Our Alone in the Dark review is now up, and sadly, Ed Smith has come away from the experience thoroughly disappointed. That’s in large part due to how pivotal the original Alone in the Dark series was in establishing the rules and aesthetics of modern survival horror. Fortunately, those games can still be played, and you can own the original series (and more!) for less than the price of a cup of chicory coffee at Café Du Monde.
You’ll want to start out with the original trilogy, which Infogrames first published in 1992. These are the games that introduced Derceto, the grand old Louisiana mansion afflicted with a curse straight out of HP Lovecraft, to which the modern Alone in the Dark returns.
The classic detective game trilogy has been available on GOG for years, and you can pick that up DRM-free for $5.99 USD / £4.79 GPB (or your regional equivalent).
However, there’s a cheaper way to grab these classics – you’ll just need to buy another Alone in the Dark game to go with them. The 2008 installment in the series sees series protagonist Edward Carnby lost and injured in a spooky version of New York’s Central Park, and it trades the fixed-camera adventure perspective of the original games for a swappable first-person/third-person shooter format.
The 2008 Alone in the Dark has its flaws, but it also had some cool ideas that were pretty cutting edge at the time. Edward can pick up all kinds of environmental objects and use them as melee weapons, or combine them in some cases to create deadlier weapons. You can start fires, which will spread if left alone.
Steam offers the Alone in the Dark Anthology package, which includes Alone in the Dark (2008) as well as the original trilogy – which are unavailable on Steam outside of this bundle. It’s currently 90% off, making the four-game bundle just $1.49 USD / £1.09 GPB.
Check out our list of the best horror games to play right now, or if you’re thinking about diving into the latest entry in the series, check out the Alone in the Dark system requirements to make sure your PC is up to speed. Don’t forget to check out the aforementioned Alone in the Dark review, too.
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