Alone In The Dark has been highly anticipated but when it was finally released, initial reviews were not that encouraging.
Based on 13 reviews, Alone in the Dark scored an average of 55% with highest scoring review of 74% and lowest score of 30%.
German gaming website 4Players' review score of 68% was one of the highest scores Alone in the Dark received, but they still got served by a lawsuit filed by Atari seeking the negative review to be pulled off.
In their lawsuit, Atari claimed that 4Players' review date indicates that it was based on a "pirated or review" copy of the game. On their website, 4Players argued that they procured a copy through a retail connection who sold them a copy of the game before its European June 20 street date.
This lawsuit against 4Players is the only legal action Atari took until now, but several other websites claim to have been asked firmly to pull off negative reviews. "Atari contacted us just minutes after it was published, claiming that our review is probably based on a preview or pirated copy, and requested it to be removed", said Gamer.no's Tor-Steinar Nastad Tangedal. "We never removed it, of course." Gamer.no granted Alone in the Dark a 30% score.
Norwegian site GameReactor also granted the game a 30% score before removing the review silently. The review was later reinstated and the 30% score stands.
Atari is still maintaining a No Comment stance.