As a great fan of Alone in the dark series, it's been a great ride. Until 2001.
The trilogy still gives me creeps, and i'm grown up. My worst nightmare is being stuck in a mansion or a dead town, like Slaughter Gulch, full of pirates and cowboys. Thanks infogrames.
First, Alone in the dark 1. It had so many puzzles, it was an extremely challenging game for the time it was made. And also it had so many trial-and-error. Death is almost certain when playing it. It's impossible to not die in your first playthrough, unless you're a genius to figure out the clues. It is definitely, the father of horror game genre. A masterpiece.
Second, The Alone in the dark 2. It wasn't so creepier and it had much more combat. Puzzles were simpler, but still, the game is a gem. Sometimes, the combat is frustrating, but you can get used to it. I really love it's soundtrack. The game looks less creepy, but still, it gave me some nightmares.
Third, The Alone in the dark 3. Now that's a true masterpiece. I consider it the BEST horror game. No more, no less. It has a perfect combination of combat and puzzles, the game is very balanced and isn't so frustrating. Some parts contains trial-and-error, but not as much the 1. For the time it was made, their graphics were showing age, but still, this game kicks ass.
Now... here comes the bad AITD games. Honestly, i don't even consider them part of the storyline.
Alone in the dark New nightmare (2001). A cheap Resident evil copy. Honestly, WTF?!?!? Resident evil copied Alone in the dark, and now they're copying resident evil??!?!? Carnby is laughable now, he's not a ginger anymore and he wears some "night hunter" outfit. And the game is set on 2001!!! holy crap, he's still young compared to 1928. Maybe he has a devil pact?
Nevertheless, the game is fun, but it feels like Resident evil. I mean, it IS Resident evil. The difference is: you have to fight some "shadowy creatures". Even the puzzles are similar! And the plot has NOTHING to do with AITD trilogy.
Now, the worst of all: Alone in the dark Near death investigation(2008)
This game sucks. Hard. I mean the developers had some nice ideas, like: the only way to kill creatures is using fire, some nice crafting system and enviroment interaction. But they screwed up the game badly, especially with bugs, laughable dialogues, cliché storyline, stupid unfinished open-world, easy boss fights, awkward mechanics, weird animations, small inventory space, annoying driving stages, ignoring past games and stupid endings.
To sum up, it's like Resident Evil 4. But add everything i said above.
Yes, i miss the time when infogrames actually did a good job. I hope someday they make a decent sequel to AITD, not in the year 2000, but somewhere in 1930-1940, that would be MUCH more fun.