10 More Video Games Delayed To "Get It Right" (That Still Got It Wrong)

5. Alone In The Dark

Cyberpunk 2077
Atari

Alone in the Dark, in many ways, created the survival horror genre but it could never quite make it big in the mainstream.

A reboot of the series began development in the mid-00s, around the same time that Uwe Boll was directing the steamy pile of plop that was his film adaptation. It was shown to industry insiders privately at E3 2006 but would then disappear into the dark for a number of years. Release dates slid perpetually through 2007 and 2008 and even when the game did launch in June it did so for most systems, with the PS3 having to wait a further five months.

Alone in the Dark’s reboot did try some really cool new things like allowing players to pick between either first or third person perspectives, highly interactive environments and an at-the-time deep weapon upgrade system. It also did some really weird things like giving players the option to skip entire chapters if they were stuck or didn’t feel like it.

That’s handy considering critics panned the game for its high difficulty demands, as well as bad camera, finicky controls and bevy of glitches. With the game dropping like a stone, what's most memorable about Alone in the Dark’s release is Atari threatening gaming publications with legal action for saying bad things about their game.

As the kids say, “touch grass” Atari.

Contributor
Contributor

The Red Mage of WhatCulture. Very long hair. She/they.