Alone in the Dark 2(FR)

Overview

• Full Name: Alone in the Dark 2
• Code:
• Type: Survival horror
• Developer: Interplay Productions
• Publisher: Infogrames
• Language: English, French
• Release Date: September 8, 1995
• Region: FR
• Barcode: 3 329720 009399
• Local Title:
• Rarity: 1
• Notes: I can't find any evidence of a pan European release, the French version just seems to be a repackaged version of the US as it seems to be NTSC (Letterbox in PAL), There has been reviews in UK and Germany Magazines though, to indicate there was a pan wide European version either planned or released

Summary

Alone in the Dark 2 is the second instalment of the Alone in the Dark Series.

Gameplay

The original game's horror theme has been significantly de-emphasized in the sequel. While there are some supernatural goings-on (Voodoo black magic), the main villains are gangsters and pirates. While the enemies are revealed to be possessed by evil spirits, and are green and zombie-like in appearance, they are far from the shambling walking corpses of the first game, and walk, talk, and behave much like ordinary people, arming themselves with guns and shooting at the player. The player can pick up weapons on the way with firearms such as the Revolver equipped at the start of the game, Shotguns, Tommy guns, a Derringer pistol, Flintlock pistols and melee weapons such as Swords. The game world is larger than that of the original, encompassing not only a mansion, but also the surrounding gardens as well as a pirate ship hidden in caverns beneath the house; however, unlike the first game, with the exception of the main house, its locations may only be explored in a strictly linear sequence, a pattern that would continue in later sequels.

Although much of the game is spent playing as Carnby, the player will occasionally take control of Grace Saunders. Grace, a child, cannot fight and is instantly captured if the gangsters spot her, so instead she must sneak around and defeat the gangsters by turning common household objects into booby traps.

Plot

It is Christmas of 1924, three months after Alone in the Dark. "Supernatural Private Eye" Edward Carnby and his partner Ted Stryker are investigating the kidnapping of young Grace Saunders. The trail of clues leads to an old mansion named "Hell's Kitchen" - the home of an infamous gangster boss and his gang. Edward decides to pick up the trail when he learns of Ted's disappearance in the mansion. Unfortunately, Edward soon finds out that Ted has been murdered.

Carnby eventually finds out that the mobsters are the corporeal forms of the spirits of pirates that plundered the sea hundreds of years ago, the lot having sold their souls in exchange for eternal life through voodoo magic. Fighting his way into the house and ultimately onto a pirate ship hidden in the cliff on which Jack's house is built, Edward must survive, discover the secret of the pirates' apparent immortality, rescue little Grace, and find out why the pirates are so interested in her.

Development and Release

There were two DOS versions of the game, the floppy disk version and the CD-ROM version. While the floppy version was the original, the CD-ROM release added a full Red Book audio reworked soundtrack, dialogue speech (in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese, depending on the country the game was released) and a new playable section of Grace Saunders not present in the original version, which connected the mansion and the ship areas. This version also removed the copy protection from the floppy disk release.

As with the first instalment in the series, outside of Europe the game was distributed in North America by Interplay Entertainment and in Japan by Arrow Micro-Techs Corp, which once again developed and published Japanese-exclusive versions for the PC-98 and FM Towns computers.

The console releases of Alone in the Dark 2 included a port for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer released in 1995 which is very similar to the DOS CD-ROM version, and also versions released for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation in 1996 which featured reworked and fully textured polygonal models, instead of the flat shaded ones from the DOS versions and 3DO port. New FMV cutscenes were also added to these ports. All console releases were also published in Japan by Electronic Arts Victor, with the Sega Saturn and PlayStation versions being released as Alone in the Dark 2: Jack is Back.

Reception

Maximum was more harsh with the 3DO version, saying that the game is far too old to be worth converting to home console. They said it looks especially poor due to being (by pure coincidence) released in Europe at the same time as the PlayStation version: "The Sony conversion boasts texture-mapped characters moving at higher speeds and with less loading time, whilst the poor old 3DO struggles with flat shaded polygons, a smaller screen size and a chugging frame rate."[4] A reviewer for Next Generation complained that a combination of poor control and awkward fixed camera angles makes battling enemies more difficult than it should be. He nonetheless gave it a strong recommendation, and summarized it as "a direct port of the PC title, and a huge game with a great cinematic feel and lots of fiendishly clever puzzles."

