I picked Edward Carnby. His narrative is an interesting touch, since the datedness of such voice overs strangely suits the game's setting in the 1920s. I really don't understand Carnby's mission, though. Is he actually planning on moving a piano by himself?
The graphics definitely aren't up to 3DO standards, but something about their tacky, ugly look creates an unsettling feeling in my gut when combined with that nightmarish musical score. It's an altogether different feel, and I like it.
Once the intro is finished, I decide to save, and get the message "Error: Game not saved". I go to "load" to see if that'll help me deduce what's up, and there does seem to be a saved game there. I try loading it, and the game crashes, sending me back to the opening. This is not a good sign. But I shrug it off and put the game away for the night, hopeful that it'll work when I try it again.
Despite the brevity of this experience, and despite my having had only two dreams involving video games in my entire life, when I lay down to bed I had a dream about Alone in the Dark. I thought that I was playing it for the first time, though even within the dream I was thinking, "These graphics are way too sharp for the 3DO... This would be high-end even for the Wii." The fact that I wasn't holding a controller or looking at a TV, but actually within the game, didn't tip me off either.
Anyway, I was wandering around the haunted mansion, and the lights had gone out. I had a knife and some small light was guiding me, but I don't remember holding a lantern or anything. Ghosts of those who had died in the house sometimes approached me, but didn't attack - at first. Eventually I encountered the ghosts of two ten-year-olds, a boy and a girl. The girl asks me to give her my knife, and presents fairly sublime reasoning for my doing so, but I can't remember what it was now. As the game prompts me "Give knife?", the boy tells me that she's a sociopath, and that knife is the same one she used to kill him. I decide to give her the knife. At this point the ghost boy comes further into the light, and I can see blood red lines running all over his face and throat. Oops.
The girl comes at me with the knife. I manage to wrestle it away from her, but the commotion has caught the attention of many other hostile ghosts. For some reason I decide the way to defend myself is by cutting off all their hands, but my handling of the game's controls isn't so good under these panic-inducing conditions, and I'm not able to dice off more than a few. There's at least a dozen of them coming at me, and I'm hacking like a nut and retreating, but it's so dark that I can't see most of them at any given time, and I'm thinking, "My God, I'm all alone... in the dark."
That's where the dream ended. Game over, I guess?
As I ruminate on what to do next, a pair of outstretched zombie arms slowly drifts in front of the doorway. I soil my trousers. ...Not really, but it has honestly been a very long time since a video game scared me that much.
Seriously, what the heck. I could see if they forgot to mention it in the directions for just one action, but the directions for Search/open, Push, Fight, and Close Door all specifically leave out that you need to go through a menu. Nor is the menu's existence mentioned anywhere else.