I was in the game-store today and decided to give Alone in the Dark for the Wii a shot. I thought there was about a 50% chance the game would be awesome, and 50% chance the game would be a disappointment.
Turns out it's somewhere in between.
First off, the production values are really high, especially for a Wii game. While the game -ofcourse- doesn't look as good as its Xbox 360 counterpart, it does look really good, and in some places, approaches the look of HD games, albeit in lower resolution. The lightning effects especially are simply superb and there are some very crisp textures to be found here. The fire, while looking awful, is the about same as in the HD versions: it's dynamic and spreads fast if you don't act soon. Before you know it, an entire room is engulfed in flames. The physics are there and it all feels pretty "next-gen".
There are some downsides though. What absolutely astounds me is that the game doesn't even support 480p. Even the biggest shovelware supports 480p, so there's just no excuse for a game of this caliber not to support it. Framerate is generally smooth, but has some rare hiccups now and then.
Sound-wise, the game is a mixed bag. The score is absolutely amazing, beautiful, exciting music that fits the situation perfectly. It's very Hollywood, which is a good thing considering the genre. There's also a lot of voice acting, all the characters have full voice acting. However, the writing isn't that good, characters often sound pretty stupid. Sound effects are average.
The game controls pretty well overal. The developers chose for a very ambitious control design. The result is that the main controls are excellent: swing the remote to the right and you swing your weapon to the right, swing it to the left, upwards, downwards, etc. It's really well done and actually enhances the experience. You can choose between a third person and first person perspective, and the first person perspective controls like Metroid Prime 3. Some motion gestures don't work as well as others, and the driving especially (which is pretty important in the game) is really bad - it just doesn't work. Why the developers didn't choose for the analogue stick to drive is beyond me.
The pacing of the game is slow. A bit too slow for my taste, and it doesn't help it's often near impossible to figure out what you need to do. At other moments the pieces all fall in the right place and the experience is a great one. Often though, the game doesn't feel right and you can't get into the game.
I've only played it for a few hours so far, and at first I was contemplating if I should return the game. Now I decided I should keep the game, as it's pretty fun and it's really different than the other games on the Wii.
If you like the survival-horror genre, and you like solving puzzles, don't hessitate and get this game. It severely lacks polish, but this is an interesting game with a lot of innovation.
