Saturday 29 February 2020

Jack in the Dark (1993) - Horror Video Game Review (PC)


Jack in the Dark is a weird beast of a game in that it is a very short experience that was created during development of Alone in the Dark 2 as a promotional tool. The game takes place in two different rooms and can be finished in under ten minutes.

It is Halloween and the child Grace Saunders finds herself trapped inside a haunted toy shop. There she discovers Santa locked up in a cage, and toys which have come to life, seemingly with a creepy jack-in-the-box as the cause of all the evil.


The tone here is kind of weird, it is very Christmas focussed despite taking place during Halloween. The puzzles you encounter all revolve around distracting the various toys blocking your way. One example is playing a toy drum to make some toys march into a toy box. The music is jolly, and aside from the evil jack-in-the-box there isn't much of a horror vibe. Also, judging by  how this one ends it really isn't canonical. Apparently the girl you play as is the girl who has been kidnapped in Alone in the Dark 2. To cement the fact this is a promotional game it ends with a series of screenshots from that second game.

This was a fun little experience, however it really isn't essential to play, as a curio it does its job. Even better is that it doesn't cost anything, it was an extra with Alone in the Dark. So if you are after a bite size bit of horror gaming then check it out.

SCORE:

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