In contemporary terms, to enjoy Alone In The Dark requires deliberate concessions for it's age. If you are willing to show it's foibles leniency, a respect will quickly form.
Released several years prior, as well as a direct influence for the Resident Evil franchise, while clunky and frustrating, it's actually does better in some respects.
The voice work for example, laughable in Resident Evil, is for the most part competent with mature use of linguistics.
The enemies, rather than a consistent steam leading to familiarity are used sparingly, focusing on tension and atmosphere which generally would not arise until the arrival of Silent Hill.
The combat, though unwieldy, retains a focus primarily on scavenging and close quarter melee, which wouldn't arise in a horror game until System Shock 2 and Silent Hill in 1999.
Alone In The Dark encompasses a surprising amount of competence for a cave-man game. But like many adventure titles of days gone past, this is offset by frustratingly obtuse dead ends - which in the pre-standard internet days, would have bordered on infuriating.
Thankfully, by the magic of youtube, this can easily be alleviated. By doing so however, it becomes apparent how short the game actually is. All in all it can be finished in less than two hours, poultry by today's standards, but unsurprising given it's pioneering nature.
Although rudimentary, their is a certain artistry to the games visuals apparent from the opening cutscene, with skewed camera and perspective it sets a mood that future series would be indebted to.
From a personal standpoint, I played with the keyboard rather than the controller, it's a very slow paced game with combat static, so it works perfectly fine with little issues other than double tapping "w" to run, which needs tapped in rapid concession.
Although many of the puzzles seems obtuse, requiring a lookup, the highlight for me was probably the dance room puzzle, in which creepy manikins spring to life to a death waltz, which turn into trumpeting swirls of death should the player so much as touch them.
It's a very inspired sequence, and to me, one of the strength derives primarily from it's abstract spectral enemies, rather than it's traditional monster designs
https://youtu.be/zNQnHR-Rq-k?t=159
The levels are non-linear both in map design and progression, allowing free player exploration more so than Resident Evil or future Alone In The Dark sequels which where solely linear in nature.
Ironically, long before Resident Evil 4, Alone And The Dark 2/3 transitioned from survival horror of the original to humanoid enemies with focus on fire-arm action - removing slower methodically paced atmosphere aura of the original.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with this title, it's still a worthwhile game to experience and with a guide, won't eat up to much time, nor lead to too much frustration. It's on GOG currently, along with with the other games a very cheap price.
