Not as good as the first two games in the series
Let me just say this was a very good game that I enjoyed a lot. I'm just holding off calling it great because I liked the first two games in the series better, and feel they went in a direction I didn't like for this 3rd one - too actiony.
The first 2/3 of this game were pretty good. The same slow paced exploration gameplay as in the first two games. Didn't really like how they switched you around to play 3 different characters as I never really felt connected to any of them. But it was pretty good.
Then in the last 1/3 of the game they introduced a timer mechanism which turned into a rushed, beat the clock, trying to get things done instead of the slow exploration previously. This timer which is portrayed as a candle burning down just ruined it for me. I resorted to following a FAQ walkthru to finish, something I hate to do, but was just too frustrated with it all. It's as if the game turned from scary slow exploration into an action game - an action game with HORRIBLE controls!
The final boss battle was pretty frustrating too. Not so much the boss itself, but the horrible clunky controls together with 5 minutes of walking every-time you die to get back to the boss was very tedious. Yuck - I hate games that end like this.
So in summary - if you can, you should play the 3 games in order - starting with the first two using the Xbox versions as I think those were better looking and sounding than this PS/2 version. Somebody should release these as a collection to make it easier to do so. I also missed the Xbox's surround sound, too bad this third installment was never ported over to the Xbox.