Doesn't it make sense how she treats him compared to the reverse? From her perspective, she hired a detective, only for him to do who knows what, ramble on about made up stuff, while she solves everything. From his perspective, while he's doung his job, his client seems to be getting more unwell in this place, coupled with what he is learning about it and how it might be adding to her distress. So yeah, makes sense that he's understanding and she's annoyed.
@bruhmodeactive3211 True, but does believing in the cult stuff equate to the belief in the supernatural? Plus, it does seem like she kinda softenes closer to end, suggesting he rests a bit in one of their interactions.
I almost kinda wish the split was like, a full one. Instead of an alternative view of the same events, have them be full on different sides of the happenings. One Character focuses on Jeremy and The Dark Man, and the Other character focuses on the cult and the tree.
@@lewislewis3531 Wrong. It's just the lazyness of developers in our current Era, same mistake happened in the Remake of Resident Evil 2. The original Alone in the Dark in 1992 had a budget of 40.000 US dollars. The booking price for David Harbour(actor of Carnby in this game) is between 75,000 to149,999 US dollars. Even with inflation(40.000 US dollars today would be 88,474.98 US dollars), they paid more for David Harbour, than the original Alone in the Dark had cost in it's entirety and this is all they could produce?
@roberthartburg266 It's strange, Alone in the Dark is such a simple premise to nail. But the last good game in the series was, what, The New Nightmare? Was that '99, 2000? Really, how hard is it to fill a mansion with Lovecraftian horrors, puzzles and a cult? It writes itself!
You know what would be cool? If after completing both Edward's and Emily's routes you unlock a third route where they are both transfixed by the painting and they have to work together.
I get the sneaking suspicion that the game underwent significant redesigns to turn Emily from a passive companion to a playable character. It would explain why several scenes were basically identical, and only the ones revolving around their personal issues remained as is. And several plot points got lost in the transition, some of which the devs never could get back to.
@@gimmeurshibaquik7 it might be because the game turned into a franchise, and during the course of that franchise, anyone who got their hands on the franchise focused super hard on Edward and completely dropped Emily. This might be the first game Emily was even thought about since the original, the incidental scenes might be because half way through development they had to remind themselves that in the original Emily was playable too.
I get the other vibe--like Emily was originally intended to be the only playable character--confronting her family history with Gnarly while Edward discovered the Shubby cult off-screen. Then they added an alternate "Edward Version" of events (presumably because he's the more well-known AitD Protagonist) and the expertise they developed over the course of working on Emily's version let them make better Spooky Cutscenes.
I appreciate how each character has a unique personality. Edward is seen as an adversary by the dark man, influencing the others' more kinder interactions with him. Emily is perceived as a threat by the mother, creating a stronger connection, which is why the cult were more aggressive towards her, while the dark man appeared to be more passive in his approach. while yes it needs some polishing, it clearly is impressive
Okay, that hand grabbing the book was somehow one of the most terrifying things I’ve seen in a long while. My screen brightness is turned down, so I didn’t realize what it was until the fingers folded over the page and my heart stopped dead in my chest.
33:45 "Ruth is here tag teaming her liver and her lungs" Ben....it's lines like this that make me come back to your channel reviews time and time again - perfection!
I do like that the Detective feels like the kind of person who would make their career being a snoop and having an overriding sense of curiosity driving them.
Alone in the dark goes balls deep into the cthulhu mythos and it resonates only if u know what things like Nyarlathotep or Goat Mother, it can confuse other players. Tho i think this isn't a bad thing since some games should just not be for every audience. Personally i enjoy the weirdness of the story. Derceto was basically a battleground for Lovecraftian gods. Good thing his cat wasn't the final boss tho :^)
Hastur also made an appearance, not by name but behind the scenes. Cassandra, an author working on a Script. Definitely the a King in Yellow. I also agree, I found it weird that he didn't took a small dive into lovecraftian lore. The bigger picture that Nyarlathotep made the ritual for Shub'Niggurath happen is my current theory, seeing how he wants to bring the other gods into existence.
it make sense they took a deeper dive only the first alone in the dark game used allot of lovecraft writings into the including meantioning cathulu so its no suprise they also used it in the remake@@chron874
@chron874 isn't Nyarly's whole thing is that he is typically a chaos factor that just wants to screw intelligent beings over, but he is still ultimately subservient to Yog Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath? If Shubby wants to manifest on Earth and she wants him to help her, he's kinda obligated to do so no matter what and has to put aside his typical flavor of trolling humanity with atrocities to focus on what she wants, so it makes perfect sense why he is here and working for her.
@@swirekster he absolutely does, making people's lives miserable while manipulating his way into positions of power like pharaohood is his favorite pastime, but when his uncle and aunt-in-law come knocking he has to actually work on stuff. Also, something I just realized is that the final boss is definitely meant to be The Dark Young, which is a much better explanation than it being a true Manifestation of Shubby. The ritual in the endgame shares a lot of the beats with the ritual used to summon the Dark Young.
Also the game is very self-aware of being reimagination of the oryginal, listen to the Jeremy at 51:37, 'Frédérick needed me to die'. He is actually talking about the director of alone in the dark from 1992, Frédérick Raynal. 'it's not how story is supposed to go'. There are more hints through the game for that too, i think there is another layer to what is happening in this game other than 'it's a hint'. If it is a hint, it is very VERY big hint. Edit: Also for the phone call at 53:43, It's actually the Jacob calling u i think, it's how the Jeremy sees himself, a martyr trapped forever in the frozen, alien land. That's why when u stab him in the eye, you lobotomise Jeremy, In cthulhu universe the victim is doomed to madness and suicide after becoming aware of the nightmares of the universe, you can't just go back to your normal life knowing. The only way is to numb yourself enough...
That's so cool about the original director. I also noticed a nod to "The new nightmare" I believe it was a letter or a telegram in Carnby's office that was sent by "Obed Morton "
I find it interesting that in the game they mention both Nyarlathotep and Shub-Niggurath from Lovecraft's works. Giving us a potential answer where all the supernatural elements came from.
Not just potential, if you know ANY Cthulhu mythos, once those names come up, all of it begins to make sense. You're standing on a battleground for the Outer Gods.
The scariest part of this game is the lack of Magnificent Moustache on the main character. Also very good review of the game and using clips without commentary or altering them helps add to your points about them. This is a great example on reviewing make your point, show the point to confirm it but also add stripulations that it wont always be just that
Agreed the lack of moustache is so tragic. Lowkey kinda tired of grizzled looking male main characters in cakes looking more or less the same. Having a magnificent moustache would’ve been a lovely addition.
i can understand some of emilys behavior being a lot more cold in edwards story, especially the attic scene, because from her perspective this is a person she hired for help/protection and hes acting strange. its really irritating though that the writing has her say basically nothing about whats going on yet act like youre ignoring her. it would have been nice to see her be more compassionate after seeing the detective get so roughed up later on, rather than just being like 'uh are you okay? take it easy, bye.' and have her say more than just how the place makes people crazy. it woulda been interesting if she doubted the detective while believing the culty stuff was going on because shes too focused on her more grounded research, and have that mirrored with the detective not listening to what she has to say not bc hes ignoring her but hes too caught up in the supernatural side of stuff to really focus on what the information she has. idk. it seems really good, but falls a bit too short in some aspects!
Everytime Ben mentions his fear of deep waters, I smile waiting for the day that a Subnautica video will come out soon. But as always, high quality stuff.
I do like how Jeremy kinda looked like the Camby from the original game with how he's dressed and his scenes taking the most inspiration from the original game.
I still have a soft spot for it, its puzzle system and the most realistic inventory ever. Yeah you have just enough pockets, yeah it is cumbersome to rummage through them, YEAH DUCTTAPE IS AMAZING. And fire... Man, how awesome was their fire system.
That second monster around the corner suprise was so good. Like, thats the exact setup for a combat tutorial. I expected a text box to tell you what button to press to aim, not a suprise attack.
"I remember you giving me little to no information." I think that's the thing. Something was fucking with the PC's perception. So we weren't fully hearing her. And likewise, she couldn't fully hear us. Likewise, I feel like the changes are that Emily is going to be prone to an Outer God's touch (Nyarlathotep aka the Dark Man aka the Crawling Chaos), hence the change in her cutscenes there as well as the sexism. I'm almost certain people are more violent to her because the Goat Mother views her as dangerous, too. Canrby, meanwhile, is a threat to Nyarly, not someone he's "owed." Grace seems to be "aware" of Nyarly here, and that's what SHE'S violent with Emily until later. Likely trying to see if Emily has normal reactions or not--test if she's "submitted" to Nyarly. I do fault them a bit for not making sure to include info on these concepts inside the game and expecting outside knowledge.
