Assigning a review score to a game is usually a fairly easy job. If it's good, give it a high score, if it's average, give it a middling score, and if it's bad give it a low score. There are however those rare games that deliver a combination of jaw-droppingly brilliant and head-smackingly awful; the only thing to do in this scenario is to allocate an average score and unfortunately, despite doing oh-so-much right, that's where Alone in the Dark finds itself.

If the title sounds familiar then there's a very good reason: Alone in the Dark was first released in 1992 and this successor shares the same name. Those familiar with the series will know that this is actually the fifth game, though it does feel like a slight change of pace. Gone are the creepy mansions and claustrophobic elements that inspired the first Resident Evil and in their place is the expansive playground of Central Park. Y'see, some butterfingers has only gone and awoken Satan and put the whole of humanity in jeopardy - what a clutz! Predictably it's down to Edward Carnby to get to the bottom of it and send Beelzebub back to the underworld for the rest of time.

For someone who first appeared on gamers' screens some sixteen years ago, Edward Carnby has aged well. Surprisingly well in fact, as for a man who once sported an MS-Paint style crop of bright red hair with moustache to match, he's managed to morph into a leather jacket clad, long haired, all action hero with an 'original' line in 'witty' one liners. There's a perfectly good explanation for this transformation but it would ruin some of the game's plot to say what it is, so just accept that there's something here for fans of the original title - a game I absolutely loved.

And there are times when Alone in the Dark lives up to this heritage and you just want to give the new hunky Carnby a big hug for inventiveness. The genius of setting fire to objects using the tactile controls to batter your way through a door while flames lick around you, or every time the physics puzzles behave as they should and you can pat yourself on the back with a feeling of pride and intelligence. Then there are other times when you want to smack Edward's chiselled jaw in with the nearest fire extinguisher - every time the controls leave you flapping around at an enemy like a seal undergoing some kind of seizure, or when you do exactly what you're supposed to only for the game to kill you anyway, sending you screaming back to the previous checkpoint. It's no wonder this newest incarnation of Edward Carnby is so sullen and moody; he's getting mixed messages all over the place when what he actually needs is some positive reinforcement.

Well Carnby, perhaps you'd get some if you did what the hell I told you to do more often than not! The first difficulty the game has is in not being able to tell if it's a first or third person adventure. The idea is that you use the third person camera for running, jumping and climbing trees, while the first person view is chosen for shooting, using your hands on objects and looking around rooms for the illusive object that will help you solve the puzzle. The latter works as nicely as you'd expect - it's not as slick as Halo but it does the job - but the third person is very hit and miss. The third person camera is viewed from a set point in the room, rather than over the shoulder, and as such it is prone to leaping around at inopportune times while being distinctly unhelpful at others. The game's activities are hugely varied but this just confuses matters more, as the game tries to be a jack of all trades and ends up being passable at one or two.

There are plenty of examples of this and here are just a few. You can combine objects in your inventory to make impromptu weapons (bottle of fuel + rag + sticky tape + lighter = sticky Molotov cocktail!) but you have to go into your coat, accessing a fiddly 3D interface every time you want to do it - and if you have hungry monsters nibbling at your toes, it can cause you deaths that really shouldn't have happened. Then there's the melee combat. You pick up a weapon (a sledgehammer, an axe, a piece of pipe) and in third person only (why!?), you approach an enemy and sharply swing the right analogue stick from one side to the other in an attempt to make it feel like your arm. Sounds good? It isn't; I lost count of the number of times my ridiculous avatar ended up camply waving a burning chair at an angry monster only to be smacked halfway across the room.

Then there are the driving segments that involve you hotwiring cars and siphoning gas from tanks to survive (good idea). Unfortunately, the driving physics are dreadful… again, there are plenty of examples of this but the one that sticks in the mind the most is this stupid, stupid segment that I can only assume was put in by a designer who really hates Atari's customers: you have to drive from one side of the park to the other but - oh no! - there are vampire bats continually settling on your car and slowly draining your life. "Never fear", says the game's 'helpful' advice pop up - "Lose the Vampirz (sic.) by driving fast or slamming into objects." Yes, that's right - the game is asking you to crash and lower your life in order to progress. You could always drive fast but you'll find yourself hampered by non-existent scenery pulling you to a halt - and don't even think about taking a shortcut either, because the game will insist that you go back to the checkpoint before the next one flashes up on your mini-map. Sorry, did the use of the word "checkpoint" imply that these sections have auto-saving? Well, they don't; if you crash (and you will - repeatedly) then it's back to the start of the section for you. It's quite telling that I picked up the "driven ten miles in a car" achievement on the very first section that employed these broken dynamics, thanks to the number of restarts I required before I persevered through it.

Despite all these terrible flaws, every time you come close to giving up, the game offers a moment of inspired genius - and for a fleeting moment you can see exactly what the developers were going for. It's mainly the environmental puzzles - hand-make a sticky Molotov cocktail and throw it on the back of a little monster to destroy its out of reach nest, for example, or shift corpses in a precariously balanced bus to ensure that it doesn't topple of the cliff when you make your break for the exit - that are really clever and unusual. On top of this, it's quite the looker too, even if Carnby's face looks like it's been made with the same rubber that was used to manufacture Eighties space hoppers. The environments are dark, moody and detailed, the fire looks brilliant (though not quite up there with Far Cry 2) and the lighting is suitably atmospheric. The sound's decent as well, with creepy choral music echoing in at important moments and distant monster moans ensuring that you never quite feel safe. The dialogue fares less better but that's more down to the scripting, which is very much from the Marcus Fenix school of intellectual cut-and-thrust.

The very best bit of the presentation though is the episodic nature of the game. Alone in the Dark is split into eight hour-long episodes (depending on how you fare with the puzzles, of course) and each one has an enticing looking 'previously on Alone in the Dark' featurette that reminds you of the story, as well as the last cliffhanger that you ended on. The system works superbly and if this game leaves no other legacy than to make someone else shamelessly rip off the idea then it's good enough for me. It makes you feel more involved in the surprisingly good storyline and ensures that the key points are constantly at the front of your mind so you're not left as in the dark as the protagonist (sorry!).

With so many good ideas, an awesome selection of puzzles that make you feel smart and attempting to fill the horror-shaped hole in the Xbox 360's line up, Alone in the Dark should be a solid 8 - but you can't just ignore the numerous problems that will leave you tearing your hair out. In the end, the storyline and memorable moments will push most players towards finishing the eight to twelve hour storyline but this will be despite the majority of the gameplay rather than because of it.

It's worth nothing that a lot of the issues that gave the Xbox 360 version such a lukewarm reception have apparently been improved in the PS3 version, so if you're thinking of taking a look at the game and have the option, this would seem to be the one to go for.

Reviewed by Alan Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).