Before we go into the improvements it's best to give a short introduction to those that have never heard of the game. The player takes on the role of Edward Carnby, a private detective who's been around since the very first episode of the series. After a short near-death experience he escapes from some bad guys and before you know it he's involved in something supernatural in New York. Sadly enough in the bad sence as it seems all of Central Park and the surrounding buildings seem to have landed into Hell.

If you've played the game on another platform you'll see and feel improvement from the very start. Instead of the automatic camera the player gets full control and you won't be swearing so many times anymore when you didn't see an enemy in time or your character died in a fire you didn't notice quickly enough. The controls of Edward himself are also a lot more smooothly and this makes for a more pleasant experience.

The inventory system is also one of the most innovating things of this latest Alone in the Dark. By opening Edward's best when you want to check it out players get more involved with the world they're in. Forget stupid medkits from other games or a filling life bar when you heal yourself. Here you effectively see yourlself healing with a spray or band aid when you've got a wound on your torso. Keeping yourself in top condition also has another advantage as when you've lost too much blood nearby monsters can smell this and the last thing you want is hordes of them coming at you when you're almost dead.

While the inventory was quite an innovation there were still some problems with it. Biggest criticism was that selecting items wasn't always easy and you would loose quite some time while figuring out which weapon you needed. This has been adjusted in Inferno as you can now easily go through it with the D-pad and when you combine stuff to make a new weapon time freezes in the game. In other words: a hostile won't be able to shred you to pieces when you're meddling around in your inventory.

As you can explore a pretty large area of Central Park and surroundings you also get the possibility to use vehicles to get to your destination a bit quicker. Luckily also here the necessary improvements have been made. The driving a lot more smoothly and you won't want to throw your controller at your TV anymore due to your car crashing due to some stupidly small obstacle.

By now you'll have noticed that the biggest changes are focused on controls but for those that haven't played the game yet it's handy to know what it's got to offer for the rest. A rather special addition is the possibility to immediately play the ending. The game is divided into chapters and just like with a DVD movie you can choose which part you want to check out. If you decide to skip one of more chapters you get a short overview of what's happened and the biggest advantage of this system is that if you're really stuck you can still finish the game. The fun part is that PS3 owners also have extra content and eventhough it's not a lot it does give some more information on the story which is always a good thing.

Graphically things still look as impressive as on the PC or Xbox360 and it's obvious that the makers have spent a lot of time to make fire look awesome. This comes as no surprise due to the large role it has. To permanently kill hostiles you'll need to set them on fire and the way you can let it spread or see how enemies get burnt alive is a beauty to the eye. The monsters themselves are also quite good and although they may not scare you to death they still look pretty frightening. Also the surroundings are pretty cool. You start in an abandoned building but get to explore Central Park pretty quickly by night and the variation in the background makes that you won't get bored with the game quickly.

The sound certainly isn't worse than other similar games. The makers perfectly know how to set the atmosphere and for a game like this that's crucial. Nothing is better than hearing monsters wander around or hunt when you've left a trail of blood. The environment sounds are also very good, the fire and the win in Central Park all add to the atmosphere.