These concepts would work so much better and make for a more enjoyable game if they’d found a clever way to actually tell the player this. Seems like they had cool ideas but maybe needed a little longer to cook
the parts with the sexism probably should’ve been explained better ;; it’s cool in concept, especially because of the time period this took place in, but it really didn’t come off great. it just looked like everyone was bullying her for no good reason (it also especially didn’t look good that the only two black characters were ESPECIALLY hyper aggressive with her compared to carnby… sheesh)
I love the detail that Edward's and Emily's clothing is messed up and often bloody. Still, neither acknowledges it when they interact which could've further pushed this idea that everything was just in their head, which it kinda is but also not, so it just makes things more confusing for us to understand if anything they go through is real. This also marks the second game featuring H.P. Lovecraft's deity Shub-Niggurath as an antagonist I've seen and I wasn't expecting it, points on your game. Good job.
I'm just throwing it out there that the other AITD games also used to voice narrate the files you found in game to the player, often times with hammy acting. So the fact that they kept the voice narration in is a nice touch. Edit: I wish they'd done what they did in New AITD. Both stories in that game happen in the same location but you get a very different experience as Carnby or Alleen and both have more focus on an individual playstyle. Carnby is more action/combat while Alleen is more puzzle oriented and both have different story beats. This is just roughly the same game with a few changes. Why did they make Emily so unpleasant? I think they were trying to make a strong female lead but she comes off as just defiant, rude and dismissive rather than courageous and determined.
I love how Jeremy says Frédérick needed him to die 30 years ago to make the story happen right. Since Jeremy's death is the catalyst for the story of the original Alone in the Dark, made by Frédérick Raynal
I like how you can still spot the typical Unreal Engine stutters in the video as well, at first I thought you were lucky or cutting the footage where stuttering did occur, but I still managed to spot some
Usually I watch the spoiler section on games no problem, but watching this has made me REALLY want to discover the ending for myself. So SORRY, but I will return after I have. What i have watch has been a FANTASTIC video Ben and thank you for showing me this game. Have a great rest of your day!
Wait, so Jeremy was writing about being stalked by a "Dark Man?" In a game that takes influence from Lovecraft's writings? That doesn't sound too good…
Yeah, considering the Egyptian theming the Dark Man had, and that Jeremy describes him as "He of a Thousand Faces", i'm pretty sure that the Dark Man is supposed to be Nyarlathotep.
I think Ben is the only creator that can make an hour long video that I will actively sit and watch throughout the entire video. Other videos that long I will have on in the background while doing something else but there is something about Ben's video style and commentary that really is engaging. Ben if you read this thank you for the amazing content
This feels like a, uh, Scarlet-Violet scenario: really amazing game, but the bugs are prominent enough that they might overshadow the actual merits of the game. For both this and SV, I hope they’re remembered for the good of the actual game and not their technical issues.
Honestly,given the internet,both those games are gonna be remembered as glitchy mess rather than what the story was trying to convey,wich is a shame because I really liked SV
I was pretty surprised when actual Lovecraftian entities started showing up. Not just lovecraftian inspiration, but actual canon things Nyarlathotep and Shub-Niggurath were NOT my first guess to "what's the big bad evil thing of this game gonna be". Though I do guess that last boss was a Dark Young? In any case I'm going to have to look at this game again but throught the lovecraft lens
I mean it makes sense. Nyarlathotep is the one that brings them into our reality. By breaking the contract with Jeremy he ensured that they'd sacrifice the kid to Shub'niggurath, calling forth the mother of a thousand young. *also, probably a keyboard typo but it is Hastur.
@TheDoc_K granted, in the limited knowledge we have about it, it only goes after whoever has it's pendant. There is precedent for a game like that in Amnesia the dark descent, maybe Amnesia 2 but definitely in the Claire A scenario in RE2.
I disagree that the elevator scene with Emily is worse. It different because her relationship with the Dark Man, Nyarlathotep, is different than Carnby's. Emily is a Hartwood...she belongs to the Dark Man. She is called to him, her whole family is. He is trying to sneak up on her, worm his way in, become established in her mind before she has any knowledge of it. She is a vessel, that's why she is drawn toward him instead of compelled to hurt herself. The only reason it failed is because of Jorge calling after her. Carnby is just an obstacle for Nyarlathotep. He's a plaything for a being so ancient and evil that it can barely be comprehended, and is almost lost to gibbering madness at even the smallest contact. Why would their interactions with the Dark Man be the same when their relationships to him are completely different?
1:14:13 that previous cutscene while is 'not as good' as Carnby, it makes more sense if you take it as fact that the Hartwood Curse is something due to Nyarlathotep's Influence of her family. The Black Pharaoh wants Carnby dead for meddling in is affairs. He wants Emily alive due to whatever history he has with her family, coming for their minds as they get older. This game really glosses over the idea that the Hartwoods are connected to an Outer God like Nyarlathotep... but then again just from your video i have no idea what the cult hoped to achieve by invoking Shub-Niggurath either...
I love the fact that Jeremy refers to Frederick which is the game developer of the original as well as referencing that his death in the original (30 years ago) is what made the character go to mansion. It makes me think that the original is still canon as well this remake!
Also I think the reason why both characters say they've been here awhile is that they're referencing the original as Jeremy constantly mentions he should be dead and that the story isn't going how it was supposed to. It looks like the characters have some sort of recognition (probably due to both having experience with the supernatural) that they've done this before
I can't help feeling like we were a little robbed storywise. I feel like it would of been really rad for emily to go through jeremy's madness and such, since duh, its his niece-- but then carnaby do the detective thing and discover the cult and deal with his own paranormal happenings in the "real world". all in all another beautiful video!
I wasn't expecting this game to have this much difference compared to the original, even though it makes sense. It's almost like you're playing a completely different game while still having it feel like the original Alone in the Dark at certain points.
Let's goooooo! I was hoping you'd cover this game. Funny enough the original Alone in the Dark vid was how I found your channel, it was listed in my recommended and I thought "what the hell? I'll watch it, thumbnail looks cool" safe to say I've been hooked on your channel since 😁 Can't wait for whatever you do next 👌
one thing I wanna say about Emily, while playing as her they did a good job of showing women being belittled and dismissed for this time period. even the scene you describe as him being helpful and showing concern for her (1:16:11) actually feels incredibly condescending. now granted, someone asking you if you've seen monsters and if you've fired your gun would leave many people going "yeah, m'kay sure", but that's not really actual concern, and it really nailed a light female rage of being constantly dismissed. she's pushy and aggressive, more so than he is, because people are less inclined to help her, and more likely to be violent or dismissive. you can just feel the "ok grandma, lets get you to bed" oozing out of every character. clearly the lil lady is just *stressed* and having *anxiety,* she's just mentally ill and in over her pretty little head. she needs to rest or go home and leave it to the men to handle. almost every woman knows the feeling of being the "woman who cried pain", and having a family history of mental illness just makes that a million times worse because every very real thing is just dismissed as you being crazy. of course she's pissed! but as well, if someone with a history of mental illness asks you if you've seen monsters around would lead most people to roll their eyes and not entirely be able to hide their underlying feeling of dismissal. but that doesn't make it any less frustrating to the victim, even when it is just their actual mental illness. but this kinda explains her dismissive and rude behavior when you're playing as him too. it's from his POV, and just like how you as a man saw that scene between them as him being helpful and concerned, I as a woman caught in his tone that it was condescending and belittling, even if he did honestly give her info first. and I'm not saying he isn't actually concerned for her there, but there's a level of misogyny underlying it, so her rudeness feels out of pocket because we're not seeing those scenes from her eyes, only his, where we're encouraged to be sympathetic to him and view her frustration as unjustified. sure, it'd have been nicer if she'd showed a little more concern for his well being, but she didn't show *none* ether. he just seemed to be getting more and more unhinged so of course she's more "wtf, I thought you were a professional" than "oh my god are you ok what happened!?". she finds him seemingly drunk and then later nearly drowning all by himself in a bath. as far as she sees he's seemingly just faffing around and chasing ghosts and walking into wardrobes to sulk while she's left to do all the work she's literally paying him to do. her being pissed off and less than friendly and concerned feels completely natural to me. all in all I think it was really well done, and I'm glad I got to experience it here first : )
Aren't you tired of being a professional victim?? Let's look at the actual plot, the logical conclusion is that the detective is on drugs or drunk in his story, as he is found on the ground or unconscious randomly by Emily, which explains why he's hallucinating monsters and weird places. Meanwhile, Emily doesn't have any excuse for why she's seeing strange things in her story, but she has both a grandfather and an uncle with mental illness, at least to the other characters, and is found alone in a room talking to herself while looking at a wall in the dark. You can't seriously talk like their situation is the same. And that is before talking about why they are there, Emily is a random civilian who is family with one of the patients who has never been there before, as nobody recognises her, while Barnaby is literally a detective doing his job. Mind you, he has solved cases in the past while Emily shouldn't even be snooping around. Finally, let's talk about your bullshit "misogyny". A detective finds his client talking alone to herself, asking him about monsters and if he shoots his gun at somebody. He has a pretty good suspicion that the place is dangerous, as there are other missing persons, and there is a literal cult. He knows that she has a family story of mental illness and that she's acting strange so he asks her to leave, even offering to take her to a safe place himself and that he'll still look for her uncle. And you find this wrong just because he is a man and she is a woman??? Even if you change the sexes the female detective should tell the male client to leave as the place is dangerous and he looks like he's having a hard time keeping it together. You have a serious case of projection or narcissism, It doesn't matter that Emily is a woman, she sounds insane to anybody who hears her and she's in danger just because everyone except for Carnby could try to kill her. Please pay attention to what the story is actually saying and not what you think it's saying, it's pretty obvious that you're seeing what you want to see.
