~Alone In The Dark 3 - CD
5
AITD301.PCX
AITD302.PCX
AITD305.PCX
AITD307.PCX

Animated Adventure by INFOGRAMES

Reviewed By Lu Richardson.

I finished Alone in the Dark 1 (cheating) and Alone in the Dark 2 
finished me - I couldn't get past three heavily armed guys right at 
the start, and I don't believe a lot of people did.  Many of us just 
gave up at the outset.  So!  What about AITD3?

Well, it's not so very different from the other two in format.  The 
graphics are marginally better, the sounds definitely an improvement 
and the interface is the same as before - and rather awkward, at 
that.  It's still extremely difficult to control the guy and, most 
annoyingly, it's even worse in moments of acute danger.  The 
previous games were tough to solve not so much because of the 
puzzles but because of the interface, and the same applies to this 
one.  But, at least, and unlike AITD2, this one is as playable as 
AITD1.

AITD3 takes up 35 Mb of your hard disk which, this being the 
entire contents of the CD, is rather odd.  I mean, I thought that 
one of the main advantages of CDs is that you can play from them and 
avoid using floppies and hard disks.  But may be I've got it all 
wrong.

The story this time is that a film crew vanishes (including your 
girlfriend) in a ghost town in the Far West and you have to go over 
and investigate and, preferably, save the girl.  You can expect the 
usual horde of undead horrors, plus a whole lot of unpleasant 
surprises.

As soon as you get control of the guy you get that weary feeling - 
he's so difficult to manoeuvre, so tricky to place in the right 
spot to do the right thing; and then the disconcerting sudden 
changes of perspective, etc., etc.  If you've played the previous 
two you'll know all about it.  

In this one, you start with a gun and six bullets and not only the 
nasties come at you thick and fast, it's the devil's own job to aim 
properly and you can soon waste all your bullets.  YOU try to get 
anywhere in a place chock-a-block full of armed nasties, with 
nothing to defend yourself but your bare hands...  Why, you can't 
even get close them to fight since, of course, they shoot you down 
before you've taken a couple of steps!  It's enough to put anyone 
off - but I'm sure you'll enjoy the challenge.

Well, there you are.  What you have in front of you is a rather
large, highly complicated and very difficult game.  If you can get 
used to the business of using the spacebar, after using RETURN to 
choose an action, and then the arrow keys, without getting them all 
mixed up with the ESC and the TAB keys, if you can get the hang of 
how to kill the baddies (they all handle differently) and if you 
don't get thoroughly fed up getting killed every few minutes, then 
you are in for a treat.

The puzzles are diabolical and you are not even given the leisure to 
work things out, since nasties pop up from nowhere all the time and 
give you no peace.  Problems follow one another thick and fast, and 
some are so very absurd that you'll never guess the answer in a 
month of Sundays.  

Now that I've told you all the bad news, here is the good news:  
in spite of all, it's really a great adventure game and the ghost 
town background is so well done you almost feel you are there.  If 
you are a very experienced player and have found all games up till 
now a pushover, you've met your match.  Here is a tough one for you; 
not only it's going to keep you on your toes, you are going to have 
the time of your life.  Beginners should abstain though, the 
frustration is just too much.  But I'll give you all a leg up - if 
you can't beat them, then you are not meant to be there.  Now go for 
it!  We've all waited long enough for a game as good as this, so 
make the most of it.

This Article Copyright 1995 of Lu Richardson.
Written for Cheet Sheets Magazine.