finally beat this last night. great game and definitely my GOTY so far
I never played the original, and beating this without a guide was tough. it took a lot of reading back over audio logs, and backtracking. Steam's new 'notes' feature also came in handy. overall the game does an amazing job of piecing together a story, and objectives, through audio logs. you just have to get away from that modern game mindset, where audio logs are additional info to flesh out the story, and can be ignored
I played on the default difficulty (all 2's), and the game is pretty challenging, with some serious difficulty spikes in some areas. ammo, resources, and your inventory space is limited. you definitely have to pick and choose what weapons you carry. there is a handy storage elevator, that can travel between levels, but it doesn't have much space either. the game does have item persistence, so you can store something in a container, and come back to get it later (until the 'point of no return' late in the game)
atmosphere was great. like I said before, it reminded me of Prey(2017). it also reminded me of Alien Isolation. I wouldn't call it a horror game, but I definitely felt anxiety playing it. I usually needed a break after beating a level
the main antagonist (Shodan) was great, with it's humorous distain for humanity. boss fights were good, but I found an easy way to cheese most of them
overall the lack of handholding made the game feel very engaging. you had to stop and think, write down pass codes, and pay attention. and overcoming these challenges felt very rewarding
great game. definitely check it out if you like first person immersive sims, and/or a good sci-fi FPS
www.metacritic.com