@@p.e.4440this is the funniest reply I think I've ever gotten. I didn't need you to prove my point in the funniest way possible, but I'm so glad you did
While I completely agree with you and your points all make sense, that still doesn’t keep her from coming across as unpleasant. While it is a very accurate portrayal of how women were treated back then and how they had to act to get respect, it still doesn’t make her a likable character, and it hurts her character in the long run.
@@Pikaman20008oh I never said it made her likable, just that it's accurate and her general unpleasantness is likely on purpose rather than a mistake in the writing or acting. a protagonist doesn't have to be likable to the audience to tell her story well, but being unlikable does a lot of subtle heavy lifting regarding what kind of person her time period and experiences have made her into. I think their biggest flaw in this writing for this is not leaning into it even more and making it a bit more blatant or actually show it more so the entire audience can develop more sympathy for her and her actions and better understand her as a person, rather than leaving it to only some of the playerbase to be able to recognize and fill in the blanks.
I will say that there was very little lag on the ps5 version, leading to smoother transitions between realities. Edit: There's a really cool touch for when your chased by the Dark Man, if you try to aim your gun at him you point the gun at your own head instead.
i recently played ghost trick because i wanted to watch ur video on it but i heard it was rlly good, so i played it first. i LOVE that i can hear and recognize the soundtrack in this video. You’re quickly becoming my favorite watch-while-drawing youtuber 😋😋
I'm currently watching a playthrough of Alone in the Dark by TheRadBrad. He's the first gaming youtuber that I watched back then, so it's fitting for me to watch him play a remake of the first ever Survival Horror game.
Alone in the Ben, Again, Ben, you always pop out these fine videos, ive been watching you since you had only 100k subs or less(probably less), and you're one of the most entertaining youtubers out there who don't have to make exaggerated adhd fueled editing just to make it enjoyable with overall high quality aswell, thank you on another note, notice how the Carnby's clothes slowly become dirtier as time goes on? it reminds me alot of Spec ops: The Line
Maybe Batiste tried to kill Emily because he thought that she was a part of Jeremy’s mind? And then he understood that she is real and stopped. But in the Carnby route he didn’t know him so he thought he was a real person.
I love your reviews, and this one is no different. However, I do think you didn't cut Emily nearly as much slack as you cut the Detective. I do generally agree the Detective is a way more likeable character in general, but it is clear that in each of their respective routes, the other character is not experiencing supernatural events, and if they are, it is not nearly to the extent of each other. During the Detective's route, he honestly comes off as delusional, saying he's "almost cracking the case" while walking into closet portals only he can see, talking about ghosts, and so on. Emily hired this guy, and from her perspective, he's crazier than the people she's been interrogating. It is perfectly understandable that she would be disappointed with his performance, annoyed with his claims, and ultimately dismissive of his actions, when she is not experiencing the same events he is. In her own route, she's the one experiencing the supernatural events, and he is not. You mention how he is still understanding, but especially in the first interaction, that isn't the case. He dismisses her claims, much as she does to him in his route, except there's a hint of...well, 1920s attitude to it. The Detective might still be a likeable protagonist overall, but he's the male hired professional who's seeing his female client say she blacked out, and his reaction is to say "you're clearly upset, I understand the stress is too much for you, do you want to go back home?" which clearly frustrates Emily, because that's not what she's saying, he doesn't understand, and she knows any attempts to explain will just be taken as further evidence of her being unwell. With the context that "female hysteria" was a real diagnosis given to women in that time period, the impact of his mild antagonizing does get amplified. He might not be consciously being a sexist dick (pun intended), but the scene does become uncomfortable if you're watching it as a woman. Especially since he ends it with a dismissive tone of "that's nice that you found a clue, stay out of trouble while I solve the case, alright?" like you'd talk to a child. The game doesn't seem to call attention to this (which I think is a positive, it doesn't hammer the point in a preachy way), so it is easy to miss if you've never been in a similar situation yourself, but the scene does hit different if you have personal experience to draw upon, or if you just consider the time period and the roles of the characters in general. But with that out of the way, I love your review! I feel like you deliver the information present in the games you review better than most games do by themselves, while still commenting on the gameplay and displaying the highlights. I learn more about the games you review watching you, than I would solely by playing them or watching another YTer to a Let's Play, while still not missing on the puzzles and gameplay elements as I would if I watched another YTer do a "explaining the story of [game]" video, since you always highlight them! All in all, your videos are the best of both worlds, and I just wanted to share how much they're appreciated!
I’m pretty sure the interactions are vastly different between the two specifically because the shadow man is only interested in the heartwoods The detective is only getting in the way of his plans, so he treats him a lot differently than Emily
And on the other hand the people of the cult are way more aggressive towards the people of the cult because she is perceived as a threat by they're dark god
The audio gets weird around the 1:19:00 mark, as if it were out through an old radio. Not just for the game, but for your mic as well. Didn't know if you were aware
I believe the point of Grace being more aggressive towards emily could have very well been her acting out on her own trauma, either reacting like Emily was her mother, or treating Emily how her mother treated her. "Learn your place, little girl" [paraphrased] definitely sounds more like a child repeating something they've heard from an adult over them comimg up with it on the spot to be degrading.
What it feels like, is that they may have originally planned to have you play as carnby through most of the game, but during select sections play as heartwood. Might explain some of the terrible glitches but I don't have game coding experiance to back up that claim.
I think given the context of Grace having a greedy, abusive mother...that may be why she is abusive to Ms. Hartman and not Carnby. It's a sort of extension of how she loves her father but not her mother...in her warped mind, she's projecting them onto Carnby and Hartman.
I feel like I should've known about a new alone in the dark. Well I'm glad I was able to find out here, I really liked your video on the old one so this is a treat after a really long day. Great video by the way
I actually kinda like the change with Grace. I think it's actually a bit telling of how the women are treated in the hospital Grace is probably echoing behavior and words said to her, and it's stated her mother treated her poorly and didn't actually care about her It makes sense that all these sentiments are only shown when you play as Emily, because Emily is a woman. Not to mention the Doctor calling Emily a spinster at one point, it's clear that women aren't quite seen as equals to men at all. Also also, Grace has literally been manipulated into a cult, it makes sense that all these ideals are reflected through her since she's the most vulnerable. That's jst my view on it though :]
41:48 So I played this part today. Instead of ignoring him, I tried to shoot him just to see what would happen and then after the first shot, Carnby actually started to aim the gun at himself So i had to stop looking at him
Ben, this made me realize. I think I would enjoy seeing you play the dark pictures anthology series. I dont know if you would enjoy it, but I know I would enjoy seeing you play it.
When you noted the differences in character design at the beginning, it made me realize mustached protagonists are practically nonexistent in modern games. Besides character creation, can you name a single game in the last ten years that has a mustache? I'm sure there are indie games with them, but I can't recall any at all off the top of my head.
I think the idea is that the Dark Man is approaching them differently because she is part of the family and so it’s affecting her differently. If it’s part of a “curse” as her uncle says, she would have it. Whereas the detective is an outsider who is interfering with whatever the evil presence is trying to accomplish. That’s what it feels like based on how the different scenes are laid out.
Funny enough I played as Emily first and I gotta say, I don't agree with your perception of her. What you say was aggressive I saw as defensive and frustrated. She's gone though some brutal times, trying to work though her families fractured existence. and living with the guilt of her fiance's death. I fully understood where she was coming from and really enjoyed my time with the game, I'm looking forward to my next playthough xxx
Wow, that's the coolest Nyarlathotep story I've seen in a long while. Possibly ever, really. And I really like the whole "A totally *different* mythos story was going on while The PC was busy running around Jeremy's mind and going crazy" thing. Although I wish there was a way to play through that totally different story! I'll definitely buy this if they debug it.
I like how Nyarlathothep (Crawling Chaos) and Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of Woods) were mentioned And then never appeared (unless Dark Man is Nyarlathothep, which would make 100% sense given how he is called from time to time; you can't convince me that that living piece of wood is The Blacm Goat though).
