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Alone in the Dark Developer: Infogrames Publisher: I-Motion Year: 1993 It's often difficult to trace an entire genre back to a single seminal game, but Infogrames' action-adventure Alone in the Dark is one of the rare cases in which the game's influence is perfectly clear. It single-handedly created what's often referred to as the survival-horror genre: the third-person, horror-themed action-adventure game characterized by its moody, atmospheric settings and gameplay that consists of equal parts action and puzzle-solving. Alone in the Dark was inspired by the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, an author whose work was similarly influential on horror writing. It's true that survival-horror games have become much more popular on video game consoles than on the PC, largely due to the success of Capcom's Resident Evil games, which were clearly inspired by Alone in the Dark. Like Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil featured fully polygonal characters, which moved through static, prerendered 2D environments that were depicted using unconventional camera perspectives. Likewise, both games generated tension and suspense with these often- claustrophobic camera angles, which made you feel trapped and confined together with monstrous enemies. Both games also rationed your spare ammunition in such a way that you always made your every shot count and that you were always wary of the distinct possibility that you'd run out of bullets long before you ran out of things to shoot. There've been seemingly countless console games that have used variations of this same formula, including multiple Resident Evil sequels, Capcom's own Dino Crisis, Squaresoft's Parasite Eve series, Konami's Silent Hill, and more.
On the PC, Alone in the Dark's influence has been much more subtle. But at the same time, PC game players would sooner recognize the game's influence than would console game players, who are understandably more likely to credit the commercial success of Resident Evil over the innovation of Alone in the Dark. PC game players might easily attribute every instance of multiple fixed-camera perspectives in games back to Alone in the Dark. This cinematic style of graphical presentation has been used in many adventure games after Alone in the Dark, including critically acclaimed favorites such as Origin's BioForge and LucasArts' Grim Fandango. More specifically, during the course of the '90s, PC games were divided into two distinct styles of presentation. One of these became popular with the advent of first-person shooters: The first-person perspective was ideal for immersing you into the game and for making you truly feel as if you were part of the game's environment. The second of these became popular as a result of Alone in the Dark, which portrayed game events from the deliberate, intentional perspective of the game designer rather than from the player's perspective. As a result, games that have adopted Alone in the Dark's style of cinematic, third-person camera views are often quickly labeled more artistic than first-person games in which your perspective is continually shifting.
Alone in the Dark also pioneered the now ubiquitous use of 3D polygonal character models in games. Although the characters in the original Alone in the Dark were flat-shaded and blocky, 3D graphics since then have become exponentially more lifelike. But it's thanks in part to Alone in the Dark's evocative 3D models and animations that 3D characters now look realistic.
Because Alone in the Dark was such an excellent and atmospheric game, it spawned two sequels in subsequent years. There's also a new Alone in the Dark sequel, which is now nearing completion. However, it remains to be seen whether the series will have the same impact in this decade as it did in the last.
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