Alone in the Dark is a survival horror and action-adventure video game developed and published by Infogrames in 1992.
Story of ” Alone in the Dark”
The story of Alone in the Dark begins in September 1924, when a famous painter Jeremy Hartwood is found dead in his home, the haunted Derceto Manor in Louisiana. After his death, two persons are called to this abandoned house.
First is Edward Carnby, who is a private detective. An antique dealer, Gloria Allen, gave him the task of finding and retrieving a piano from the manor’s loft. Second, Jeremy’s niece, Emily Hartwood, is informed about her uncle’s death. She is curious to know what her uncle was hiding, or if he left a note or a letter. Emily travels to the Dereceto Manor to investigate her uncle’s death.
Entry to the Mansion
When a visitor arrives at the Derceto Mansion, he is unaware that something sinister is watching from the loft’s window. As they enter, the doors of the mansion slam and lock behind them. In the loft, they see a monster, but after escaping from the monster, they learn that this is not the only monster. There are many other monsters in the mansion. While finding a way to escape the Mansion, our hero discovers the dark history of the Derceto Manor.
The History of Derceto Manor
Derceto Manor was built by a pirate Ezechiel Pregzt. There was a system of caverns under the home, where Pregzt used to conduct occult rituals to extend his life. In 1862, Ezechiel Pregtz was shot and almost killed before his servant filled his soul to a tree in the caverns under the Derceto Manor. Howard Hartwood later purchased the mansion. The spirit of Pregzt attempted to influence Howard Hartwood to draw his body from the caverns so he could inhabit the mortal’s body. Howard took his life to prevent Pirate from taking his body. His son Jeremy Hartwood also faces the same fate.
Destroying the Spirit
Finally, our hero finds the tree, sets fire to it, and destroys the remaining spirit of Ezechiel Pregzt. The Derceto Manor is cleansed from all the monstrous servants.
Now, the doors of the mansion are unlocked. Edward or Emily are now able to exit from the mansion. A driver quickly meets our protagonist in the driveway. When we enter the car, the driver turns his face, he is a monster too. The car moves back towards civilization.
Jack-in-the-Dark
On Halloween of the same year, we see an eight-year-old girl Grace Saunders, who gets lost in a big city. She finds an abandoned store and enters it. Then she traps in the store where all the toys come alive and soon attacks her.
Grace finds that Father Christmas is being trapped as well. She shortly learns that all the toys are controlled by Jack-in-the-Dark, an evil Jack-in-the-box. Grace finds a stick of candy and gives it to Jack. She distracts him long enough so that she can hold a mirror before him. The sight of his fearful face scares the Jack-in-the-Dark to death. Grace frees the Father Christmas, and he gifts her a dress as a thanks. Then, he flies off on his sleigh to prepare for the upcoming holiday.
Alone in the Dark 2 (December 1924)
A few months later, a weird woman kidnaps Grace. She takes Grace to a mysterious mansion in California known as Hell’s Kitchen.
Hell’s Kitchen
Grace’s father, George Saunder hires a private investigator Ted Striker, who tracks the girl to the mansion. The ghost of One-Eyed Jack seems to haunt him. After informing his colleague Edward Carnby about the location via telegraph, Ted arrives and sneaks past the various guards to find Grace.
As soon as he sees Grace, a toy clown kills Ted Striker, and the mysterious woman arrives after the murder.
Two days later Carnby travels to Hell’s Kitchen after receiving no further words from Ted Striker. Carnby blasts the mansion’s gate and fights with the guards with his weapons to explore the grounds. As Carnby couldn’t directly enter the mansion, he could work his way through a hedge maze and find the dead body of his dead friend. Swearing to avenge Ted’s death and save Grace Saunder, Carnby sneaks to the mansion’s cellar, where he can ascend into Hell’s Kitchen. While exploring the mansion he finds out that Hell’s Kitchen is home to a voodoo witch Elizabeth Jarret, the mysterious woman who kidnapped Grace.
