PC Preview: Alone in the Dark

PC Mouse Alone in the Dark has a long and mostly illustrious history. It wasa landmark title on the PC, but since then has evolved into across-platform franchise. We got a chance to play the first fewlevels of the game on PC, and weve got to say its nice to havethis old classic back, and looking so damned good. That's pretty much the first thing youll notice about the PCversion . on the right hardware its worlds ahead of the consoleversion in terms of graphical complexity. Lighting and textures alllook a lot more detailed on the rig we were playing on, whichsported a reasonable 8800 GTS on pixel pushing duty. All effectswere on high, and we've not seen a game that looks this dark andmoody, but in a clear, non-muddy manner, in a long while. If ever,in fact. As we mentioned in our PS3 preview, physics and physicalinteraction play a huge part in the gameplay, from swinging aroundon ropes to pushing furniture and kicking in doors. Where the PCversion shines is that all of this interaction seems a lotsmoother. It's not just about a higher frame-rate and betterphysics, too, but rather a matter of feel. Youll just have totrust us  the world seems more real on PC. What we also noticed this time around, as we were playing using aset of headphones, is the excellent score. Its not obtrusive, butits a very subtle composition that is very reminiscent of theAliens soundtrack  quite and brooding by turns, then sharp andstaccato. In fact, might be too reminiscent; there was more thanone occasion where we expected to find xenomorphs behind everydoor. The game can be played using either keyboard and mouse, or aconsole controller. We opted to play using keyboard and mouse, andwhile some controls were a little clunky, it overall seemed a farmore accurate way to control the on-screen action. Whether thatcomes down to the fact that the PC control scheme is actuallybetter, or just that we are dyed in the wool PC gamers who wouldfar rather point with a mouse than a control stick, were not sure.Your mileage may vary, but the extra buttons certainly makeinventory management and using the environment a lot easier. The game was announced as having gone gold yesterday, and will beshipping for all platforms bar the PS3 on July 3rd. The PS3 versionships in the spring. Were certainly looking forward to spendingsome more demonic time with the game.