To us, Clock Tower 3 is a bit like an overplayed song on the radio. At first it's fresh and you can't get enough of it, but the more it's played, the more it begins to grate. Before too long you've reached a point where it's become so irritating, you conclude that if you're forced to endure it even once more, you'll want to throw yourself off the nearest tall building. Think Justin Timberlake and you might understand where we're coming from.

Clock Tower's got some good ideas though, and at least tries to be a bit different. Sure, it's got a predictable 'alone in a big empty house' storyline, but the lead character Alyssa, for example, isn't a hard-nosed Special Forces type, merely a 15-year old schoolgirl who's prone to getting scared out of her wits. She's not tooled up to the nines with weaponry either; she's got to rely on running, hiding, and a sprinkling of Holy Water to stay alive.

It makes for some tense gameplay, compounded by the innovative inclusion of a panic meter, which fills up when enemies are near, eventually resulting in Alyssa having a girly freak out, stumbling blindly around and crashing into scenery. In this terrified state, just one hit will kill her, so keeping an eye on the meter is crucial to survival.

The game's main enemies meanwhile, are a gruesome gang of serial killers, each with a particular grisly method of murder. With names like Sledgehammer, Corroder and Chopper, you can guess what kind of things they're into - and if you think Resident Evil's a stomach churner, get ready for a serious wake-up call.

But while fun at first, the constant running around quickly becomes tedious, and we soon found ourselves longing to just let rip with an Uzi. Being unable to actually kill enemies is a real pain. Let it out of one room, and they just follow you to the next. Down them temporarily, and they're soon back on your tail. There's just no let up - they even turn up in save rooms. Trouble is, the panic meter shoots up far too easily, resulting in a ridiculous amount of instances where Alyssa goes mental, legging it around, or - even worse - standing motionless, trembling pathetically while a deranged killer stoves her head in. Which means you'll need to be prepared for a lot of backtracking. The scarcity of Lavender Water (needed to cure the panic state) makes things all the more infuriating, and the lack of variation soon killed our enthusiasm.

It's a shame really - we were genuinely looking forward to Clock Tower 3, but to be honest, we're sick of the sight of it, it wound us up that much. Thanks for trying something different, Sunsoft, but if we want to run around all day, we'll do the London Marathon. Now where did we put that shotgun?

Graphics 70%
Detailed and suitably gruesome visuals.

Sound 60%
Haunting piano and string score.

Gameplay 40%
Repetitive and frustrating in the extreme.

Lifespan 50%
Ten hours or so, if you can put up with it that long.

Overall 50%
A grisly title with some good ideas, damaged by lack of variation and a high level of frustration.