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2ITD3REV.TXT
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1995-05-07
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~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.