there is a set point A and point B, and you ultimately fight your way to point B to a L4D-style safehouse. However, a slight twist here is that the safehouses have large heft vault-like doors that will slowly open, making them potential 'last stand' spots as you hold off and wait for the door to open.
And then there's the enemies themselves, listed as Lovecraftian based. The enemies specifically named are Roof Walkers, Shapes, Spawns, Goblins, Demons, Ghouls, Hell Hounds and Reapers. However, we've only seen two of these (the one in the above screenshot, and one in an upcoming screenshot below). And there's a twist here that changes the gameplay dynamically and makes it something more akin to Alan Wake. Apparently, the enemies are a force known as 'The Darkness', and are impervious in the dark. You need to destroy their shadow barriers, and use the environment to your advantage, as well as the difference between light and dark. Some enemies can't be killed unless they're bathed in strong light. Characters can create light sources in different ways based on what class you play as. You can also use the environment to create light sources, or use your weapons to reveal light or to create some sort of light source. An example, the Hunter has a flamethrower. It burns out quickly, but he can burn enemies with it, which is effective as it creates light and sets them ablaze... But he can also burn certain things in the environment, which creates light that stays around much longer, and can be used for a very different purpose. Similar things exists for all the characters.
Also, from a few previews that have been released from people who played it behind closed door at PAX Prime, they claim that while the game is an action game, it has some design stuff similar to a survival-horror game. For example, apparently in the demo they played, ammo was very scarce, and actually it was sometimes much better to run and try to evade your foes that take them on, or keep them back with light and other environmental things.
These screenshots were also just released:
The game also has been put up on pre-order on Steam, and apparently has a limited time 'Eldritch Edition'' for those who pre-order before a specific date:
Apparently includes some costumes, gun skins, and access to the beta of the game, which goes live in late November.
Basically, the vibes I understand from those who have been played, those who will share, is that this game is essentially Left 4 Dead x Alan Wake x Lovecraft, with a Alone in the Dark paint. I don't find that a bad thing, but to see how the game itself is (which I guess I'll know sooner than most, as I decided to blindly pre-purchase it, so will be getting into the beta).
---
What I'm curious about is why they're being so hush on not just this game, but a couple other projects they're working on. The couple impressions that played both games had neither particularly negative and neither had a real PR spin on it either, it sounded like they thought it was interesting and solid and be interesting to see where it goes, but the developers have shown nothing to how it goes so far. I expect they may loosen their lips some come to the fact the beta starts in less than a month and you can now pre-order the game. But the game seems so far under the public radar right now, in big part because Alone in the Dark is hardly a household name these days nor does recent entries in the series (by recent, I mean 6 years ago of course) give reason for confidence, that this silence seems weird, but is it to hide a crappy game, bad marketing, to keep the game illusive as opposed to illuminated, do they have faith in the word-to-mouth the game may spread?
Many will write it off simply for the fact it's a co-op action-horror game, but I think it sounds promising enough if you're okay with a horror-action co-op game, I'm just wondering if it can deliver on its ideas, and I sort of want to talk about it. I have found myself strangely intrigued by the title, maybe for the fact it's so ambiguous right now. Wanted to sort of collect everything we know, as well as post the new screenshots and pre-order beta deal.
Sound interesting or promising, sounds terrible and misguided, could be fun, likely going to be terrible? What say you GAF, to Alone in the Dark: Illumination?
