An Easter egg hunter’s dream, Alone in the Dark is a “love letter” to the original.

A number of vintage horror games are presently being updated for the contemporary day, including Alone in the Dark.

THQ Nordic and Pieces Interactive are leading the ambitious reimagining of Detective Edward Carnby’s now 30-year-old tale, which is currently in its alpha stage of development and is expected to release at some point in 2023.

Despite purchasing the rights to the Scare ’em series that essentially founded the survival horror genre from Atari, the retelling is by no means frame-by-frame. 

This is not your typical scale-and-polish revamp, nor is it even the well-known from-the-ground-up rebuilds that we have been accustomed to seeing in recent years thanks to Capcom’s previous Resident Evil remakes and the upcoming Dead Space and System Shock reimaginings. 

Instead, Alone in the Dark bills itself as a love letter to the 1992 original, delving into every last detail of a game that, by today’s standards, is blatantly out of date in order to faithfully replicate key elements of its story and universe. 

For what reason? Creative director and primary writer Mikael Hedberg says, “We can’t simply remake the 1992 original,” during a hands-off presentation at Gamescom 2022.

The gap in technology is clear when looking back at a game that is now more than thirty years old. In defence of the game, Alone in the Dark had a pretty amazing visual aesthetic at the time. 

Even though I didn’t play it until much later (I was six years old when it originally came out), I recall being impressed by its appearance at the end of the 1990s, even in the face of much more visually stunning titles like Parasite Eve and Resident Evil 2. 

Alone in the Dark established the fixed camera perspective that would later come to characterise the psychological survival horror subgenre during that time. Games like Alone in the Dark are obviously outdated in less visible ways, too, not the least of which being the pace and storylines, despite their visually striking exterior. 

Hedberg goes on, “We refer to it as a love letter to the original because of this.” 

Remake alert! Remake alert! In addition to being a few hours lengthy, a like-for-like recreation of the original Alone in the Dark would essentially just have one man exploring a single home with a few monsters.”

In order to provide the widest, most intricate, and most comprehensive rendition of its source material, THQ Nordic has played and replayed the original game several times, meticulously going over each aspect. 

For instance, in the current Alone in the Dark, innocent people who were limited to the pages of memoranda and in-game notes in the original game can appear as fully developed characters themselves. Others could find themselves developed, with a presence and a tale to tell here, if they were featured in pictures or were only casually referenced in connection with the larger plot of the original game. 

Naturally, there are also more overt references to the 1992 original film scattered throughout Alone in the Dark today; those of us who are keenly aware of nostalgia will undoubtedly appreciate appearances from vintage pianos and characters from the past.

THQ and Pieces unveiled a playable prequel teaser at Gamescom 2022, featuring Grace Saunders, the protagonist of Alone in the Dark 2, as a taste of what’s to come. 

It will be made available to players prior to the official release of Alone in the Dark. Based on what we’ve seen so far, including this, the game looks moody, atmospheric, and, in my opinion, a clever take on the practise of recreating classic survival horror, which is something we’ve seen a lot of lately in the survival horror genre. 

Alone in the Dark appears to be worth seeing, especially considering Hedberg’s resume already includes main writing credits for psychological horror favourites SOMA and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Either via the spaces between your fingers or from behind the couch.