Yes, the dark man is one of nyarlathoteps forms, the Pharaoh. And yes, the tree became one of the usual depictions of an avatar of shub niggurath. Look up some comparison images, it's quite good actually. I'm also convinced that the girl is also one of the pharaohs forms. Or at least devoted to him.
absolutely exquisite video! the gameplay and information is so well organized and easily digestible- an impressive feat for a video an hour and a half long. as someone who has watched the Alone in the Dark remakes fall to obscurity (because let's be honest, they were terrible lol), it's nice to see a high quality in-depth video on a pretty good reimagining. not to mention the small snippets in-between the commentary where your actual reactions to the game are shown; those snippets make your gaming experience feel more real and personal. keep up the great work! and great thumbnail art as per usual! (commenting to boost both morale and algorithm)
From what the characters say, the Black Goat of the Woods is Shab-Niggurat, Lovecraftian goddess, also known as The Goat with Thousand Young. The Black Man is Nyarlathotep, the Emissary of the cosmic gods, shapeshifter and famous for interacting the most with humanity
Gonna be honest, they DEFINITELY need to put Grace into another psych ward b/c something is wrong with that kid. Like I'm pretty sure if this game has a sequel the plot is gonna be her trying to start another cult when she's older or something.
Wow :D Its kinda fun to see someone playthrough cthulhu mythos inspired story without realizing any of references, take that people who say those references have been overdone xD (wasn't expecting final boss to be a dark young of shub-niggurath)
You should do a long form video of the Danganronpa games, I know it’s like super different than what you usually cover but I love your videos and how you speak about the games you cover ! It would be really cool to see
I first learned about Alone in the Dark from your vid on the original, and when I saw the new one announced I was actually holding out some good expectations for this one. Nice to hear your thoughts on it.
After the last few Alone In The Dark stinkers, we really needed this game. You actually get a chance to be alone in the dark for one. I still am confused on the story as a whole, kinda hoping there might be an update in the future where Edward and Emily can team up together or something and share the clues they find.
It personally feels like there was supposed to be a more meaningful split between the narratives, but something in development lead to the cult side of the story becoming an underdeveloped subplot that only comes into effect at the end of the game cuz they wanted to use the tree boss fight from the first game. I feel like it wouldn't have been hard to actually make it work but perhaps a majority of the cult plot had to be scrapped for time constraints or something. I could easily see the cult plot being Edward's story as he has no relation to Jeremy.
ngl i actually loved Grace haha, her line at the end of Carnby's playthrough sent me. she's just a weird little girl, which means she's just a normal little girl. i'd say weird AF shit if i was a shred less self conscious, or slightly bolder, when i was her age (a mentally and emotionally disturbed 12-13yo). lord only knows the thoughts i kept locked in my head or expressed in f'ed up creative writing projects that make my stomach churn more than a decade later haha. i am hesitant to embrace some of the themes the horror is built on, however. you say mental wards are always a great setting, but not only are they very, very overdone, they're also problematic when the horror stems from "ooooo the patients are weird and scary", due to the way it perpetuates harmful beliefs about the mentally ill. in reality, mental health facilities, especially back in the day, are horrific places... for the PATIENTS. terrible, inhumane things were done to the people consigned and abandoned to these places, and even to this day i know multiple friends who were "commited" to wards and came out with brand new traumas because of the way they were treated as practically sub-human. so many of us who have suffered from severe mental health lows will potentially hide the extent of the problem if it means we aren't forcibly taken away to these places, because there's no guarantee it will be "one of the good ones". so while i generally enjoyed Carnby's version of the story especially, and i loved the psychological horror aspects of the Dark Man and the worlds Jeremy built up in his mind, i wish the setting was different, or that the cult twist was removed and instead replaced with something more sympathetic. maybe it could instead be revealed that the Doctor and staff were the ones conducting rituals on the patients because they knew, or at least believed, that no one on the outside would notice or care. the story could have subverted the "patients are crazy" trope and instead unmasked the true villains as being the very people who the patients were left in the "care" of. then the doctor's downplaying of Jeremy's curse would be a great analogy for the way patients' mental health struggles are minimized and not taken seriously. part of the adventure would be helping each patient escape the brainwashing and manipulation of the doctor, so that in the end, when it's time to conduct the sacrifice, they turn things around and the staff are taken by the "mother" instead. the ultimate fight with the tree can still happen the same way, but now they save all of the patients and not just Grace. my final quibble is the questionable inclusion of voodoo as the basis for the evil magic, as that feeds into its own mess of negative stereotypes, given voodoo's origins with black folk from the south, like new orleans. it's just never nuanced, it's always presented as dark and grotesque, but voodoo is a real thing practiced by real people even now, just like wicca, or other pagan beliefs, etc. it just gives me the ick. i don't have the language to fully get into the weeds of it, but suffice to say it concerns me. just like with the mental ward setting, i do think it could be utilized better - maybe the white staff are using some kind of bastardized magic they call voodoo out of ignorance and/or malice, and the black characters could be used to educate the player through explaining things to the player characters. it would make sense diagetically since the player characters are trying to find out what's going on, and thus disentangling the cult rituals from real voodoo practices would be important for understanding the full picture. players get a history and culture lesson, and the story doesn't perpetuate the same misconceptions so often regurgitated for a cheap horror trick. still, i enjoyed the video and your breakdown as always! i recently watched every video on your channel and, upon realizing this, felt devastated that there was no more "benagain" content to consume, so you can imagine my sheer delight when i saw this in my reccs feed - and instant click for me! looking forward to the next one with bated breath...
This is based on the works of Lovecraft. Nyarlathotep (aka the dark man), Shub-Niggurath (aka the black goat of the woods), cults worshipping these old gods, incomprehensible madness, etc. Turning this into some kind of preachy story meant to "educate" would not work at all. Might as well remove anything lovecraftian at that point. If what you got out of this game was "mentally ill people bad" or "black people use evil magic" or whatever, then idk what to tell you. That is not at all the message of this game.
Doesn't it make sense how she treats him compared to the reverse?
From her perspective, she hired a detective, only for him to do who knows what, ramble on about made up stuff, while she solves everything.
From his perspective, while he's doung his job, his client seems to be getting more unwell in this place, coupled with what he is learning about it and how it might be adding to her distress.
So yeah, makes sense that he's understanding and she's annoyed.
I can understand that, but she seemed to have less to no understanding even after "believing" in the cult stuff
@bruhmodeactive3211 True, but does believing in the cult stuff equate to the belief in the supernatural?
Plus, it does seem like she kinda softenes closer to end, suggesting he rests a bit in one of their interactions.
@@RedZeroX They're kinda closely related to be honest
also the fact that the man CLEARLY has bloodstains on his shirt, from whatever beings have been attacking him
@@xoyv but what if someone no hits the game, then they wouldnt have that
I almost kinda wish the split was like, a full one. Instead of an alternative view of the same events, have them be full on different sides of the happenings. One Character focuses on Jeremy and The Dark Man, and the Other character focuses on the cult and the tree.
Yeah, I agree with you.
This game did not have that kind of budget. I'm guessing.
thats what Inwas expecting would happen tbh
@@lewislewis3531 Wrong. It's just the lazyness of developers in our current Era, same mistake happened in the Remake of Resident Evil 2. The original Alone in the Dark in 1992 had a budget of 40.000 US dollars. The booking price for David Harbour(actor of Carnby in this game) is between 75,000 to149,999 US dollars. Even with inflation(40.000 US dollars today would be 88,474.98 US dollars), they paid more for David Harbour, than the original Alone in the Dark had cost in it's entirety and this is all they could produce?
@roberthartburg266 It's strange, Alone in the Dark is such a simple premise to nail. But the last good game in the series was, what, The New Nightmare? Was that '99, 2000?
Really, how hard is it to fill a mansion with Lovecraftian horrors, puzzles and a cult? It writes itself!
You know what would be cool? If after completing both Edward's and Emily's routes you unlock a third route where they are both transfixed by the painting and they have to work together.
I feel like in the “remaster” or mod or some other “enhanced” edition they would add that or something like that, like a mix of both modes.
@@sand_sand7304 the little girl could play a nice act to the detective and a mean one to Emily.
yeah
maybe it could be a co-op mode?
@@__aa__That's what I was thinking too! I was worried it might be a silly idea.
I get the sneaking suspicion that the game underwent significant redesigns to turn Emily from a passive companion to a playable character. It would explain why several scenes were basically identical, and only the ones revolving around their personal issues remained as is. And several plot points got lost in the transition, some of which the devs never could get back to.
But why would they turn Emily into a passive character when she was playable in the OG game at the first place
@@gimmeurshibaquik7 it might be because the game turned into a franchise, and during the course of that franchise, anyone who got their hands on the franchise focused super hard on Edward and completely dropped Emily. This might be the first game Emily was even thought about since the original, the incidental scenes might be because half way through development they had to remind themselves that in the original Emily was playable too.
