Adventure Alone In The Dark 1

Louisiana, some time in the 1920s. The protagonist of the story (either Emily Hartwood or Edward Camby, the choice is up to the player), investigates a mysterious suicide in an old mansion. Upon entering the attic, the door slams shut, and the player finds themselves attacked by monsters.

Making their way through the house, you will discover more about the history of the mansion, and eventually come to a direct confrontation with the original owner of the house, an ancient pirate by the name of Pregzt, who dabbled in the occult. While the game itself does not offer too much background story, numerous letters, manuscripts and books that can be found will provide such lore for those who are interested.

The game offers several ways to avoid fights, but at times a battle will be inevitable.


In 2024, the 3D graphics are nothing special, but for the time it was released, the techniques used for the 3D imaging were quite revolutionary. To work around limitations of the computing power, the game used fixed-angle camera techniques. This can be frustrating at times when the player character might get in the way of where you want it to go. However, it certainly adds to the cinematic experience, and combined with the music and sound effects makes it easy to see why this game is sometimes called the original 3D Horror Survival game.

The controls are a bit messy to get used to, but straight-forward once you practice a bit. To turn the character, use the left- and right arrow. When the character turned to where you want it to go, press Up to make it go, or back to make it retreat. Tapping Up twice and holding it after the second tap will make the character run.

Fighting is done by selecting the fight mode, and then holding down space. Up, down, left, and right will lead to different fight actions like kicks or swings, with up (kick) and down (kick) being the slowest, but most damaging, and left and right being a punch, left being the quickest.

To use knives or swords, the same applies. Hold down space, and use the arrow keys to pick different swings or hacks. When using firearms, still holding down space, use left and right to aim, and up to fire.

Use Enter to enter your inventory. The first option will allow you to select actions like open, push, etc. Press Enter to select, and then up and down to find the correct action. From the inventory, you can also use up and down to find specific items, and then again use Enter to select an appropriate action.

Inventory space is limited, so you will find yourself dropping lots of items to ensure you have sufficient space. Generally speaking, most manuscripts and books can be read once and then discarded.