Alone in the Dark and Haunted House now pre-orderable

Alone in the Dark: it’s all about zombies and assault rifles. What? Solving puzzles in a haunted mansion, in the 1920s? You’re crazy.

New screens and a trailer celebrate the news that both Alone in the Dark: Illumination and Haunted House: Cryptic Graves are now available for pre-order.

These two games are Atari’s attempts to revive a pair of old horror franchises. Haunted House: Cryptic Graves is a spooky-looking first-person puzzle/horror title being developed by Dreampainters (of Anna fame), so that might be a bit good. It also appears to be a modern horror game, insofar as you’ll have to spend some time trying to evade nasty spirits and enemies that are trying to murder you – which may or may not include Jack the Ripper. Hiding in closets has yet to be confirmed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that mechanic turns up because it’s a first-person horror game in 2014. It looks beautiful, anyway, and Anna is a pretty good indication that Dreampainters have a solid grasp on first-person dread, so I do have some hope for this one.

Alone in the Dark: Illumination, on the other hand, appears to be a co-op shooter – which is really not very Alone in the Dark, unless your only experience with the franchise is the terrible Uwe Boll movie. (Note: do not ever watch the terrible Uwe Boll movie. It’s not So-Bad-It’s-Good. It’s just Bad.)

So, those pre-orders. Purchasing Haunted House now will result in a 15% discount, dropping the price from £14.99 to £12.74. Pre-ordering Alone in the Dark, on the other hand, will net you a free upgrade to the “Eldritch Edition”, which offers unique skins for the game’s characters and weapons, a pre-order only “Old One” achievement, and access to the game’s closed beta, which is due to start in November. This doesn’t seem particularly Alone in the Dark to me, but hey, it might be good anyway. You never know.

Both games are due out by the end of the year. If you want to take the risk, you can find their Steam pre-order pages here and here. A new trailer for Haunted House can be found below, followed by ten new screenshots for Haunted House, and then five new screenshots for Alone in the Dark.