@@roseblazethethirteenth7866 okay, that makes sense
@@roseblazethethirteenth7866 its the second time they used here she is also playabel in new nightmere
I get the other vibe--like Emily was originally intended to be the only playable character--confronting her family history with Gnarly while Edward discovered the Shubby cult off-screen. Then they added an alternate "Edward Version" of events (presumably because he's the more well-known AitD Protagonist) and the expertise they developed over the course of working on Emily's version let them make better Spooky Cutscenes.
I appreciate how each character has a unique personality. Edward is seen as an adversary by the dark man, influencing the others' more kinder interactions with him. Emily is perceived as a threat by the mother, creating a stronger connection, which is why the cult were more aggressive towards her, while the dark man appeared to be more passive in his approach. while yes it needs some polishing, it clearly is impressive
Okay, that hand grabbing the book was somehow one of the most terrifying things I’ve seen in a long while. My screen brightness is turned down, so I didn’t realize what it was until the fingers folded over the page and my heart stopped dead in my chest.
33:45 "Ruth is here tag teaming her liver and her lungs" Ben....it's lines like this that make me come back to your channel reviews time and time again - perfection!
I do like that the Detective feels like the kind of person who would make their career being a snoop and having an overriding sense of curiosity driving them.
The scenes where he seems to muse to himself are fascinating to watch.
Alone in the dark goes balls deep into the cthulhu mythos and it resonates only if u know what things like Nyarlathotep or Goat Mother, it can confuse other players. Tho i think this isn't a bad thing since some games should just not be for every audience. Personally i enjoy the weirdness of the story. Derceto was basically a battleground for Lovecraftian gods. Good thing his cat wasn't the final boss tho :^)
Hastur also made an appearance, not by name but behind the scenes. Cassandra, an author working on a Script. Definitely the a King in Yellow.
I also agree, I found it weird that he didn't took a small dive into lovecraftian lore.
The bigger picture that Nyarlathotep made the ritual for Shub'Niggurath happen is my current theory, seeing how he wants to bring the other gods into existence.
it make sense they took a deeper dive only the first alone in the dark game used allot of lovecraft writings into the including meantioning cathulu so its no suprise they also used it in the remake@@chron874
@chron874 isn't Nyarly's whole thing is that he is typically a chaos factor that just wants to screw intelligent beings over, but he is still ultimately subservient to Yog Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath? If Shubby wants to manifest on Earth and she wants him to help her, he's kinda obligated to do so no matter what and has to put aside his typical flavor of trolling humanity with atrocities to focus on what she wants, so it makes perfect sense why he is here and working for her.
@@rotciv557 maybe Nyarlathotep wants to play his own little game too, maybe he enjoys playing with people more than serving the dark gods.
@@swirekster he absolutely does, making people's lives miserable while manipulating his way into positions of power like pharaohood is his favorite pastime, but when his uncle and aunt-in-law come knocking he has to actually work on stuff.
Also, something I just realized is that the final boss is definitely meant to be The Dark Young, which is a much better explanation than it being a true Manifestation of Shubby. The ritual in the endgame shares a lot of the beats with the ritual used to summon the Dark Young.
Honestly, the real tragedy is that Carnby don't got his cool mustache
Also the game is very self-aware of being reimagination of the oryginal, listen to the Jeremy at 51:37, 'Frédérick needed me to die'. He is actually talking about the director of alone in the dark from 1992, Frédérick Raynal. 'it's not how story is supposed to go'. There are more hints through the game for that too, i think there is another layer to what is happening in this game other than 'it's a hint'. If it is a hint, it is very VERY big hint. Edit: Also for the phone call at 53:43, It's actually the Jacob calling u i think, it's how the Jeremy sees himself, a martyr trapped forever in the frozen, alien land. That's why when u stab him in the eye, you lobotomise Jeremy, In cthulhu universe the victim is doomed to madness and suicide after becoming aware of the nightmares of the universe, you can't just go back to your normal life knowing. The only way is to numb yourself enough...
That's so cool about the original director. I also noticed a nod to "The new nightmare" I believe it was a letter or a telegram in Carnby's office that was sent by "Obed Morton "
I find it interesting that in the game they mention both Nyarlathotep and Shub-Niggurath from Lovecraft's works. Giving us a potential answer where all the supernatural elements came from.
Not just potential, if you know ANY Cthulhu mythos, once those names come up, all of it begins to make sense. You're standing on a battleground for the Outer Gods.
@@AnakhaSilverNot only that, the game's Final Boss is a Dark Young, a child of Shub-Niggurath.
The scariest part of this game is the lack of Magnificent Moustache on the main character.
Also very good review of the game and using clips without commentary or altering them helps add to your points about them. This is a great example on reviewing make your point, show the point to confirm it but also add stripulations that it wont always be just that
Agreed the lack of moustache is so tragic. Lowkey kinda tired of grizzled looking male main characters in cakes looking more or less the same. Having a magnificent moustache would’ve been a lovely addition.
@@laraschroeder5195 F for Moustache
I literally just clicked away from the original video, I never had this kind of timing on a channel, gonna enjoy this one!
I literally did the same but I was ironically watching a playthrough of this game.
I knew I wasn't the only one
i can understand some of emilys behavior being a lot more cold in edwards story, especially the attic scene, because from her perspective this is a person she hired for help/protection and hes acting strange. its really irritating though that the writing has her say basically nothing about whats going on yet act like youre ignoring her. it would have been nice to see her be more compassionate after seeing the detective get so roughed up later on, rather than just being like 'uh are you okay? take it easy, bye.' and have her say more than just how the place makes people crazy. it woulda been interesting if she doubted the detective while believing the culty stuff was going on because shes too focused on her more grounded research, and have that mirrored with the detective not listening to what she has to say not bc hes ignoring her but hes too caught up in the supernatural side of stuff to really focus on what the information she has. idk. it seems really good, but falls a bit too short in some aspects!
Everytime Ben mentions his fear of deep waters, I smile waiting for the day that a Subnautica video will come out soon.
But as always, high quality stuff.
Iron Lung baybee!
I kinda want to know Bens view on bioshock
@@skinnywizard6351 Yes
Adding a reply just to say I would watch Subnautica for sure
Or Omori. I feel like he'd like playing that, it does have a LOT of horror elements.
I do like how Jeremy kinda looked like the Camby from the original game with how he's dressed and his scenes taking the most inspiration from the original game.
*In my mind, I see that game...*
*Alone in the Dark 2008...*
I AM THE LIGHT BRINGER!
I'M THE FUCKING UNIVERSE!
I still have a soft spot for it, its puzzle system and the most realistic inventory ever.
Yeah you have just enough pockets, yeah it is cumbersome to rummage through them, YEAH DUCTTAPE IS AMAZING.
And fire... Man, how awesome was their fire system.
@@toxagen1144 I DON'T GOT YOUR STONE, AND FUCK YOU ANYWAY!
That second monster around the corner suprise was so good.
Like, thats the exact setup for a combat tutorial. I expected a text box to tell you what button to press to aim, not a suprise attack.
What?
-Detective Carnby
It is actually kind of comedic how everybody in the game just inexplicably hates Emily for no discernible reason.
"I remember you giving me little to no information." I think that's the thing. Something was fucking with the PC's perception. So we weren't fully hearing her. And likewise, she couldn't fully hear us. Likewise, I feel like the changes are that Emily is going to be prone to an Outer God's touch (Nyarlathotep aka the Dark Man aka the Crawling Chaos), hence the change in her cutscenes there as well as the sexism. I'm almost certain people are more violent to her because the Goat Mother views her as dangerous, too. Canrby, meanwhile, is a threat to Nyarly, not someone he's "owed." Grace seems to be "aware" of Nyarly here, and that's what SHE'S violent with Emily until later. Likely trying to see if Emily has normal reactions or not--test if she's "submitted" to Nyarly.
I do fault them a bit for not making sure to include info on these concepts inside the game and expecting outside knowledge.
These concepts would work so much better and make for a more enjoyable game if they’d found a clever way to actually tell the player this. Seems like they had cool ideas but maybe needed a little longer to cook
the parts with the sexism probably should’ve been explained better ;; it’s cool in concept, especially because of the time period this took place in, but it really didn’t come off great. it just looked like everyone was bullying her for no good reason (it also especially didn’t look good that the only two black characters were ESPECIALLY hyper aggressive with her compared to carnby… sheesh)
I love the detail that Edward's and Emily's clothing is messed up and often bloody. Still, neither acknowledges it when they interact which could've further pushed this idea that everything was just in their head, which it kinda is but also not, so it just makes things more confusing for us to understand if anything they go through is real.
This also marks the second game featuring H.P. Lovecraft's deity Shub-Niggurath as an antagonist I've seen and I wasn't expecting it, points on your game. Good job.
