Will this game also have the ‘solve the puzzle’ route instead of fighting?

The game is comprised of a broad mix of gameplay which includes combat and puzzle solving. You will need to do both at different stages of the game to make it through.

Talk about some of the variety in the game (puzzles, weapons).

The gameplay is intertwined with the real world rules of the physics, which means the puzzles you’ll be solving and the tools and weapons you’ll be creating are built on those rules. You’ll need to apply the things you learn about how different objects can be manipulated, combined and used in order to solve certain situations. For example applying tape to items in your inventory makes them stick to other objects if you throw them, be it a wall or a monster.

This ability has some very interesting and fun applications in the gameplay. Individual items have a range of different uses. My favourite example is the humble cigarette lighter which on its own is harmless, but combine it with a health spray and you have a powerful flamethrower, a fuel trail on the floor and you have a fuse, or a rag and bottle of alcohol and you have a deadly Molotov cocktail.

How long would do you anticipate it will take to finish the game completely?

The game is comprised of 8 episodes and if you follow the story straight through it’s around 10-15 hours of gameplay. If you add in all the extra objectives during the free-roaming sections in Central Park you can practically double this. We’ve made sure there’s plenty of things to do.

Are there any significant differences between each version of the game?

At Eden we’ve developed the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game which are practically identical except for some slight graphical differences and the keyboard and mouse controls of the PC version. The Wii and PS2 versions were developed in parallel by Hydravision Entertainment based on our game design. Through the normal course of development there’s been changes made on both sides which means there’s a few divergences in terms of story, some sections playable on Xbox 360 / PC and not on Wii / PC and vice versa.

Also, not all the physics and interaction in the Xbox 360 / PC game was possible to recreate on the Wii and PS2, but they’ve worked hard to retain as many of the key gameplay elements as possible.

Alone in the Dark seems to be the perfect game that can keep adding to its story so are there plans to further the story with downloadable content?

As for downloadable content, the format and the story do lend themselves very much to additional episodes delivered in this way and it’s something we’ll be looking at once the game is released.

The survival horror genre needs some stimulation. How do you see Alone in the Dark bringing something new to the genre beyond what gamers might get with other titles like Resident Evil or Alan Wake?

Alone in the Dark was one of the great originals in gaming and it’s an incredible legacy and responsibility to live up to. However, if we simply raised the bar on horror gaming we wouldn’t be doing what the first game did. We want to raise bar on gaming as a whole and create an experience just as innovative as that first game.

To do that we’re creating an action adventure game that breaks the constraints of genre, incorporating some really exciting ideas and technical advances with the aim of setting a new standard for what you can do in a game. We hope that once you’ve played Alone in the Dark, you won’t want to go back.

Any plans for a demo for Xbox Live Marketplace or PlayStation Network?

We’re working on a demo at the moment which we hope will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace around launch of the game.

If you’re in a retail store standing next to someone who asks if they should buy Alone in the Dark, what do you say to make sure they experience the game?

If you want to play one game this year that does things differently, tells an engrossing story in an exciting new way, and offers gameplay in which the only limit is the player’s imagination, play Alone in the Dark.

Thanks for taking the time to answer some community questions for Unscripted 360!

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