Alone in the Dark 2 - A Barrel of Fun

By Andy Panthro

A classic locked door puzzle.

We return to the underground caves beneath Hell’s Kitchen, California. I’ve somehow lost my guns, and so I’m hoping the rest of this will be much more adventure game focused, and much less of a terrible third person shooter. There’s a large metal door blocking my progress, but thankfully I have quite an array of odd objects in my inventory, and surely one or two of these will help me progress.

Using the pipe cleaner to push out the key.

My first thought, as a long time adventurer, is that the piece of newspaper and pipe cleaner should come to my rescue. It’s a classic setup, you slide the sheet of paper under a door and then push the key that has of course been left in the lock out onto the paper. It surely would not bounce or roll away, and then you can pull the paper and key back under the door, which will have more than enough space for both. Makes total sense.

Collecting the key from under the door.

This of course works perfectly, and I can use the key to unlock the door and open it. Again this is accompanied by a lovely little animation and I cannot stress that while I have my frustrations with this game, it does look great and there are parts that are genuinely enjoyable. Along with getting the key this way, it also seems to turn what seemed like a piece of newspaper into what looks like a contract between the Music Man and Elizabeth Jarret, for eternal life. It contains a not so subtle clue that I should tear this contract up in front of him.

I move to the next room, and it is instantly recognisable for anyone that has died a lot in this game. There’s a room full of barrels, through which a zombie pirate usually carries your body to throw out to sea. This time there seem to be a bunch of interactable objects around, including some boxes, a hanging barrel, a lever and that one zombie pirate sitting on the floor. I use the lever to confirm my suspicion that it is connected to the hanging barrel, and swings it out to sea. If I can arrange the zombie to be standing in the right place, it should carry him out also.

Boxed in.

This is a little trickier than I would hope, and timing is everything. It takes me several attempts for the barrel to hit the zombie instead of either Carnby, or nothing. Worth it to see the small shape fly out over the sea. Thankfully the zombie leaves his belongings on the edge, and gives me a flask, a book and a riot gun. The book is “The Life And Times Of The Freebooters” and has an excerpt about One-eyed Jack sending a man to his death, with one of his henchmen throwing his hat to cut a rope. The henchman is called Black Hat, presumably for the colour of his hat, and seems like a reference to Oddjob from Goldfinger.

Now that I can properly explore the space, I take another look at those boxes. There’s no way to move them directly, but there is a suspicious grandfather clock nearby. Upon approaching it, I get the message that “there’s a hole in it!”. I only just got a crank, so I use this and after a short animation of Carnby turning the crank, the boxes slide to the side, revealing a passage forward.

They really put some effort into this.

There’s a book lying there in the passage entrance, further information about the Music Man, Sean O’Leary. He joined One-Eyed Jack’s crew after having thrown three people from a window for criticising his playing of Vivaldi. This really is an odd game, every story beat seems like something from a hastily written pulp novella. Further round the corner, there’s a box of cartridges for the riot gun, meaning there’s probably more combat ahead. There’s also what looks like a lift upwards, and with nowhere else to go, I take the lift and find myself in the house.

Well, perhaps not quite the house, this seems more like a creepy basement. I am greeted immediately by a pirate zombie, who is playing the accordion. Given I just read a book about his life, I know that this is the famous “Music Man” and I tear up the contract I got earlier, which causes him to die immediately. Not the most complex of puzzles, but it’ll do. He leaves a hook behind, I think the book said he lost a hand.

The famous Music Man, so much build up and he was gone in a few seconds.

The next room looks like an old fashioned washing room, with a spot to wash clothes and some space to hang them. I find a “battledore” on the floor, which I assumed was some sort of household tool but apparently has something to do with a precursor to badminton. It basically looks like a small wooden paddle, and can be used as a weapon. There’s two ways out of this room, up the stairs or through a door. I choose the door.

Some sort of washing area in the basement.

The battledore then comes in handy when I go through the door, where there is a room with two zombies having some sort of target practice. I catch their attention, then move myself the other side of the door, at an angle where I can use the battledore to hit them before they can shoot me. It’s quite effective, and I can then enter the next room easily.

I feel like I’m flying through this game now that I don’t have a machine gun zombie around every corner waiting to kill me. This next room contains a puzzle involving playing cards and moveable targets, which is a nice change of pace. But I’ll leave that for next time, and that will give us a nice positive end to this entry and hopefully a nice positive start to the next one!