Why The 'Alone In The Dark' Reboot Might Be Doomed

THQ has just announced an Alone In The Dark reboot that we seriously doubt will revive the series – even if we're talking about a semi-successful Dr. Frankenstein kind of resurrection. They're bringing the franchise back to its roots, seemingly going for a reboot that's also a sequel, or “requel”, if you will, of the first game in the series. The trailer looks pretty neat, yeah:

BUT…

Alone In The Dark invented the survival horror genre so one would expect that the nostalgia factor would do some magic here, but there are a few problems. The very first glaring issue is how like 90% of the people reading this don't even know Alone In The Dark, let alone know that it kickstarted survival horror. Most people attribute the whole genre to Resident Evil's rotten womb because that was the first series to achieve great success with it. Maybe it's because the original Alone In The Dark just didn't look scary at all.

Like, all of its monsters looked goofy and its scenery was too well-lit and colorful to convey the spooky factor we need from a horror game. It's so weird that the scariest part about this game was its actual heroes.

Successful reboots must either risk something new or try to replicate the highest point in the series. The first game isn't the highest point in the series. That's the fourth game, a game that was already a series reboot. Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare for the PS1 was the first time they tried something new – a dark and gritty reboot long before that was a thing. It's arguably the best game in the series and undeniably the best-looking one.

But even though successful enough to inspire a video game adaptation that resulted in one of the worst films of all time…

…it failed to measure up to the popularity of the more extravagant Resident Evil and the more purely horrifying Silent Hill series. They tried to breathe new life into the series on the PS3 once again, but it still didn't get the ball running for the franchise. 

(We wonder why).

The scenario is similar to what we see in Hollywood with countless reboots of stuff like King Arthur, Robin Hood, and now more recently an avalanche of weird Pinocchio adaptations. Just because the name of a property rings a bell, it doesn't necessarily mean anyone wants to pay to see more of it.

Top Image: THQ Nordic