Jesus Christ this game is nerve-breaking. I had to divide my sessions in two to get to the end. I see some inspirations from Resident Evil, but it's giving it a disservice, as there are plenty of imsim elements, like authentic weapon handling and fully functional DOS on PCs - reading e-mails, unlocking doors, all of that extra layer of interactivity that makes it very much different from other games.
Puzzles weren't exactly difficult, I'd say they were just in the region of not being stumped while also giving that rewarding 'aha!' feeling when solved. Okay, maybe the sticky note with password was a little too easy (I was hoping to find some posters with the whole word for the login, like the title of the movie).
Enemies though. Mess hall was really messy. Repopulating areas with new enemies was dreadful. Killed enemies waking up, new enemies showing up in already cleared areas, or random spawn of two bigger critters... man, I died a lot. At one point I was chugging health potions like an addict. It's good that you have plenty of ammo and health pickups as I was burning through them fast. I think that enemies are too fast, especially small critters. The window to land a successful shot is too small, they're always chasing you and will always get a nibble or two. My only reliable way of killing them was waiting for them to land after biting me and hoping I'll align my shot when they're stationary after the attack. Also enemies are relentless when they're close to you. Shooting them from a short distance should stagger them more reliably, I think they also should have bigger cooldown between attacks.
I have to praise you for music and ambient sounds. Save room is one of the places where you can really appreciate the time between fights. Music getting unnerving when the enemies are active immediately makes me tense, similiarly just entering the mess hall is just overwhelming with that dense atmosphere. The occasional sound of cracking pipes in the flooded area - the very definition of oppressive (but I think that enemies in that area shouldn't attack you immediately when triggered, let them stand up fully).
For the bugs, game crashed once. I couldn't start my second session from a save, I had to start the game from the beginning and then load it. The letters on the PC screen were scrambled after that. Crouching and then moving between some areas (like security checkpoint's gate) could make you stuck and your gun act like it's held above your head. Wiggling in various directions eventually freed me.
Overall, I survived. The feeling of isolation is almost too strong. The boss was handling me like a puppet until I discovered that the best way to avoid his attacks was strafing. Shooting down the very fist enemy that was covering the keypad and then having the same enemy being the weak spot on the boss - I'd say it's the intelligent game design. Also enviromental destruction, mid-battle attack change, chance to stagger the boss, slow camera pan at the beginning - great stuff. I'd say I want to see more but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough for another deep dive.
