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- REVIEW
- ALONE IN THE DARK 3 from INFOGRAMES
- FORMAT: PC/CD
- DATE: FEBRUARY
- PRICE: N/A
-
- Edward Carnby is back in the third and last episode of the "Alone in the
- Dark" series developed by Infogrames. This time around, the action starts
- in the Mohave desert in California where a film crew has disappeared in a
- ghost town named Slaughter Gulch.
- Following the first two episodes, local journalists have nicknamed you the
- "Supernatural Private Eye", and although ghosts and other paranormal
- phenomena do not frighten you anymore, you are still alone in the dark.
-
- Built on the same engine as the previous episodes, the game features some
- minor changes that makes life easier for gamers. First, you can choose the
- standard level of difficulty from novice to expert, or set your life points,
- your hit points and villain's life points to high, average or low which
- gives a total of 27 different levels of difficulty. Second, you can now
- save up to 24 different games instead of only six as it was in the other
- episodes. Another new option is the map. If you get lost in the ghost
- town, just press the TAB key and you will see an overall view of the town
- with a small sign indicating your position.
-
- Like its predecessors, "Alone in the Dark 3" includes large three-dimensional
- polygonal characters displayed on beautiful backgrounds. Nothing has really
- been changed to improve the polygonal-shaped characters to give them a
- more human-like look with smooth lines other than squares. Nevertheless,
- the game has a lot of elements that makes it a potential hit.
-
- "Alone in the Dark 3" includes dozens of beautifully painted locations with
- varied camera angles to reproduce an oppressive atmosphere where every corner
- may have some nasty creatures hiding.
-
- The music reinforces the feeling of fear with odd sounds and a horror movie
- like soundtrack of the best quality. This episode is probably the most
- frightening, and the developers emphasized the general feeling of anguish
- surrounding your character.
-
- Some gamers might be disappointed because the fighting aspect is less
- important in this sequel although it remains an important part of the game.
- Alone 3 includes more adventure characteristics this time with more puzzles
- and you may find yourself trapped in a room because you have missed an item
- somewhere else in the town. The first two episodes were more action-based
- and it was sometimes really difficult to beat your opponents. Here, as the
- difficulty level can be completely customized, you can choose to give the
- action part less importance.
-
- The game is available on CD-ROM only, but it uses only 35 megabytes on the
- CD-ROM. As the storage space used is so small, you may wonder why there
- is no floppy version scheduled. Well, it is not that small, considering
- that audio tracks are used in the game for music and voices. But then, the
- CD-ROM is a bit deceiving as the game requires 35 megabytes of hard disk
- space as well. This means that the CD-ROM is only used for audio and
- storage.
-
- ──────────┐
- Conclusion│
- ──────────┘
-
- Although "Alone in the Dark 3" looks like the other episodes, it is a good
- sequel that appeals to the player.
- ─────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: │
- ─────────────────────┘
- 386 DX-33 MHz or better,
- Min 4 MB memory,
- MS-DOS 5.0 or later,
- Hard drive required with 35MB free,
- Single speed CD-ROM drive (150 Kb/s) or faster,
- VGA 256 color graphic card and monitor,
- Sound Blaster and compatibles.
- ───────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────
- ┌────────┐ ┌─────┐ │Infogrames Ltd.,
- │GRAPHICS├─────────────────┤ 92% │ │14 Smedley Street,
- │SOUND ├─────────────────┤ 94% │ │Clapham, London SW4 6PF, England.
- │MUSIC ├─────────────────┤ 94% │ │Tel: +44-(0)71-738-8199
- │GAMEPLAY├─────────────────┤ 90% │ │
- │INTEREST├─────────────────┤ 85% │ │I-Motion Inc.,
- └────────┘ └─────┘ │13428 Maxella Avenue, Suite 332,
- ┌────────┐ ┌─────┐ │Marina del Rey, CA 90292.
- │OVERALL ├─────────────────┤ 90% │ │Tel: 310-576-1888
- └────────┘ └─────┘ │
- │
- ───────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────
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