An atmospheric, deep, tense experience. It's absolutely baffling that this game came out only 2 years after its predecessor. The graphical leap is amazing. Everything just falls in place in this game. The environments are detailed, the music is beautiful and atmospheric, the ambience adds so much tention. The implication is sometimes more effective here than the actual scares.
The story is leagues above the first game. It's still lauded as one of the best in the medium and I would have to agree. The one thing holding it back is the sub-par voice acting. There are some standout performances here, but I wasn't impressed. That's basically the only thing I expect to be better in the upcoming remake.
It's a wonderful, thoughtful game that set the standard for its genre that is yet to be matched. Every horror fan should give this one a try.

Had a really great time with this one. Some things are much better than in the previous games, the highlights being the flow of the game, graphics and voice acting. The game felt smoother than SH and SH2, I didn't really have to use the guide, although I did that a few times due to the repetitive nature of this game's environments, especially towards the end. There wasn't a lot of aimless running around here. The graphics are a huge step-up. The level of detail is stunning. There are no pre-rendered cutscenes because they're not really needed. The voice acting, specifically Heather's voice acting, is muuch better. I don't know if the direction in SH2 was purposeful or not, but Heather's actress did a fenomenal job in bringing the character to life. I like Heather overall, she's a really good character, very likeable, unlike James from the previous game. There are also a lot of things that went worse this time around, though. The atmosphere just didn't work for me, I didn't feel any tension. The game went back to a more industrial feel for the Otherworld and it's not as atmospheric as SH2. The story is not very deep, especially coming after SH2's fenomenal handling of that aspect. It does hearken back to SH1 in a significant way, but it's just not very personal. The stakes are higher, but I don't feel invested.
Overall, still a great game that I had a good time with, but ultimately worse than SH2, simply due to the atmosphere and story. I like Heather though. Great gal.