Magazine Reviews

Name	Date	Region	Rating	Notes
Maximum: The Video Game Magazine*	Jan 1996		2/5
Next Generation*	Dec 1995		4/5
Game Players*	Jan 1996		81%	Don't get me wrong, this ain't a bad game at all. In fact, it's exactly the kind of huge, creepy adventure I wish there were more of for home consoles. It's just a lot harder to work through than it could be.
3DO Magazine*	Mar 1996		80%	A considerable advance over the original in terms of graphics, violence and size, but slowdown makes a very tough game even more demanding. Newcomers should definitely start with the original, but both games demand almost all the 3DO's NVRAM.
Joystick*	Nov 1995		70%	Un jeu comme Alone in the dark ne peut faire que l'unanimité auprès du public. Hélas, les trop nombreux accès au CD ralentissent le jeu et perturbent l'action.
Video Game*	Jan 1996		67%	Zugegeben, der zweite Teil sieht grafisch besser aus. Dafür spielt er sich aber schlechter. Auch wenn Ihr stillsteht, hampelt Euer Charakter permanent rum, schaut sich die Gegend an oder macht sich mit der Knarre wichtig. In Konfliktsituationen wird hierdurch und durch die oft lausigen Blickwinkel das Zielen beim Schießen oder Schlagen erschwert. Im ersten Teil ist die Kameraposition zwar auch nicht immer optimal, behindert werdet Ihr dadurch aber seltener. Ein “Pfui“ geht an die Entwickler, weil sie den zweiten Teil direkt vom PC rübergezogen haben. Das heißt, Ihr hört die originalen 8-Bit-Sprachsamples (in “Soundblaster-Qualität“), und die Musik wurde anscheinend direkt von einer Roland-Sound-Karte aufgenommen (nicht gerade schlecht, jedoch ziemlich dünn). Die Grafik verfällt oft ins Ruckeln, und die Ladezeiten wirken im zweiten Teil weit störender als im ersten.
Video Games & Computer Entertainment*	Dec 1995		60%

• - Need review page

Other Versions

PC Versions including MS-DOS, PC-98 and FM Towns, Mac, Playstation 1 and Sega Saturn.

Credits

Original Version Credits

• Produced by: Bruno Bonnell
• Directed by: Christiane Sgorlon
• First Assistant: Vincent Terraillon
• Production Designer: Patrick Charpenet
• Screenplay: Hubert Chardot, Frederic Cornet, Christian Nabais
• Scenario Coding: Christiane Sgorlon, Christophe Nazaret
• Animations: Frederique Bourgin, Jean Marie Nazare
• Settings : Jean Christophe Blanc, Christophe Anton
• Music and Sounds: Fre'de'ric Mentzen
• Publishing: Olivier Robin, Edith Protiere
• Translations: Beate Reiter
• Special Thanks to: Bruno Bonnell, Eric Mottet, Olivier Goulay, Norbert Cellier

Interplay Productions Credits

• Producer: Vincent DeNardo
• Line Producer: Ryan Rucinski
• Director of Quality Assurance: Jeremy S. Barnes
• Assistant Director of QA: David L. Simon
• Lead Tester: Dan Forsyth
• Testers: Lawrence Smith, Jeff Woods, Aaron Olaiz, Derek Gibbs
• Tutorial Text: Lawrence Smith
• Graphic Design: Salma Asadi
• Illustrations: Vance Kovacs
• 3DO Packaging Concept and Design: David Gainesa

Linked Titles

• North American Version - Alone in the Dark 2
• Japanese Version - Alone in the Dark 2
• Prequel - Alone in the Dark
• Cancelled "Threequel" - Alone in the Dark 3

Media

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  Back of the box

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