It’s hard to believe but there is a good chance that many of today’s newer gamers will never have heard of Edward Carnby. Way back in the early 90s (1992) he was the first star of a “Survival Horror” title, running around haunted mansions and battling the forces of evil FOUR years before Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield ever even heard of Umbrella.
Now Edward is back for a whole new generation of gamers and to his credit (and that of Eden Studios) he is trying to do things a little differently.

It’s all down to how the game plays and how it wants you to solve the problems and combat the forces of evil. The “hook” of AITD is that it uses real world solutions and physics as the answers to its problems. So instead of controlling the camera in third person mode the right stick actually controls your hand actions. For example; when holding a plank of wood the right stick controls how you handle the plank. Push the stick to the left starts a swing, pushing the stick to the right completes said swing.

All of this can make the game extremely frustrating and annoying but (and it’s a big BUT) it does not stop the game being enjoyable. The new approach to puzzles and combat that the game takes soon saw me being able to work with the controls and carry on with my progression. The whole “real world” thing really makes sense and is something that should fast become “the next big thing in gaming”. It results in numerous ways to solve problems. Doors can be broken open with fire extinguishers, have their locks shot off or burnt down using any nearby flammable object. For that “overkill” feeling you can even position exploding objects near them and blow a door away. Another early “puzzle” sees a live electric cable hanging into a stream of water you need to cross. Using the third person controls and a nearby plank of wood you can slowly and carefully move the cable out of the water.

Further examples come with item combining. The locations are full of items, a limited amount you can pick up and store in your jacket. Some duct tape and a bottle of flammable liquid can make a nice “sticky” bomb. A lighter and first aid spray soon become a makeshift flamethrower. A lighter along with a bottle of alcohol and a bandage can become a rather nice Molotov cocktail. How you use these items is down to you.

The game’s enemies are far from easy to kill and one of the only sure fire ways of dispatching many of them for good is with fire, so the DIY weapons can be a godsend. It’s very pleasing throwing a makeshift bomb into a group of bad guys, and then shooting it, effectively killing the group with one shot. The enemies also seem quite intelligent as well, you may get one up close and personal with your fire breathing spray can, but his mates will soon back off after they have seen you doing so.

All is still not great here though, the controls can be almost forgotten but problems then crop up with things like the inventory system. To aid the real world feeling you can only carry as many items as your jacket will allow and accessing these items does not pause the game. This causes a few problems. Firstly, all too frequently you’ll get attacked whilst trying to combine or select items and secondly you cannot pick up new items if your inventory is full without first going into it and dropping items you don’t want.

Personally I love the game, its fresh approach should be rewarded, and fingers crossed any sequel will sort out the controls (tip for Eden, allow the camera on the right stick in third person mode and then right stick + right bumper for all the item interaction) – with a few tweaks here and there AITD could really be a close to perfect game, as it is the annoyances do mean a couple of points have to be deducted.