In this day and age, many households contain a piece of equipment called a DVR, also known as a Digital Video Recorder. This can be either a Tivo or a DVR box from the cable or satellite company. It allows you to record all your favorite shows when you’re at work or doing something “important” with your life and then watch the shows on your own time, whenever you want. It also allows you to fast-forward or rewind to certain parts of the show. What if this was introduced in video games where you could skip all the levels you hate like escort missions and play the levels you want to? Great news, Alone in the Dark: Inferno for the Playstation 3 allows you to do just that by picking any level you want to play from the start.

Eden Games releases Alone in the Dark: Inferno for the PS3 console around five months after the poorly received Xbox 360 version. The Xbox 360 version was riddled with bugs, glitches, and terrible controls. Eden Games took all the flak and criticisms towards the game and tried to fix most of the problems for this Playstation 3 release of the horror action game. Alone in the Dark: Inferno starts with a paranormal investigator named Edward Carnby who wakes up smack-dab in the middle of a sticky situation. Quite common with a lot of games these days, Edward’s memories are gone, real original. The game takes place in New York City where Hell is literally breaking loose with Edward being the only dude bad enough to save it. The roughneck protagonist tries to figure out his past while trying to get to the bottom of all the problem that’s seems to be caused by a mysterious stone all while fighting hellish creatures with fire.

The graphics in some parts of the game are really well done while other parts are questionable. The game is plagued with the dreadful “jaggies” syndrome where you can see aliasing on basically every edge of any object. The fire effects in the game look amazing when it spreads realistically while textures will change accordingly leaving scorched wood behind. Both the indoor and outdoor environments are well detailed.. The character models are well done but some of the models do look like they are made from the same plastic as Barbie though. The action sequences with different camera angles allow a sense of scale filled with chaos and fun. Overall, the graphics are nice for a PS3 game but some type of anti-aliasing or masking the jaggies such as a film grain would have been nice.

The sound in this game is on-par with most games in its genre. Voice acting would have definitely been a lot better if the dialog writing wasn’t so awkward and cringe-worthy. The music score in the game is great with some memorable pieces playing during some of the climaxes. The sound effects are just as they should be providing adequate detail and no let-downs.

Alone in the Dark: Inferno boasts both a third-person and first-person view in the game. You can only melee in third-person and can only shoot your gun in first-person. This is kind of disappointing but you will get over it after finding out you can’t run and gun in third-person like those other games. The inventory system is pretty innovative but not ground-breaking. You can only hold enough items that will fit in your jacket pockets and on your belt. To switch items in your inventory, you open up your jacket in first-person view and pick what you want. These items can be combined together to solve puzzles whether it’s soaking bullets in gasoline to create fiery explosive bullets, or taping a case of bullets to a gas can to make a bad ass explosive. The combinations are very cool and you need to do them in order to beat those hellions back to where the came from! The game contains puzzles in which the enemies can only be perma-killed with fire. You can pick up a melee weapon and walk up to any open flame to set it on fire. Then after holding a weapon of fiery death, you walk towards the enemy and bludgeon them to death with a blaze while using the analog stick to attack. This is fun for awhile but you’ll probably end up just killing them with your trusty handgun packed with flaming bullets.

Overall, Eden Games made a pretty solid horror action adventure game for the Playstation 3. Although it does have various glitches and some graphical problems combined with poorly written dialog, the game was a fun distraction and not a major disappointment. The DVD menu like system that is like a DVR is a great feature for people that don’t have enough time to play the full game or for people who hate certain parts of the game. You can pick any level you want, and play it without losing any of the story because the game shows cutscenes of what happened in the previous episodes. The game provides a variety of gameplay aspects including puzzles, action sequences, driving parts, and just plain shooting bad guys. Alone in the Dark: Inferno is a great alternative for those who aren’t fans of Silent Hill yet it isn’t as nearly scary.

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