Alone in the Dark 3 | 1995

 

Alone in the Dark 3 is a survival horror video game developed and published by Infogrames Multimedia in 1995. It is the third installment in the Alone in the Dark video game series, released for MS-DOS, with a port for PC-98 released the same year. In 1996, versions for Windows and Mac OS were also released.

In July 1925, Edward Carnby gains the nickname "supernatural private investigator" due to his success in the previous two investigations. This time, he is called to investigate the disappearance of a film crew in the small ghost town of Slaughter Gulch in California. Among the missing crew members is Emily Hartwood, the niece of Jeremy Hartwood from the original game. Carnby discovers that the town is cursed and begins to track down the villain behind the missing crew, a bad man named Jed Stone. The town is filled with gunslinging outlaws, mad gold prospectors, and bloodthirsty ghosts, and Carnby must use his strength and wits to defeat them.

The main theme of the game is the Western frontier era. Carnby fights against zombie cowboy outlaws who attack him with revolvers and lever-action rifles. By the middle of the game, more traditional forms of zombies appear. In the latter part of the game, radiation mutations play a significant role, and players must battle monsters mutated by radiation.

This game is notable for being the first in the series to be released on CD-ROM instead of floppy disk. It includes a full Red Book audio soundtrack and voice dialogue from the initial release (available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, among others depending on the region). Additionally, it was released exclusively for various computer formats, unlike the previous two games which had official console releases.

Outside of Europe, Interplay Entertainment distributed the game in North America. In Japan, the PC-98 version was developed and released in 1995 by AMT Savan Corps, stemming from the merger of the company that published the earlier games for Japanese computers. This time, an FM-Towns version was not developed. In 1996, the Windows and Mac OS versions were also released in Japan by Electronic Arts Victor under the title "Alone in the Dark 3: Ghosts in Town."

An official guide for the game (Alone in the Dark 3: The Official Strategy Guide, Prima Publishing, 1995; reissued by the author in 2019) was written by Steve Schwartz in collaboration with Infogrames.

A version of Alone in the Dark 3 for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was announced but never released.