I'm just throwing it out there that the other AITD games also used to voice narrate the files you found in game to the player, often times with hammy acting. So the fact that they kept the voice narration in is a nice touch.
Edit: I wish they'd done what they did in New AITD. Both stories in that game happen in the same location but you get a very different experience as Carnby or Alleen and both have more focus on an individual playstyle. Carnby is more action/combat while Alleen is more puzzle oriented and both have different story beats. This is just roughly the same game with a few changes. Why did they make Emily so unpleasant? I think they were trying to make a strong female lead but she comes off as just defiant, rude and dismissive rather than courageous and determined.
I love how Jeremy says Frédérick needed him to die 30 years ago to make the story happen right. Since Jeremy's death is the catalyst for the story of the original Alone in the Dark, made by Frédérick Raynal
21:48 “ this child freaks me the f**k out” PERFECT! I GOT CALLED OUT
I like how you can still spot the typical Unreal Engine stutters in the video as well, at first I thought you were lucky or cutting the footage where stuttering did occur, but I still managed to spot some
Usually I watch the spoiler section on games no problem, but watching this has made me REALLY want to discover the ending for myself. So SORRY, but I will return after I have. What i have watch has been a FANTASTIC video Ben and thank you for showing me this game. Have a great rest of your day!
Wait, so Jeremy was writing about being stalked by a "Dark Man?"
In a game that takes influence from Lovecraft's writings?
That doesn't sound too good…
Yeah, considering the Egyptian theming the Dark Man had, and that Jeremy describes him as "He of a Thousand Faces", i'm pretty sure that the Dark Man is supposed to be Nyarlathotep.
@@shadow98004 I mean, the contract literally mentions the Crawling Chaos.
Good thing he left it at that and didn't say anything about the cat
@@revenantproxy9100 - The Lissome Beast Of Onyx Skin, Who Wears The Name Of Man
I need an explanation on h.p lovecraft's arts im confused
Watched your original Alone in the Dark video not too long ago, so this'll be fun to watch!
I think Ben is the only creator that can make an hour long video that I will actively sit and watch throughout the entire video. Other videos that long I will have on in the background while doing something else but there is something about Ben's video style and commentary that really is engaging. Ben if you read this thank you for the amazing content
This feels like a, uh, Scarlet-Violet scenario: really amazing game, but the bugs are prominent enough that they might overshadow the actual merits of the game.
For both this and SV, I hope they’re remembered for the good of the actual game and not their technical issues.
Honestly,given the internet,both those games are gonna be remembered as glitchy mess rather than what the story was trying to convey,wich is a shame because I really liked SV
Thanks for giving your point of view, Mr. Goldblum.
I love how much this game goes deep into the Cthulu mythos. Really helps to recapture what the original game was going for and just expands it.
To be honest, I didn't know you feared water, but it's ok, everyone has fears.
he revealed that in his Forest game review!
@@KingOfInanis Probably I didn't hear it
I was pretty surprised when actual Lovecraftian entities started showing up. Not just lovecraftian inspiration, but actual canon things
Nyarlathotep and Shub-Niggurath were NOT my first guess to "what's the big bad evil thing of this game gonna be". Though I do guess that last boss was a Dark Young? In any case I'm going to have to look at this game again but throught the lovecraft lens
It always comes back to either Nyarlathotep or Cthulhu. Where are Hastor, Azatoth, The Hound and Dagon when you need them?
I mean it makes sense. Nyarlathotep is the one that brings them into our reality.
By breaking the contract with Jeremy he ensured that they'd sacrifice the kid to Shub'niggurath, calling forth the mother of a thousand young.
*also, probably a keyboard typo but it is Hastur.
Oh, and there's a nod towards Hastur. The author named Cassandra working on a movie script, most likely the king in yellow.
@@chron874 yeah, autocorrect.
@TheDoc_K why do people ignore The Hound?
@TheDoc_K granted, in the limited knowledge we have about it, it only goes after whoever has it's pendant. There is precedent for a game like that in Amnesia the dark descent, maybe Amnesia 2 but definitely in the Claire A scenario in RE2.
I disagree that the elevator scene with Emily is worse. It different because her relationship with the Dark Man, Nyarlathotep, is different than Carnby's. Emily is a Hartwood...she belongs to the Dark Man. She is called to him, her whole family is. He is trying to sneak up on her, worm his way in, become established in her mind before she has any knowledge of it. She is a vessel, that's why she is drawn toward him instead of compelled to hurt herself. The only reason it failed is because of Jorge calling after her. Carnby is just an obstacle for Nyarlathotep. He's a plaything for a being so ancient and evil that it can barely be comprehended, and is almost lost to gibbering madness at even the smallest contact. Why would their interactions with the Dark Man be the same when their relationships to him are completely different?
1:14:13 that previous cutscene while is 'not as good' as Carnby, it makes more sense if you take it as fact that the Hartwood Curse is something due to Nyarlathotep's Influence of her family.
The Black Pharaoh wants Carnby dead for meddling in is affairs. He wants Emily alive due to whatever history he has with her family, coming for their minds as they get older.
This game really glosses over the idea that the Hartwoods are connected to an Outer God like Nyarlathotep... but then again just from your video i have no idea what the cult hoped to achieve by invoking Shub-Niggurath either...
I love the fact that Jeremy refers to Frederick which is the game developer of the original as well as referencing that his death in the original (30 years ago) is what made the character go to mansion. It makes me think that the original is still canon as well this remake!
Also I think the reason why both characters say they've been here awhile is that they're referencing the original as Jeremy constantly mentions he should be dead and that the story isn't going how it was supposed to. It looks like the characters have some sort of recognition (probably due to both having experience with the supernatural) that they've done this before
I can't help feeling like we were a little robbed storywise. I feel like it would of been really rad for emily to go through jeremy's madness and such, since duh, its his niece-- but then carnaby do the detective thing and discover the cult and deal with his own paranormal happenings in the "real world".
all in all another beautiful video!
You are probably one of my favorite UA-camrs! Keep it up :-]
I wasn't expecting this game to have this much difference compared to the original, even though it makes sense. It's almost like you're playing a completely different game while still having it feel like the original Alone in the Dark at certain points.
Let's goooooo! I was hoping you'd cover this game. Funny enough the original Alone in the Dark vid was how I found your channel, it was listed in my recommended and I thought "what the hell? I'll watch it, thumbnail looks cool" safe to say I've been hooked on your channel since 😁 Can't wait for whatever you do next 👌
one thing I wanna say about Emily, while playing as her they did a good job of showing women being belittled and dismissed for this time period. even the scene you describe as him being helpful and showing concern for her (1:16:11) actually feels incredibly condescending. now granted, someone asking you if you've seen monsters and if you've fired your gun would leave many people going "yeah, m'kay sure", but that's not really actual concern, and it really nailed a light female rage of being constantly dismissed.
she's pushy and aggressive, more so than he is, because people are less inclined to help her, and more likely to be violent or dismissive. you can just feel the "ok grandma, lets get you to bed" oozing out of every character. clearly the lil lady is just *stressed* and having *anxiety,* she's just mentally ill and in over her pretty little head. she needs to rest or go home and leave it to the men to handle.
almost every woman knows the feeling of being the "woman who cried pain", and having a family history of mental illness just makes that a million times worse because every very real thing is just dismissed as you being crazy. of course she's pissed! but as well, if someone with a history of mental illness asks you if you've seen monsters around would lead most people to roll their eyes and not entirely be able to hide their underlying feeling of dismissal. but that doesn't make it any less frustrating to the victim, even when it is just their actual mental illness.
but this kinda explains her dismissive and rude behavior when you're playing as him too. it's from his POV, and just like how you as a man saw that scene between them as him being helpful and concerned, I as a woman caught in his tone that it was condescending and belittling, even if he did honestly give her info first. and I'm not saying he isn't actually concerned for her there, but there's a level of misogyny underlying it, so her rudeness feels out of pocket because we're not seeing those scenes from her eyes, only his, where we're encouraged to be sympathetic to him and view her frustration as unjustified.
sure, it'd have been nicer if she'd showed a little more concern for his well being, but she didn't show *none* ether. he just seemed to be getting more and more unhinged so of course she's more "wtf, I thought you were a professional" than "oh my god are you ok what happened!?". she finds him seemingly drunk and then later nearly drowning all by himself in a bath. as far as she sees he's seemingly just faffing around and chasing ghosts and walking into wardrobes to sulk while she's left to do all the work she's literally paying him to do. her being pissed off and less than friendly and concerned feels completely natural to me.
all in all I think it was really well done, and I'm glad I got to experience it here first : )
Aren't you tired of being a professional victim??
Let's look at the actual plot, the logical conclusion is that the detective is on drugs or drunk in his story, as he is found on the ground or unconscious randomly by Emily, which explains why he's hallucinating monsters and weird places.
