I think the third game is better, though it does not top the first one. My biggest complaint with Alone in the Dark 3 is how it expects you to go through its areas on a specific path which often feels just arbitrary.

A horror game should not have a cheerful tune like this. Don't get me wrong, I love to whistle this tune, it's very nice but it just shouldn't be in a horror game! It ruins the atmosphere... OK, there is not much left to ruin anyway but I would ruin the atmosphere if the game had it ;)

Did they ever call it a horror game?
I saw them call it a virtual mystery game, only the first game was really horror.
Well maybe 4 and 5.

Hmm... You can be absolutely right, I don't know how it was called but... I think it doesn't matter in this case. The game is after all filled with zombies and other nasty monsters. Furthermore you are not an invincible superhero who can smash them without breaking a sweat. You have to struggle to finish them off. That somehow build the atmosphere for me... atmosphere of being alone (in the dark of course;) and then I get this extra-cheerful music and it ruins the atmosphere completely. So as I said: labels doesn't matter, I think it's still a pretty bad dissonance...

Yeah! For alone in the dark, this game isn't very dark, it's pretty upbeat xD

Yup, this! The third one was bad too. And several times Carnby said "I'm alone in the dark" when he indeed was in an unlit room. This was just terrible because in the first game this phrase was very metaphorical and here they brought it to its literal meaning. Shame.

Nice to know I'm not the onlyone frustrated by this game. BTW you can skip most of the garden maze of the game by going to the front doors, running left from there to the corner where there's a stone slab on the ground. When you step on it you're teleported to the cellats with all the things you need to proceed from there. Even the devs knew they had screwed up with the beginning shoot out.

I played through it now a second time in my life, so I've seen my fair share of it's design.

The biggest problem of the game, I feel, is just the fact that the enemies are wearing friggin Tommy guns -_-
When you are up against several of them, they will easily make you immobilized.
While Carnby, like always with his slow movement, has to take good time adjusting his aim.

Nah, the game was just too hard to enjoy.
Having to utilise the anytime save feature for every room, because you want to make sure you didn't
waste too much ammo and health in a fight, is not ideal for a game.

I personally say it's the worst part in the series. Simply too hard to bother with.
Yet I completed it twice! o.O What's wrong with me?

I say one good thing about it, the soundtrack is real nice.

I think the best ones out of the original trilogy were 1 and 3.