Absolutely incredible that this is a game from 1992. This is the year that Wolfenstein 3D and Mortal Kombat 1 came out, yet it feels like something from 94/95. Basically every survival horror game is downstream from this, it's influence on RE1 is enormous, and for that it deserves a lot of credit. But holy fuck does this game actually suck balls to sit down and play without a guide:>Abundance of completely pointless items like empty boxes and flasks that you need to regularly sort through and dump in random rooms, RE0 style. Why would the player want the empty shoebox that the revolver came in?>Combat is a complete dice roll where victory goes to whoever gets the first hit in. Every enemy stunlocks you with zero chance to hit back or even run away.>Same retarded combat track loops for 80% of the game.>Numerous instances of trial-and-error gotcha bullshit. Savescumming is a must when regular doors open into inescapable traps.>Deeply boring My First Lovecraftian Horror story. Logs go on and on and wear out their welcome. Goofy voice acting helps a bit, but they don't save it.>Platforming section at the end involves off-screen leaps of faith.It's an incredibly important game, but please do not be memed into actually playing it. I'm convinced that its only ever name-dropped as a good game by people who either haven't played it in 20+ years, or people who watched a YouTube video on it.
>>12135454Idk, I'm a fan but I think both in technical and design terms it's very much a product of its time. You may simply consider it a "94/95" sort of game because Resident Evil is literally the same thing but with all the fat trimmed out.
why does everyone also forget about earlier 3d pc games like Wing Commander?id did not invent impressive pc graphics
>>12135480Because a fully explorable house with dozens of unique characters, enemies, item models and interactable shit is a lot more impressive than flying around an empty space full of sprites and shooting at a few models of ships. >id did not invent impressive pc graphicsNo is saying they did? AiTD is objectively more impressive than Wolf3D on a technical level.
>>12135454Yeah there's a lot of point and click adventure chaff in there. They used to bloat inventory to try and discourage spamming item/verb combos and all that. Random dead ends was just a bit of player pranking and all that.Only thing I'll disagree on is the combat being a diceroll - Carnby's melee sidekick outranges every enemy in the game, knocks them back, and makes every engagement completely safe, lets you just save ammo for the final gauntlet. Don't play the sequels, they suck.
>>12135480Do Wing Commander 1 or 2 have polygons?
>>121368911 used spritespolygons are way older, elite already did that
>>12135454And it was all downhill from there.
>>12135454>goofy voice actingStopped reading there.
>>12135454>every enemy stunlocks youBlatantly wrong. Not starting out too well with the list of gripes are we?
>>12135454it's got soul dripping from its engine much like ecstatica which was done by just one guy>Initially developer Andrew Spencer Studios consisted of just Andrew Spencer himself, who spent years single-handedly creating the game engine used by Ecstatica.[1] The team expanded to two people for the remainder of development: Spencer and film animation expert Alain Maindron
the CD-rom soundtrack is loud and soullessgotta play with the original DOS music which I don't think anyone does nowadaysalso this was factually the scariest game ever
>>12135454Japan turned this into a good game like they did with RPGs
>>12135454Not sure what you mean, both of those games were a lot more impressive.
Tres bien
>>12135454>Basically every survival horror game is downstream from this, it's influence on RE1 is enormous, and for that it deserves a lot of credit.You don't even realize the half of it.AitD was the first game to use 3D models with pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. Before it nobody thought of that, it was either 3D or 2D, not the 2 at once. Now think of many games used that technique for the entire decade following AitD including Final Fantasy VII. (the way FF7 does it is more like Little Big Adventure and less like AitD but it's still the same concept and LBA was by the same devs as AitD anyway)
>>12137421>Now think of many games used that technique for the entire decade following AitD including Final Fantasy VII.And OoT (to a lesser extent)
>>12137325Und? Und...?
>>12135454I've watched the game be played by zoomers on Twitch a few times, and it holds up surprisingly well. Of course, many times they got help from their chats.If you think AitD is obtuse, don't play 2 and 3 then. I remember constantly phoning a friend each time either of us would find a way to finally progress in AitD 3. No internet and barely any help in magazines.
>Why would the player want the empty shoebox that the revolver came in?Adventure game logic says that any random object can softlock you out of the game if you rightfully assume it is useless and get rid of it.
>>121354803D existing and running on powerful hardware wasn't special.3D existing and running slowly and in a compromised way on normal hardware also wasn't special.What id did was make 3D games that you could quickly move around and explore in with simple controls that ran very fast on normal hardware, which was very special.
>>12137572Right, but the objects you drop in Alone in the Dark don't disappear, they simply remain wherever you dropped them.
>>12138251That's the point. If you could discard items in a way that they would immediately disappear, players could easily softlock themselves by getting rid of important story items.And IIRC you can already softlock yourself in AitD in some ways.
>>12135454that doesnt look dark at all. in fact it actually looks very bright in there.
>>12137580>that ran very fast on normal hardwareDoom needs Pentium-tier hardware to consistently hit the frame cap (35fps) at full detail/viewport and that was very expensive in 1993. It runs like shit on a 386.
just passing by, whats the best way to play the first 3 games?i can't seem to make the anthology work on steam i'm lazy to play with keyboard and mouse this type of games
>>12140203I'm sure there are Steam guides that address how to make them work properly.You can use a standalone DOS emulator and a third party program like JoyToKey to bind keyboard inputs to a gamepad.RetroArch has a DOSBox Pure core which will let you run the games and bind key inputs to a controller.Whichever you choose make sure to set cycles properly because otherwise you'll have a hard time being able to make your character run.
>>12140203Probably just the gog copies. Just keep in mind that the games massively shift in tone after the first game.>>12138330Yes yes, we've all heard the joke, you're neither alone and the game isn't dark.
>>12135454Nah, I played all three games and had plenty of fun. As long as you save when you enter any new room, it's easily beatable without a guide and by far the best of the three, the others of which end up being more comedic than anything else (zombies with tommy guns, pirates, cowboy town, etc.)
>>12135454This game is pretty awesome for the year it came out but System Shock is even more so for 1994Some will say UU also 1992 but I was never able to get into that despite trying
>>12135473I can hear the footsteps on that gif
Should I play Alone in the Dark 2 on PC or PS1?
>>12137421I had a (French) friend recommend me LBA a few years ago. Really a pleasure to play.
>>12142449Based french bro. Did you try out the sequel?
>>12142452Yeah. I played both. I liked the sequel better. But, they're both a joy. I mean, the ball takes some getting used to, but at the same time I literally can't think of another game that has that as a core mechanic.Also, Twinson's little dance of pleasure when he succeeds is infectious.
So, did one of the devs just slur the title of the game during development of The New Nightmare and everyone thought that'd be a good name for one of their lead characters?
>>12142467its just a french name anon,i had a teacher named Aline in high school.
>>12142467What's wrong with Aline? That's my neighbour boomer's name.
>>12142445Soul, Soulless
I've finished the first game again yesterday after decades. I had fun, but what annoyed me was that the books you read placed so much importance over the shaped daggers you find, but they don't have much use in the end. Aside from the sacrificial dagger which you can use on the Vagabond in the library. I guess they only serve as melee weapons?The ending spooked me.
>>12142476>>12142482I mean the whole name, Aline Cedrac which turns into Aline/Alone Ce/The drac/Dark, with the "in" being silent - kinda like Ash Ketchum's surname turns into Catch 'em.Could also be that I'm drunk right now...
>>12142636You could be on to something slim, anon.
