THQ Nordic adds Alone in the Dark and Act of War to its slate

The revived publisher's shopping spree continues.

Back at the start of September, THQ Nordic revealed that it had snapped up the rights to RPG series Kingdoms of Amalur, prior to that in February it bought out Koch Media, netting it franchises like Metro, Saints Row and Dead Island, and the publisher clearly still has more to spend as it has now added two Atari franchises to its slate.

Alone in the Dark is fairly obvious in its appeal. Often cited as one of the first survival horror games, the original launched in 1992 but probably wouldn't scare many players today given that it looked like this:

A steady stream of sequels followed, with a 2008 revival for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gaining a fair amount of attention. The most recent entry in the series was Alone in the Dark: Illumination, a co-operative online game for PC only which launched in 2015 and was swiftly forgotten. It's been gathering dust ever since, and since sinister Lovecraftian horror is back in style, a revival makes sense.

Act of War is less well known, but feels well tuned to today's political climate. The 2005 original was a near-future strategy game, with a story by retired Air Force captain Dale Brown. Taking players into a crumbling world order, as gas prices go crazy and terrorist attacks increase, it's a concept that is sadly as relevant as ever.

Quite what THQ Nordic plans to do with its latest toys, or where they'll fit into the publisher's stuffed schedule, remains to be seen.

Dan has been playing games since the 1980s, and doesn't plan on stopping any time soon. Also, get off his lawn. You can contact him by email if you need to know exactly how to leave his lawn.

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