Alone in the Dark an RPG?

captainrocco · 10-07-2008, 12:09 PM

Hi guys, did you consider Alone in the Dark an RPG game?

**YoshiM** · 10-07-2008, 12:53 PM

I never played it but from what I've read it sounds more like your typical adventure game rather than an RPG. This game seems to have more in common with Silent Hill than say Fable or Mass Effect. Typically in an RPG the character "levels" up to become more powerful. Alone in the Dark allows you to upgrade weapons (namely with fire) but that seems to be about it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that.

**CausalSpark** · 10-07-2008, 03:01 PM

Alone in the Dark is the very first survival horror game ever made (I'm talking the first one, of course).

captainrocco · 10-07-2008, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by CausalSpark

Alone in the Dark is the very first survival horror game ever made (I'm talking the first one, of course).

Wrong!
That therm was not used before...until the first resident evil.
At that time...It probably fit into Adventure/RPG

**CausalSpark** · 10-07-2008, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by captainrocco

Wrong!
That therm was not used before...until the first resident evil.
At that time...It probably fit into Adventure/RPG

It was made in 1992 and was made playable on MS-DOS. Always wanted to play this gem, but unfortunately I cannot, and probably won't find a copy of it to run. I know what you're saying, but I cannot say that it is an RPG at all. Of course you could count the game Sweet Home (1989), but I wouldn't consider that one to be a survival horror. But just because the term wasn't used at the time doesn't mean it isn't considered one. Even then, there may be games before it that were considered to be survivor horror, but this one was pretty much the "bar setter". Heck, if you think about it, a lot of the survivor horror games that came before RE were awesome, and I may even consider saying that they were better.

**Nectar** · 10-07-2008, 06:46 PM

Its an adventure ... game ... not point and click though. Just a "game", really. Regardless of how you classify it, definitely NOT an RPG.

**horprodukt** · 10-08-2008, 01:37 AM

The recent xbox 360 version of AITD had lots of potential.
It played out as a survival horror with some great puzzles.
However, it was full of bugs and felt like a rushed release. It would have been an excellent game had they delayed it to iron out all the problems.
Shame.

**The Templar** · 10-09-2008, 09:15 AM

I have the PC version of the game and i can tell you that the controls are not user friendly. I like the mixing of stuff you find to make things but why do i have to press C to shoot my gun.

**CausalSpark** · 10-09-2008, 09:35 AM

I played a demo of it, and being a fan of the genre I can say that this game failed to amaze me. The fact that you had to blink during cutscenes to fix your depth perception was lame, the story sounds lame, and the controls were terrible. I've always wanted to play the very first one.

**Bill_Loguidice** · 10-09-2008, 04:56 PM

In the upcoming book I'm writing with Matt Barton, "Vintage Games", it happens to be chapter one, since the chapters are alphabetical. I definitely classify it as survival horror, and indeed was the first notable game of that type, though there were plenty of horror-themed games before it (Haunted House for the Atari 2600, Maxwell Manor for the Atari 8-bit and C-64, etc.). This was among the very first games to set a genuinely scary mood, and was of course one of the earliest (not the first) games to use polygons for for objects and characters (backgrounds and environments were 2D and camera angles were fixed). It's very much the progenitor for Resident Evil.

Why is it not an RPG? An RPG is defined by increasing your characters stats and leveling, something that doesn't happen in Alone in the Dark. It's like an adventure game, certainly, but everything is in real-time. So no, it has to be "survival horror" in my opinion, though you can sub-classify anyway that you wish (adventure, action, etc.).

By the way, for those who want to try it and don't have access to one of the original platforms, it plays very well in DosBox, with zero configuration needed. Also, don't be so quick to judge the technology. It's rough to today's eyes, but consider that this could run on a decent 386 PC without too much trouble. Considering all the tech involved, that's undeniably impressive.