Alone in the Dark 3 *REVIEW*
Neal W. Miller
Alone in the Dark 3, 1995 Infogrames/I-Motion, Inc., CD-ROM
Purchased locally for $39.99US
Being a fan of the first two AITD games, I was thrilled to hear that a
third one was in the works. I was a bit apprehensive about the Western motif,
but Infogrames did an excellent job.
The game copies the vast majority of the graphics data to your hard drive,
for a total of about 36 megs of drive space, including save games. However,
the CD-ROM *must* be in place to play the game, because of the audio CD
soundtrack and voice support. These cannot be disabled to allow one to play
the game without the CD-ROM.
I'm not too impressed with the voices of any of the characters. They're
either too overdramatic and silly (i.e. the scientist's note, Zieglar's note),
or just sound plain wrong. IMHO, this game should have dropped all of the
speech. On the other hand, the audio CD music is excellent. The music ranges
from classical western jingles, complete with a jew's harp, to deep, throbbing
American Indian drums and chants. The music sounds completely professional,
and can be played in any CD player (or with any audio CD software). I
estimate that there is at least thirty minutes of audio on the disk.
The controls are pretty much the same as those in the other games. If you
could handle Carnby's movements in parts 1 and 2, you'll find yourself in
familiar territory.
While the graphics are no better than those in AITD2, they're certainly no
worse. The backrounds are beautifully drawn, even when detailed animation is
involved. Speaking of cinema sequences, there's a lot more in AITD3 than in
either of its predecessors.
The puzzles are fairly straightforward; nothing TOO abstract or vague, and
there are only one or two brief areas that will have you saving and reloading
every ten seconds. I also liked the connections this game has with the first
two games.
Most importantly, the ending is ... above average. Nothing ruins a fine
game like a crappy ending. AITD2 barely made the grade. Games like Star
Control 2 and the Secret of Monkey Island (part 1) have fine endings.
Syndicate, DOOM, and any Apogee game to date flunk the "cool ending" test.
While the ending for AITD3 isn't going to make your mouth hang open, it DOES
make use of an 3-D animation quality that isn't seen anywhere in any other
part of the game.
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The plot:
In 1926 (about a year after AITD2) You, Edward Carnby, receive a call from
someone who is concerned about the shooting of a film in the ghost town of
Slaughter Gulch. The entire cast and crew, including a beautiful (if somewhat
angular) actress, has not been heard from in days. You take the case, and head
for the ghost town to learn what has happened to all these people, who was
responsible, and what connection all this has to the forces you destroyed in
AITD1 and AITD2. Suffice to say that evil at work in this town is far from
benign, and a detailed investigation will reveal the workings of a master plan
more destrctive than you can imagine.
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Rating:
Ratings are for dumb people who don't bother reading all the descriptive
text. If you're so shallow as to believe that any experience can be
objectively summed up with a single number, then you may as well just buy the
game and get it over with. :)
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Neal Miller | Job Hunter, Full-Time | "This Side Up - Not Plummet Please!"
mil...@rpi.edu | Southampton, PA 18966 | - the box for my Taiwanese CPU fan
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