Alone in the Dark remains the same action-survival genre but this time viewed from a 3^rd person perspective. Based on a story specially written by Lorenzo Carcaterra (known for the book Sleepers), the game follows Edward Carnby in Central Park. Created after satellite measurements, but in a dark-goth atmosphere, Central Park will be the main location for Carnby's adventures. His main goal is to discover the secrets behind the abomination of Central Park and the whole City. The story follows the successful ingredients used for the TV series such as 24 and Lost.

The gameplay has changed a lot from the last installment of the franchise. Based most of the time on environment interaction and following now a 3^rd person perspective, the game looks very promising. A nice addition to the game is the inventory which is reproduced from a first person perspective. You can actually view the content of your pockets and do different combinations between objects. Every realistic object can be taken, used and carried. In the game you will wander quite a lot in darkness, so light is a vital element. One of the object combinations you can do is to take out from your inventory the flashlight and hold it in one hand, while having your pistol in the other hand, thus using them both. You can also do Molotov cocktails, sticky bombs, etc.

Almost anything in the game can be destroyed or burned. Fire is the main element in Alone in the Dark, and it is the result of one and a half years of development process. Fire can be controlled in your advantage and can do huge destruction.

You can actually fire up a chair which can be used for a while as a torch to light your way or to fire up another object. Fire will propagate on all flammable objects until it will destroy them. This means that you can create situations when your own character will be in danger if you fire up a wood cottage and you will not have any way of escape.

The whole game is built on a new home-made engine, that brings the graphics of this genre to another level. Dynamic light and water effects, advanced physics, fire - created as a standalone entity are elements that will characterize this new installment of Alone in the Dark franchise.

The game is scheduled to be released this November, so I'm looking forward to see how all these new elements will affect the gameplay.