When talking about survival horror, it is important to note that the entire genre is very open-ended. Many tend to cite titles such as the original Resident Evil or Silent Hill as being the “purest” examples of what the genre may offer, while modern audiences have used independent games or small budget titles as pure examples of a revival of horror-based video games.
Of course, while many point to Resident Evil or Silent Hill as the forefathers of survival horror, it was not the only source, nor were they even the first. It is important to note that the influences of design take many forms. If Resident Evil made survival horror a household name, then Alone in the Dark is the grandfather it never knew. A lot of the original Resident Evil’s gameplay elements can be seen in Alone in the Dark, a game that was experimental as it was cutting edge, though by today's standards, may seem quaint in comparison.
Still, one thing can be said about Alone in the Dark, it is the grandfather of the modern survival horror game in terms of that said design, comes from one of the most important video games ever made, and that is Infogrames Alone in the Dark. A unique title released for PC's back in 1992, Alone in the Dark was a CD-DOS computer game that has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “first 3D survival horror game ever made,” a claim that the game rightfully deserves.
The concept of Alone in the Dark has several influential figures attached to it. First was Frédérick Raynal, a programmer at the French-based developer Infogrames. Raynal first became interested in creating 3D programming while working on another Infogrames game, Alpha Waves, also known as Continuum in the U.S. Alpha Waves was a platformer that would contain one of the earliest uses of fully three-dimensional environments. Raynal wanted to create a game with fully 3D characters in a more dynamic environment than Alpha Waves ever could, primarily with human-shaped character models.
The second major figure was the CEO of Infogrames at the time, Bruno Bonnell. Bonnell proposed a game concept to Raynal, where the player would use matches to light up an otherwise completely dark environment. The idea behind this was to constantly use the matches to find your way through a maze, a concept that Raynal felt would work great as a horror-themed game.
Originally titled In the Dark, Raynal spearheaded a small team of artists and developers to set up the basic look and backstory of the game. This team included conceptual artist, and the future wife of Raynal, Yaël Barroz, and art director Didier Chanfray. Raynal came up with the basic setting of the game, a dark manor in the middle of Louisiana sometime during the 1920s.
You star as Edward Carnby, a P.I who is trying to find a missing piano in the hunted house of Jeremy Hartwood, who committed suicide and has since then been inhabited by the spirits of the dead. You can also play as Emily Hartwood, the niece of Jeremy who is after the same piano. Edward and Emily are pretty much character swaps, but the story that unfolds is intuitively designed as you progress from the house to the outside, solving puzzles and fighting off zombies, ghouls, possessed toys, and other enemies that may slay you.
The game's story is a strong suit, at least for the time. Told through scattered notes and inferred through background storytelling, information on the house unravels and the evil spirits are explained, the action actually picks up and the enemies become harder to evade. The story is rich in Cthulhu mythos and Lovecraftian themes, which is intentional as originally the plan was to involve Cthulhu and other Lovecraft-like monsters, though this was changed during development. Instead, its vibe matches that theme, and even pays homage to Lovecraft with some clever in-game references to his work as easter eggs.
Alone in the Dark is mostly a puzzle-adventure where you need to find items or lure enemies into traps to help solve puzzles and outsmart specific creatures trying to kill you. In fact, some of the enemies can’t be killed at all, so using your wits is the only way to ensure your own survival in the house. The use of puzzles is one of the stronger mechanics, as it takes the forefront of survival horror that has since been emulated but never repeated. Instead of solving door X with Key Y, it is something different. Yes you have to find the items to solve the puzzles, but sometimes improvising, or finding a new pathway occurs, giving a sense of non-linearity to the entire design of the game.
You can engage in combat, but it is one of the weaker aspects of Alone in the Dark. Combat is mostly timing based; punching or shooting an enemy is not super precise and is often best avoided if you're able to do so. You will find various weapons in the mansion to fight with, but for most encounters it's best to avoid them and run from foes to preserve your items, or at least, use them for truly tough enemies, like flying demons who are incredibly difficult to evade.
Of course, the game's visuals and controls do not hold up as well; though these limitations do enhance the atmosphere that Infogrames were going for. Alone in the Dark was mostly built from the ground up in the same vein as most adventure titles of the era, with the major difference between Alone in the Dark and other adventure titles being the use of 3D animation. While a technical marvel when the game itself was released in 1992, it was not without several drawbacks that would have to be baked into the title's final design.
Alone in the Dark would have static backgrounds and fixed camera angles, primarily to compensate for the lack of fully developed 3D technology and rendering tools in the early 1990s. Due to this, the fixed camera angles became a major feature of the game, providing a more cinematic experience due to the numerous camera angles present. The original plan was to have Alone in the Dark with scanned photos of an actual, 1920s mansion, but the idea was scrapped due to technical limitations.
Character models and objects would still be rendered in 3D by using interpolated animation, meaning the game relied on the computer itself to render frames of animation for movement and combat. Raynal recalls in an interview with Gamasutra: “You could, like an articulated puppet, put all the positions of the body. I wanted to have this, but in the early 90s, PCs were slow but were evolving very very quickly.” It turned out to be a wise move, as most PCs had different optimizations and speeds, something Raynal was well aware of when it came to animation for the game. “I decided to have this system to be able to adapt itself to the speed of the computer,” he recalls.
Because Alone in the Dark was designed to be more akin to an adventure game with a horror theme, Raynal wanted to enhance the experience so that players would get a sense of fear for the events on-screen. One such solution was how to handle the inventory system; limiting the players' carrying capacity based on weight provided a simple sense of helplessness when getting involved in fights with the game's numerous monsters. Another technique was how Raynal approached player death; having unavoidable traps, or being attacked while in the inventory screen were just simple indicators to the player to be cautious, as anything can happen when you least expect it.
These design elements allowed for Alone in the Dark to be a scary experience for the player, despite the very basic-looking graphics on screen. The game was graphically unique for its time period, utilizing 3-D game assets with 2-D backgrounds. This technique would be a limitation up until the 2000's, with fixed camera angles being the norm until processing power can allow rendering of fully 3-D environments. It may look primitive today, but back in 1992, this was considered a technical marvel. Remember, C-D games were still fairly new, and it was the advent of games like Myst and The 7 Guest showcased the processing power needed for super-detailed visual fidelity.
Alone In the Dark, even on a floppy drive, was a powerful showcase of technological advancements, even if it's super primitive by today's standards. Thankfully, the sound design is able to enhance the visuals. Every time the player walks, the floor creaks. Every time you open something, it emits a moan of rustiness on their hinges. The first time you hear a zombie moan off screen, you will probably start running around to find a way past it. And the game's music helped this cause, augmenting the sound effects with a brooding score that was always in the background, going fast paced when faced with an enemy or a slow, kind of melodically bouncing sound when exploring the mansion itself.
Alone in the Dark is one of those games that changes the way games can be played. Even with the action elements of fighting enemies, the goal of the game was to solve puzzles and just survive. Backed by innovative graphical techniques, a stellar soundtrack and sound design, and a devilish storyline with tons of mystery and scary moments, Alone in the Dark was something special for its time. Influential for certain in starting the genre of Survival Horror as we know it today, Alone in the Dark is a game that deserves to be remembered, and one that should definitely be played.