So, I was genuinely sad at one or more (no spoilers) of the endings. Which means I cared about the characters enough. Well done, Ellie and team.
I'm also highly amused at a coincidence of some of the themes of this game and very specific comments I made on reddit about ethics, IRB boards, and scientific experiments. I'm not sure if that's somehow not a coincidence, but if it is on purpose, it worked really well story-wise.