Meanwhile, Emily doesn't have any excuse for why she's seeing strange things in her story, but she has both a grandfather and an uncle with mental illness, at least to the other characters, and is found alone in a room talking to herself while looking at a wall in the dark.
You can't seriously talk like their situation is the same.
And that is before talking about why they are there, Emily is a random civilian who is family with one of the patients who has never been there before, as nobody recognises her, while Barnaby is literally a detective doing his job. Mind you, he has solved cases in the past while Emily shouldn't even be snooping around.
Finally, let's talk about your bullshit "misogyny". A detective finds his client talking alone to herself, asking him about monsters and if he shoots his gun at somebody. He has a pretty good suspicion that the place is dangerous, as there are other missing persons, and there is a literal cult. He knows that she has a family story of mental illness and that she's acting strange so he asks her to leave, even offering to take her to a safe place himself and that he'll still look for her uncle.
And you find this wrong just because he is a man and she is a woman???
Even if you change the sexes the female detective should tell the male client to leave as the place is dangerous and he looks like he's having a hard time keeping it together.
You have a serious case of projection or narcissism, It doesn't matter that Emily is a woman, she sounds insane to anybody who hears her and she's in danger just because everyone except for Carnby could try to kill her.
Please pay attention to what the story is actually saying and not what you think it's saying, it's pretty obvious that you're seeing what you want to see.
@@p.e.4440 Okay incel
@@p.e.4440this is the funniest reply I think I've ever gotten. I didn't need you to prove my point in the funniest way possible, but I'm so glad you did
While I completely agree with you and your points all make sense, that still doesn’t keep her from coming across as unpleasant. While it is a very accurate portrayal of how women were treated back then and how they had to act to get respect, it still doesn’t make her a likable character, and it hurts her character in the long run.
@@Pikaman20008oh I never said it made her likable, just that it's accurate and her general unpleasantness is likely on purpose rather than a mistake in the writing or acting. a protagonist doesn't have to be likable to the audience to tell her story well, but being unlikable does a lot of subtle heavy lifting regarding what kind of person her time period and experiences have made her into.
I think their biggest flaw in this writing for this is not leaning into it even more and making it a bit more blatant or actually show it more so the entire audience can develop more sympathy for her and her actions and better understand her as a person, rather than leaving it to only some of the playerbase to be able to recognize and fill in the blanks.
I will say that there was very little lag on the ps5 version, leading to smoother transitions between realities.
Edit: There's a really cool touch for when your chased by the Dark Man, if you try to aim your gun at him you point the gun at your own head instead.
i recently played ghost trick because i wanted to watch ur video on it but i heard it was rlly good, so i played it first. i LOVE that i can hear and recognize the soundtrack in this video. You’re quickly becoming my favorite watch-while-drawing youtuber 😋😋
I'm currently watching a playthrough of Alone in the Dark by TheRadBrad.
He's the first gaming youtuber that I watched back then, so it's fitting for me to watch him play a remake of the first ever Survival Horror game.
Alone in the Ben, Again,
Ben, you always pop out these fine videos, ive been watching you since you had only 100k subs or less(probably less), and you're one of the most entertaining youtubers out there who don't have to make exaggerated adhd fueled editing just to make it enjoyable with overall high quality aswell, thank you
on another note, notice how the Carnby's clothes slowly become dirtier as time goes on? it reminds me alot of Spec ops: The Line
Very yes indeed
Maybe Batiste tried to kill Emily because he thought that she was a part of Jeremy’s mind? And then he understood that she is real and stopped. But in the Carnby route he didn’t know him so he thought he was a real person.
I love your reviews, and this one is no different. However, I do think you didn't cut Emily nearly as much slack as you cut the Detective.
I do generally agree the Detective is a way more likeable character in general, but it is clear that in each of their respective routes, the other character is not experiencing supernatural events, and if they are, it is not nearly to the extent of each other. During the Detective's route, he honestly comes off as delusional, saying he's "almost cracking the case" while walking into closet portals only he can see, talking about ghosts, and so on. Emily hired this guy, and from her perspective, he's crazier than the people she's been interrogating. It is perfectly understandable that she would be disappointed with his performance, annoyed with his claims, and ultimately dismissive of his actions, when she is not experiencing the same events he is.
In her own route, she's the one experiencing the supernatural events, and he is not. You mention how he is still understanding, but especially in the first interaction, that isn't the case. He dismisses her claims, much as she does to him in his route, except there's a hint of...well, 1920s attitude to it. The Detective might still be a likeable protagonist overall, but he's the male hired professional who's seeing his female client say she blacked out, and his reaction is to say "you're clearly upset, I understand the stress is too much for you, do you want to go back home?" which clearly frustrates Emily, because that's not what she's saying, he doesn't understand, and she knows any attempts to explain will just be taken as further evidence of her being unwell. With the context that "female hysteria" was a real diagnosis given to women in that time period, the impact of his mild antagonizing does get amplified.
He might not be consciously being a sexist dick (pun intended), but the scene does become uncomfortable if you're watching it as a woman. Especially since he ends it with a dismissive tone of "that's nice that you found a clue, stay out of trouble while I solve the case, alright?" like you'd talk to a child. The game doesn't seem to call attention to this (which I think is a positive, it doesn't hammer the point in a preachy way), so it is easy to miss if you've never been in a similar situation yourself, but the scene does hit different if you have personal experience to draw upon, or if you just consider the time period and the roles of the characters in general.
But with that out of the way, I love your review! I feel like you deliver the information present in the games you review better than most games do by themselves, while still commenting on the gameplay and displaying the highlights. I learn more about the games you review watching you, than I would solely by playing them or watching another YTer to a Let's Play, while still not missing on the puzzles and gameplay elements as I would if I watched another YTer do a "explaining the story of [game]" video, since you always highlight them!
All in all, your videos are the best of both worlds, and I just wanted to share how much they're appreciated!
definitely felt the same way!
I’m pretty sure the interactions are vastly different between the two specifically because the shadow man is only interested in the heartwoods
The detective is only getting in the way of his plans, so he treats him a lot differently than Emily
And on the other hand the people of the cult are way more aggressive towards the people of the cult because she is perceived as a threat by they're dark god
Great video, you always put so much quality and time into them!
The audio gets weird around the 1:19:00 mark, as if it were out through an old radio. Not just for the game, but for your mic as well. Didn't know if you were aware
Sounds like he had to remove a song in post production. Must have had a copyright claim on it
I believe the point of Grace being more aggressive towards emily could have very well been her acting out on her own trauma, either reacting like Emily was her mother, or treating Emily how her mother treated her. "Learn your place, little girl" [paraphrased] definitely sounds more like a child repeating something they've heard from an adult over them comimg up with it on the spot to be degrading.
What it feels like, is that they may have originally planned to have you play as carnby through most of the game, but during select sections play as heartwood. Might explain some of the terrible glitches but I don't have game coding experiance to back up that claim.
I think given the context of Grace having a greedy, abusive mother...that may be why she is abusive to Ms. Hartman and not Carnby.
It's a sort of extension of how she loves her father but not her mother...in her warped mind, she's projecting them onto Carnby and Hartman.
what an excellent hotel dusk video
I feel like I should've known about a new alone in the dark. Well I'm glad I was able to find out here, I really liked your video on the old one so this is a treat after a really long day.
Great video by the way
I actually kinda like the change with Grace.
I think it's actually a bit telling of how the women are treated in the hospital
Grace is probably echoing behavior and words said to her, and it's stated her mother treated her poorly and didn't actually care about her
It makes sense that all these sentiments are only shown when you play as Emily, because Emily is a woman. Not to mention the Doctor calling Emily a spinster at one point, it's clear that women aren't quite seen as equals to men at all. Also also, Grace has literally been manipulated into a cult, it makes sense that all these ideals are reflected through her since she's the most vulnerable.
That's jst my view on it though :]
41:48 So I played this part today.
Instead of ignoring him, I tried to shoot him just to see what would happen and then after the first shot, Carnby actually started to aim the gun at himself
So i had to stop looking at him
Honestly it all makes sense now knowing what the monster is especially when you know the lore behind it. Even the lesser monsters share her appearance
Ben, this made me realize.
I think I would enjoy seeing you play the dark pictures anthology series.
I dont know if you would enjoy it, but I know I would enjoy seeing you play it.
The thing is, with pixel sprites and games, you are supposed to see them with the fuzzy static that makes them look waaaaaay better!
As always very yes . BUT WHEN ARE WE GETTING THE REST OF THE WE WERE HERE SERIES?!?!
TELL ME
Followup:Emily's route seems like a side grade to carnbys
New benjamin againjamin upload, my day is made!
