Grace Saunders

Grace Saunders
Alone in the Dark series character
File:Grace.png Grace Saunders, as seen during the opening sequence in Alone in the Dark 2.
First game	Alone in the Dark 2
Created by	Infogrames

Grace Saunders is a fictional 8-year-old girl featured in the Alone in the Dark series of video games that are generally credited with beginning the survival horror genre.

Alone in the Dark 2

Grace Saunders made her first appearance as a supporting character in Alone in the Dark 2 and was kidnapped by the infamous pirate leader One Eyed Jack, to be part of a bizare sacrifice that could grant he and his crew the immortality they required to live forever.

Grace was held captive in One Eyed Jack's mansion of Hell's Kitchen, which was heavily guarded by zombie pirate goons armed with Tommy guns. A private detective named Ted Striker almost succeeded in rescuing Grace, but came up short because of the voodoo witch queen Elisabeth Jarret, which in return would lead to Edward Carnby picking up where Striker left off.

Grace Saunders is the game's second playable character for a brief portion of the game, and can be played twice in total. Her purpose is usually to help the main character Edward Carnby out of a bad predicament so that he can resume his mission.

It is unknown where Grace Saunders came from, although she may have been from a wealthy family. Edward Carnby, the now famous detective from the original 1992 game comes to Grace's aid after his partner Ted Striker failed to report back, following his disappearance on the 22nd of December in 1924.

As the story unfolds, Carnby finds Striker's body, as well as two separate parts of Striker's diary that reveals that the newspapers gave false claims, and that the Saunders child really was taken by One Eyed Jack.

Being a private investigator with previous experience in the line of supernatural events, Carnby is readily equipped to take on One Eyed Jack and his immortal band of bootleggers with guns, swords or even his bare hands. Unfortunately for Carnby, he is eventually captured himself, and the roles of Grace and Carnby are reversed.

Unlike Carnby, Grace cannot use weapons or open doors, so she has to use her wits to evade being caught by the enemy. This includes moving from area to area carefully via a dumbwaiter without alerting the bad guys to her position.

If Grace is spotted by an enemy, she can use Home Alone style booby traps to keep her persuiers at bay. In return for a bag of seeds, One Eyed Jack's parrot tells Grace where he has hidden Captain Nicol's staff.

Grace's portion of the game is accompanied by a cutesy melody, keeping in tradition with her age. However, Grace Saunders is the slowest out of all the Alone in the Dark protagonists to date, so a sighting of the Saunders child almost always results in her being re-apprehended.

Once Grace is eventually captured again for real, Edward Carnby is then free to try and save her from the clutches of One Eyed Jack. Carnby later encounters Elisabeth Jarret and is left suspended in a voodoo spell. Young Grace uses a chicken leg to repel Elisabeth's powerful magic and is defeated.

During the final encounter with One Eyed Jack and his minions, Carnby blows up their ship, The Flying Dutchman, and makes a lucky escape in a rowing boat with the young child Grace Saunders.

Jack in the Dark

Between 1992-1993, Grace Saunders also appeared in a small promotional game called Jack in the Dark which only lasts an estimated 5-10 minutes. Originally unveiled as a gold-wrapped floppy, the game itself was not so much a survival horror game because there was no direct combat.

In this lesser-known adventure, Grace Saunders wanders into a lonely toy store on Halloween. Although seemingly abandoned, the toys are alive and Grace is immediately locked inside, and through reading a book for clues, Grace must save Santa Claus from a group of nasty toys, lead by a scary looking jack-in-the-box replica of the infamous pirate, One Eyed Jack.

Because a Christmas tree appears in the shop window, it is possible that the game takes place during the Christmas season.

Signature Items

While Grace's commands are only 'search' and 'open', she uses a tub of molasses, ice cubes, a mirror, a candy cane, a broom, a teddy bear and a drum kit throughout her ordeal in Alone in the Dark 2 and Jack in the Dark.

Trivia

Grace Saunders is much cuter in the PlayStation version of Alone in the Dark 2 since the game was slightly modified. Edward Carnby is also evidently different. He only wears his original attire during the opening credits. Perhaps this was to make the game look more marketable.

Curiously, the game has a very early number on the side of the box, indicating that it was indeed one of the earliest PlayStation games ever released, and can be considered the "first" PSOne survival horror title (as many believe Resident Evil to be the earliest example of the genre).

Alone in the Dark 2 was later ported to the PlayStation in the UK as Alone in the Dark: Jack is Back and elsewhere as Alone in the Dark: One Eyed Jack's Revenge. It is one of the rarest games ever made, but can be found on the popular auction site, eBay.

Article Summary

This article about a video game character was written by Peter Ross Anderson (SynchPedro86). This info may not be re-submitted without my permission.