In September 2018, THQ Nordic announced it had acquired the rights to Alone in the Dark, the franchise that essentially birthed the survival horror genre.
Nearly four years later, the publisher revealed that a reimagining of the first installment had been in development at Swedish studio Pieces Interactive since late 2019.
A few days ago, Wccftech was invited to a presentation that revealed many juicy details about the new Alone in the Dark game. First and foremost, its release date is officially scheduled for October 25th on all platforms, and pre-orders are also open. Since Remedy just announced that Alan Wake 2 is set to be released the previous week, it sounds like October may turn out fantastic for survival horror fans.
Secondly, the developers have confirmed two first-class actors as the game’s protagonists: David Harbour (Stranger Things, Black Widow, 2016’s Suicide Squad, Hellboy) and Jodie Comer (Killing Eve, The Last Duel, Free Guy) will play Detective Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood, respectively.
Mikael Hedberg, Game Director and Writer on Alone in the Dark, said the team knew it would need two strong actors given that the story is very character-driven. Both actors lent their voices and likenesses to the game and performed facial motion capture.
In a video reel, David Harbour said he knew of the previous franchise entries since he’s a fan of horror games. Of his character, he said Edward is a gruff, hardboiled type, albeit with some humor, and that he liked how Edward explored the insanity happening at the Derceto mansion, a countryside mental hospital.
Jodie Comer said she loved the mystery of the plot and described Emily Hartwood as tense, on edge, but also curious and intrigued. The developers explained that the two playable characters would have different relations to the plot. Emily has a closer connection to the heart of mystery since she hired Edward to try and find her uncle, Jeremy Hartwood, who is haunted by an entity called the Dark Man and went to Derceto to hide. Emily also has to deal with the so-called Hartwood Curse.
Additionally, they’ll have different journeys (some levels and parts of Derceto will be exclusive to each character), and even the NPCs will react differently if you’re playing as Edward or Emily. The game features multiple endings, and a second playthrough would also be slightly affected by which items the players found during their first one.
The developers also talked a bit more about the game mechanics. They said the classic survival horror formula is still there: complex puzzles, scary exploration, and tense combat where the characters have limited ammunition and may have to use environmental hazards (Emily was shown igniting a pool of gasoline to burn her enemies) or melee weapons (the presentation showed her swinging an axe and throwing a bottle). Regarding the exploration, Alone in the Dark will allow players to choose how much they want to be guided to the right clues, perhaps via some kind of game setting.
For the soundtrack, the studio selected Dutch composer Jason Kohnen once they settled on Doom/Dark Jazz as the most appropriate music for the game.
If you’re itching to get a taste of this reimagining, the good news is that a downloadable Prologue is available now on all platforms. It’s the same short demo that was playable at Gamescom/Tokyo Game Show 2022 and PAX 2023, though Pieces Interactive improved its presentation and introduced an additional cutscene at the end.
In the Prologue, you can play as Grace Saunders, a little girl who lives in Derceto and is trying to post a letter. Given the choice of the protagonist, the Alone in the Dark Prologue doesn’t feature any combat or big jump scares, and even the puzzles are relatively simple. It is instead focused on setting the atmosphere of Derceto for players.
