Alone in the Dark 2

About Alone in the Dark 2

Alone in the Dark 2 (1993) is Infogrames' sequel in which detective Edward Carnby battles voodoo-possessed gangster pirates at the mansion Hell's Kitchen to rescue a kidnapped girl.

Alone in the Dark 2 in Depth

At Christmas 1924, three months before the first game, "supernatural private eye" Edward Carnby and his partner Ted Stryker investigate the kidnapping of young Grace Saunders. The clues lead to Hell's Kitchen, an old mansion belonging to an infamous gangster boss. When Ted disappears there, Carnby follows and learns that he has been murdered. The mobsters turn out to be the bodily forms of pirates who plundered the seas centuries ago and sold their souls for eternal life through voodoo, and Carnby must fight through the house and onto a pirate ship hidden in the cliff beneath it to uncover their secret, rescue Grace and learn why they want her.

The horror of the original is much reduced: there are supernatural elements, but the main enemies are gangsters and pirates who, though green and zombie-like, walk, talk and shoot like ordinary people. Carnby starts with a revolver and can pick up shotguns, Tommy guns, a Derringer, flintlock pistols and swords. The world is larger, spanning the mansion, its gardens and the ship in the caverns, but apart from the house it is explored in a strict linear sequence, a pattern later sequels followed. At times the player controls Grace, a child who cannot fight and is captured if spotted, so she must sneak around and turn household objects into booby traps.

Making Alone in the Dark 2

Infogrames developed and published it in 1993 as the second Alone in the Dark. Computer Gaming World said it "looks rich enough to meet gamers' expectations for a solid sequel" and that, despite a weak ending, it was a good, solid challenge that would test players' reflexes as well as their minds, though not for the easily frustrated. Edge praised its more responsive controls, "nerve-tinglingly clear" audio and "movie-style production" values, as well as its far greater number of locations, warning that it was "gruesome" and frightening.