Alone in the Dark: Illumination

Alone in the Dark: Illumination is a cooperative third-person shooter video game developed by Pure FPS and published by Atari. It was released for mh:awesomegames:Microsoft Windows on June 11, 2015. It is the sixth installment in the Alone in the Dark franchise. In 2018, mh:awesomegames:THQ Nordic purchased the license for the franchise.

Why It Should Be Left Alone in the Dark

 * 1) Misleading title: you're not alone, nor are you in the dark. This is a co-op shooter where the enemies are only vulnerable when in light. Also, the title suggests that this would be a horror game, but it isn't one.
 * 2) Disregards the series' roots; the previous games were survival horror games, but this one doesn't even attempt to scare you.
 * 3) There are no interesting mechanics in the game to differentiate it from better alternatives, aside from the fact that enemies can only damaged if they're under direct light (a la Alan Wake).
 * 4) There is little to no character customization; you can't change your character's clothes, nor can you acquire any new abilities for them.
 * 5) The skill system consists of passive upgrades to both class-specific and generic attributes.
 * 6) * Progressing through the skill tree only unlocks another loadout slot, in which you can equip another existing ability for your character (which also includes guns).
 * 7) There's no way to unlock new guns.
 * 8) To unlock loadout slots, you have to do the same levels multiple times.
 * 9) Incredibly repetitive combat, as it consists of lighting of an enemy by either a special ability or turning the lights on, then shooting it. Rinse and repeat throughout the entire game.
 * 10) Amazingly boring and repetitive gunplay, as the guns have no recoil, so you can empty an entire magazine into an enemy and not have to adjust your aiming.
 * 11) Pickups only consist of health and ammo (also includes class-specific abilities). There are no pickups for different weapons.
 * 12) None of the characters have any synergy, and the only adjustment made to co-op mode is that it has more enemies.
 * 13) There is no scaling for when you're playing alone; the levels are as large as they are in co-op mode and the objectives are the same. This results in you constantly going back and forth as you must gruelingly journey through every passage to complete an objective (fast travel would've been a welcome addition).
 * 14) Objectives are all drawn-out, tedious fetch-quests.
 * 15) Characters move extremely slowly and have to use to stamina to run, which also recharges slowly.
 * 16) The levels are incredibly confusing and have drab visual design.
 * 17) There's no mini-map to help guide you through the level; instead, you have the highlighted objectives, which don't tell you which path to take.
 * 18) The gates and doors lock at random to add depth to the level, but all this does is lead to you trying to take the most direct route, figuring out it's essentially a wall, and then enemies spawn behind you and kill you.
 * 19) Enemies themselves have braindead AI and are difficult to kill if they're in large numbers.
 * 20) Enemies constantly spawn inside closed buildings, so if you close a door and there happens to be an enemy inside, then they'll smash it open.
 * 21) Attacks from enemies are difficult to avoid because there's no dodge-roll key.
 * 22) The camera is incredibly close to your character and there's no way to adjust the FOV (field-of-view).
 * 23) It feels unfinished, as there's no voice acting and hardly any story in the game. There are also numerous bugs and glitches.
 * 24) Abhorrent visuals.
 * 25) It costs $30 for each copy, so if you and three friends want to play this game together, you have to spend $120, which is insulting for a game this horrible.
 * 26) It's the final nail in the coffin for an already-dead franchise, what makes this fact worse is the fact we are talking about the forefather of survival horror being killed here.
 * 27) As mentioned in point 23, there are no cutscenes or any dialogues at all! Instead, you are being shown text, which is just pathetic for a 21st century game which costs $30.
 * 28) Speaking about story; there is a backstory to how monsters invaded Lorwich, but none of the mentioned key antagonists appear in the game or have any further mentions. Besides that, each character has their own motives for coming to Lorwich, but the game completely forgets about them too.
 * 29) For some reason, the final boss of the game is Cthulhu. While it does sound out of place, but cool, his appearance and boss fight are just plain awful.

Reception
Alone in the Dark: Illumination received overwhelmingly negative reviews upon release, with a Metacritic score of 19/100 based on 12 reviews. It has been considered one of the worst video games of all time. It also killed off the series in general, as THQ Nordic purchased the license and there hasn't been a new Alone in the Dark game since, until 7 years later in 2022, when THQ Nordic announced a remake of the original Alone in the Dark in the same style as the recent Resident Evil remakes..

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