Mysterious woman Elizabeth Jarret
Elizabeth Jarret, a former lover of Pirate Ezechiel Pregzt has used her powers to grant immortality to a pirate named One-Eyed Jack, who built the mansion and still inhabits it.
Carnby finds Grace, but he meets One-Eyed Jack face-to-face. Shortly after, Carnby is helpless in front of Jarret who captured him with her powers.
In the confused situation, Grace escapes from her Captor’s watch but can’t reach freedom. The guards capture her again and bring her to the same holding cell in which they imprisoned Carnby.
Death of Elizabeth Jarret
There Jarret reveals that she will use Grace in some ritual that’s conducted every hundred years to keep One-Eyed Jack and his crew alive. After Jarret disappears, Grace gets free again and sneaks around the Dutchman. Dutchman has some link with Hell’s Kitchen. After Grace helps Carnby escape from his shackles, he fights his way to the Captain’s quarter, but Jarret stops him again with her psychic powers. But Grace arrives just in time to disrupt Jarret’s rituals, destroying the Voodoo sorceress and transporting Grace to an escape boat.
Carnby escapes to the deck of the Flying Dutchman, where he confronts several of the ship’s crew and defeats them. Suddenly, Carnby notices that One-Eyed Jack captured and chained Grace to the ship’s flagpole. After freeing the girl and defeating all the pirates, Carnby reaches the escape boat with the girl, leaving the One-Eyed Jack alone with his vessel. Carnby then rows the boat out to sea, and the explosions lay after that, leveling the area beneath the Hell’s Kitchen and bringing an end to the One-Eyed Jack at least as far as they know.
Alone in the Dark 3 (1925)
The next year Edward Carnby gets a call from Greg Saunder at the Hill Century Film studio asking him to investigate the case of the disappearance of one of the film crews in the Mojave. Initially, Edward doesn’t show interest, Greg says that Emily Hartwood, an old friend from the Deorceto Manor incident, is part of the crew who is missing. Carnby travels to ”Slaughter Gulch” the ghost town in the Mojave where the team visited. He quickly finds that several deadly spirits inhabit the area.
History of Slaughter Gulch
While searching for Emily, Carnby learns about the history of ” Slaughter Gulch”. Jed Stone was the deceased founder of the ”Slaughter Gulch” and he was the son of Elizabeth Jarrot and Ezechiel Pregtz. He also learns about several outlaws such as the Elwood Brothers ”Cobra Li Tung” and the ”Lone Miner” Jim Burris. While traveling through the town and finding Emily, Carnby finds a haunted message from One-Eyed Jack, stating ”I’ll be back”. After that, Carbny meets Tobias McCarthy, owner of the general store and leader of the mob that overthrew Jed Stone and his men. Tobias McCarthy sacrifices himself to help Carnby, who can retrieve a stash of Hill Century’s money to give it to the ghost of Jed in exchange for Emily’s Freedom. After holding up this end of the deal, Jed’s men double-crossed and murdered Carnby.
Revival of Carnby’s Spirit
An ancient amulet awakes Carnby’s spirit. Reincarnated in the form of Cougar, Carnby returns an eagle statue to its rightful place. Completing this task allows Carnby’s spirit to return to his body just as the town’s former sheriff, Jack Dawson buried him. Carnby emerges from his grave and fights with his undead doppelganger (somehow created in the resurrection process). Soon, Carnby finds himself in a series of caves leading to an underground facility. There he defeats Jed’s henchmen before finally finding Emily. Carnby frees her from captivity, before taking her to an armored Jed Stone alongside the Elwood Brothers. Carnby outsmarts the Trio and defeats all three, bringing an end to Jed Stone’s reign in Slaughter Gulch. Then, Emily and Cavern enter a train and get it moving. The train blasts out of the caverns, taking the pair away from the Slaughter Gulch.
We explained the stories of Alone in the Dark 1, 2, and 3 in this article. If you want to know the stories of the next series of Alone in the Dark, let me know in the comments section. I hope you enjoyed reading this post.