Globally recognized video game publishers and producers Atari have finally shed some light on their upcoming titles, Alone in the Dark: Illumination and Haunted House: Cryptic Graves.
Before being utterly usurped by Konami and Capcom, Atari were once the undisputed kings of survival horror thanks to their A Long in The Dark and Haunted House games, Chief Executive Officer Fred Chesnais (not too humbly) echoed the sentiment when he spoke at PAX Prime this year, saying “Atari was at the forefront of the survival horror game genre”.
Whether or not the latest Alone in the Dark will be on par with some of the recent survival horror hits like Silent Hill, Resident Evil and even games like Five Nights at Freddies (shut up, it counts) remains to be seen, but Fred has said, ” The modern and updated versions of these games will resonate with enthusiasts of the classics worldwide, and engage new fans through suspenseful, action-packed PC gameplay.”
That concerns me purely because survival horror need not include “suspenseful, action-packed PC gameplay” as a crutch. Fans of the original Alone in the Dark can vouch for this.
Haunted House however is set to be a horrifying first person adventure through a game riven with scary stuff that goes bump in the night. Vague I know, but you gotta work with what you’re given and Atari aren’t being particularly generous. It looks as though it has an Amnesia: Machine For Pigs vibe, but not quite as grim.
Forgive me for sounding down on Atari in this section, but I find it hard to write this for you folks knowing that the buzz words alone all but assure a mediocre outcome. After all, Haunted House is being developed by the same team that made the (I’m not making this up) “critically acclaimed survival horror game, Anna”. Yes, the same Anna that more or less bombed for being drab and nonsensical.
Time will tell as to what quality of game we can expect with these two upcoming horror titles when they arrive some time in Fall of 2014.