| Alone in the Dark: Illumination | |
| Developer: | Pure FPS |
| Publisher: | Atari SA |
| Director: | Jason Brice |
| Composer: | Jeffrey Brice |
| Series: | Alone in the Dark |
| Engine: | Unreal Engine 4 |
| Platform: | Microsoft Windows |
| Released: | June 11, 2015 |
| Genre: | Third-person shooter |
| Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
Alone in the Dark: Illumination is a 2015 third-person shooter video game developed by Pure FPS and published by Atari SA for Microsoft Windows. The game is the sixth installment of the Alone in the Dark video game series. It received negative reviews from critics and was the last title in the series to be published by Atari, as the intellectual property has since been acquired by THQ Nordic.[1]
The game is an up-to-four-player cooperative experience with four distinct player characters working together to solve a mystery in an action-horror setting. Some characters wield firearms whereas others use magical abilities.[2] Players make their way through levels with randomly generated elements such as enemy locations, locked doors, or even room layouts to make their way to a safety vault at the end of the level. Throughout it, the players will have to fight off various types of enemies by means of firepower and creating light-sources to defeat them.[3]
The game brings players to the abandoned town of Lorwich, Virginia. Located near Virginia's southern border, Lorwich was a flourishing industrial town with a bustling business generated by the local coal mines. Those prosperous days came to an end when a flood devastated the mining facility, leaving behind nothing but destruction in its wake. The disaster forced an immediate evacuation, leaving the town desolate. It has been years since the accident, and the town has long been forgotten.
The cause of the accident is still a mystery and, years later, nobody dares to step a foot in the town for fear of what lies there. There have been numerous reports of strange creatures and a dark, brooding fog within the town. Some locals who believe in the supernatural say that there lurks an ever-present force known as The Darkness. The Darkness is said to envelop everything in its path and can reveal itself in many ways, such as fog, apparitions, and creatures.
The main source of the Darkness plaguing Lorwich is Cthulhu, an ancient being that came from the stars hundreds of millions of years ago with his people to war against the Elder Things of Earth. After the task was completed, Cthulhu retreated to the city of R'lyeh where the rise of the ocean buried him into a death-like slumber. An Obelisk was made to enable Cthulhu to walk the Material World.
Players destroy the Obelisk. However it does not stop Cthulhu from being unleashed into the world. Upon defeat, he is banished back to his dimension. A statement that plays before the credits roll concludes that portals are materializing around Lorwich and that Cthulhu will return one day.
There are four player characters:[2]
The game was in development by Pure FPS under the name Alone in the Dark for an indeterminate time. Originally prepared for announcement in May 2014, the announcement was delayed until August 20, during PAX East of the same year.[4] The official YouTube channel suggested that the original name for the game would have been Alone in the Dark: Online before settling on the final title. The game entered a closed alpha test in mid-August and entered beta later in fall. Beta access was available for a limited time to players who pre-ordered the title from select retailers.[2] The game was released on June 11, 2015.[5] The 'Summer Update 2016' introduced updates to the objective system, player abilities & progression, monster behavior and voiceover for all narrative text.[6]
Alone in the Dark: Illumination received "overwhelming dislike", according to review aggregator Metacritic.
Hooked Gamers rated it a 1.5 out of 10, stating "Alone in the Dark is dead, and now fans share the task of burying it away and trying to retain the good memories. Alone In The Dark: Illumination comes across as trying to be a Left 4 Dead 2 and Resident Evil 6 hybrid while doing absolutely nothing right, and favoring to do everything wrong."[7]