Alone In The Dark - Infogrames RRP œ44.95
               (Graphic adventure for PC)

        Played on PC and reviewed by Alex McEwan

This graphical adventure from Infogrames shows the French flair
for idiosyncratic games. When using the keyboard it takes a while
to get used to the control system, and the characters have a
rather angular 3-D appearance. The plot is centred around you, a
private detective, being paid to go to a creepy old house and find
a piano, complete with hidden drawers, in the attic of the house.
Sounds simple enough but the house is the type which gives ghosts
nightmares.  The setting and creatures are roughly based on those
found in the works of the author H.P. Lovecraft, and if you have
read any of his books you will know what to expect. If not, then
weirdness is the best summary.

You can choose to play as a male or a female character, and if you
let the introduction sequence run, you will see your chosen
detective being delivered to the front of the house in an old
fashioned open top sports car, which after narrowly missing a
leaping frog, drops you at the foot of the drive and speeds off.
You then make your way inside and up to the attic before you take
control of the movement. As you do so there are lots of spooky
noises and things watching you from windows. All of this serves to
show off the tremendous use which has been made of different and
unusual angles in creating this game.

I have never been convinced of the merits of sound cards,
generally finding the racket that they produce to be more of an
irritant than an enhancer. This is certainly not the case here, as
for the first time I found that the music and effects were so well
done that they added tremendously to the atmosphere of the game.

Movement is controlled by the cursor keys, where you turn the
character in the direction that you want him to face, and then
move forward by using the up arrow. This is fine when moving from
away from you i.e. bottom to top of the screen, but I found it
strange to push the up arrow to bring the character towards me.
Most of the time I had the man 'moonwalking' in circles. Pressing
enter at any time gives you a screen with the character, the
inventory, and the list of possible actions. When faced by an
opponent you have the option to fight or use a weapon. The action
is then performed by use of the space bar and movement keys, if
you opt for fisticuffs, you can punch or kick depending on your
use of the keys.

While you are getting used to the control system you will find
your first couple of opponents.  A thing which appears to be a
cross between a rabid dog and a kangaroo breaks in through the
window, and assuming you overcome this, sleepwalking monsters
comes up from a trap door.  There now follows a 'get you started
hint', skip the next two lines if you don't want to read it.

You can prevent the things entering the room by blocking the
window with the wardrobe, and the trap door with the chest.

The first couple of monsters are rather tame compared with those
that appear later in the game, which of course takes you all
through the house, cellars, hidden passages, and the grounds.
Regular saves are a good idea as it can take quite a while to move
around.  All the characters, including yours, seem to move in slow
motion, even when you make the man run rather than walk.  I was
playing on a very fast machine (66Mhz 486) so it may be that this
would be even more pronounced on a slower model.  (I did try it
very briefly on a 33Mhz, and it certainly looked okay there.)

Despite my misgivings about the limitations of graphical
adventures, and the fact that the fighting aspect makes it almost
a beat-em-up at times, I still found this a very enjoyable game.
Certainly different, and more interesting than the sort of stuff
Sierra are now churning out. (I have just had a quick go at Space
Quest 5 and if anything it looks worse than SQ 4)