I am glad this was a good game even with it's rough spots. Thanks for another fantastic video :D
He really should play Sam and Max it’s so good
HELL YEAH NEW BEN AGAIN!! congrats on 100k man you deserve it :D
When you noted the differences in character design at the beginning, it made me realize mustached protagonists are practically nonexistent in modern games. Besides character creation, can you name a single game in the last ten years that has a mustache? I'm sure there are indie games with them, but I can't recall any at all off the top of my head.
I think the idea is that the Dark Man is approaching them differently because she is part of the family and so it’s affecting her differently. If it’s part of a “curse” as her uncle says, she would have it. Whereas the detective is an outsider who is interfering with whatever the evil presence is trying to accomplish. That’s what it feels like based on how the different scenes are laid out.
Ive been binge watching all of your videos. They are so good :D
Cool video
Funny enough I played as Emily first and I gotta say, I don't agree with your perception of her. What you say was aggressive I saw as defensive and frustrated. She's gone though some brutal times, trying to work though her families fractured existence. and living with the guilt of her fiance's death.
I fully understood where she was coming from and really enjoyed my time with the game, I'm looking forward to my next playthough xxx
ok i see what the game is going for...
but where does santa fit into all of this
Wow, that's the coolest Nyarlathotep story I've seen in a long while. Possibly ever, really. And I really like the whole "A totally *different* mythos story was going on while The PC was busy running around Jeremy's mind and going crazy" thing. Although I wish there was a way to play through that totally different story! I'll definitely buy this if they debug it.
I like how Nyarlathothep (Crawling Chaos) and Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of Woods) were mentioned
And then never appeared (unless Dark Man is Nyarlathothep, which would make 100% sense given how he is called from time to time; you can't convince me that that living piece of wood is The Blacm Goat though).
Yes, the dark man is one of nyarlathoteps forms, the Pharaoh.
And yes, the tree became one of the usual depictions of an avatar of shub niggurath. Look up some comparison images, it's quite good actually.
I'm also convinced that the girl is also one of the pharaohs forms. Or at least devoted to him.
Its absolutely Nyarlathotep its even fits his MO a troll who likes to torment his victems insted of stright up kill them
HELL YEAH NEW VIDEO FROM BEN AGAIN (if its pun intended or not its up for debate)
to be fair, emily DID say jeremys name before she was attacked, maybe thats how she knew he was her uncle.
absolutely exquisite video! the gameplay and information is so well organized and easily digestible- an impressive feat for a video an hour and a half long. as someone who has watched the Alone in the Dark remakes fall to obscurity (because let's be honest, they were terrible lol), it's nice to see a high quality in-depth video on a pretty good reimagining. not to mention the small snippets in-between the commentary where your actual reactions to the game are shown; those snippets make your gaming experience feel more real and personal. keep up the great work! and great thumbnail art as per usual!
(commenting to boost both morale and algorithm)
The one thing I can't unsee is that Carnby is dressed like Linkara in one of his old outfits for this reboot.
best ben back again!!
21:47
"This child freaks me the F CK out." 😂
Congrats ben
From what the characters say, the Black Goat of the Woods is Shab-Niggurat, Lovecraftian goddess, also known as The Goat with Thousand Young. The Black Man is Nyarlathotep, the Emissary of the cosmic gods, shapeshifter and famous for interacting the most with humanity
Gonna be honest, they DEFINITELY need to put Grace into another psych ward b/c something is wrong with that kid. Like I'm pretty sure if this game has a sequel the plot is gonna be her trying to start another cult when she's older or something.
WOW DUDE! Last time i checked your sub count you were at 30k. 100k now?! WELL DONE!!
Ben, ya gotta post more often. You're literally the best channel to watch while I suffer through the pains of video editing 😔😔😔
Wow :D Its kinda fun to see someone playthrough cthulhu mythos inspired story without realizing any of references, take that people who say those references have been overdone xD
(wasn't expecting final boss to be a dark young of shub-niggurath)
You should do a long form video of the Danganronpa games, I know it’s like super different than what you usually cover but I love your videos and how you speak about the games you cover ! It would be really cool to see
Yay!! More Ben Again!!
I first learned about Alone in the Dark from your vid on the original, and when I saw the new one announced I was actually holding out some good expectations for this one. Nice to hear your thoughts on it.
After the last few Alone In The Dark stinkers, we really needed this game. You actually get a chance to be alone in the dark for one. I still am confused on the story as a whole, kinda hoping there might be an update in the future where Edward and Emily can team up together or something and share the clues they find.
that spoiler skip helped me out a lot
holy cow, i’d like to give this a shot just from that example of the sound design. plus i like games like this!
the character models do look a bit strange but i like it! they almost look like drawings made 3D, down to the weird lines and angles
It personally feels like there was supposed to be a more meaningful split between the narratives, but something in development lead to the cult side of the story becoming an underdeveloped subplot that only comes into effect at the end of the game cuz they wanted to use the tree boss fight from the first game. I feel like it wouldn't have been hard to actually make it work but perhaps a majority of the cult plot had to be scrapped for time constraints or something. I could easily see the cult plot being Edward's story as he has no relation to Jeremy.
3:25 oh wow, that sound design is good af
I'm so excited to give this a watch now that I'm home! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT! WOOOOO!
❤❤❤❤YAAAAAY MORE BEN AGAIN!!!❤❤❤❤
ngl i actually loved Grace haha, her line at the end of Carnby's playthrough sent me. she's just a weird little girl, which means she's just a normal little girl. i'd say weird AF shit if i was a shred less self conscious, or slightly bolder, when i was her age (a mentally and emotionally disturbed 12-13yo). lord only knows the thoughts i kept locked in my head or expressed in f'ed up creative writing projects that make my stomach churn more than a decade later haha.
i am hesitant to embrace some of the themes the horror is built on, however. you say mental wards are always a great setting, but not only are they very, very overdone, they're also problematic when the horror stems from "ooooo the patients are weird and scary", due to the way it perpetuates harmful beliefs about the mentally ill. in reality, mental health facilities, especially back in the day, are horrific places... for the PATIENTS. terrible, inhumane things were done to the people consigned and abandoned to these places, and even to this day i know multiple friends who were "commited" to wards and came out with brand new traumas because of the way they were treated as practically sub-human. so many of us who have suffered from severe mental health lows will potentially hide the extent of the problem if it means we aren't forcibly taken away to these places, because there's no guarantee it will be "one of the good ones".
so while i generally enjoyed Carnby's version of the story especially, and i loved the psychological horror aspects of the Dark Man and the worlds Jeremy built up in his mind, i wish the setting was different, or that the cult twist was removed and instead replaced with something more sympathetic. maybe it could instead be revealed that the Doctor and staff were the ones conducting rituals on the patients because they knew, or at least believed, that no one on the outside would notice or care. the story could have subverted the "patients are crazy" trope and instead unmasked the true villains as being the very people who the patients were left in the "care" of. then the doctor's downplaying of Jeremy's curse would be a great analogy for the way patients' mental health struggles are minimized and not taken seriously. part of the adventure would be helping each patient escape the brainwashing and manipulation of the doctor, so that in the end, when it's time to conduct the sacrifice, they turn things around and the staff are taken by the "mother" instead. the ultimate fight with the tree can still happen the same way, but now they save all of the patients and not just Grace.
my final quibble is the questionable inclusion of voodoo as the basis for the evil magic, as that feeds into its own mess of negative stereotypes, given voodoo's origins with black folk from the south, like new orleans. it's just never nuanced, it's always presented as dark and grotesque, but voodoo is a real thing practiced by real people even now, just like wicca, or other pagan beliefs, etc. it just gives me the ick. i don't have the language to fully get into the weeds of it, but suffice to say it concerns me. just like with the mental ward setting, i do think it could be utilized better - maybe the white staff are using some kind of bastardized magic they call voodoo out of ignorance and/or malice, and the black characters could be used to educate the player through explaining things to the player characters. it would make sense diagetically since the player characters are trying to find out what's going on, and thus disentangling the cult rituals from real voodoo practices would be important for understanding the full picture. players get a history and culture lesson, and the story doesn't perpetuate the same misconceptions so often regurgitated for a cheap horror trick.
still, i enjoyed the video and your breakdown as always! i recently watched every video on your channel and, upon realizing this, felt devastated that there was no more "benagain" content to consume, so you can imagine my sheer delight when i saw this in my reccs feed - and instant click for me! looking forward to the next one with bated breath...
This is based on the works of Lovecraft. Nyarlathotep (aka the dark man), Shub-Niggurath (aka the black goat of the woods), cults worshipping these old gods, incomprehensible madness, etc.
Turning this into some kind of preachy story meant to "educate" would not work at all. Might as well remove anything lovecraftian at that point.
If what you got out of this game was "mentally ill people bad" or "black people use evil magic" or whatever, then idk what to tell you. That is not at all the message of this game.
I think Emily reacting so differently to the dark man is because he’s supposed to be a curse attached to her family.