(First; thanks devs, after a few minor hitches after first booting this runs buttery smooth now, night and day from when I tried it before! Well done!)
OK, let's get this out of the way; this game is really, really tough. If you have a second screen or other device you can use to have to PDF manual up and in view at all times, rather than relying on switching screens in-game, I highly recommend it. Even with that, this took me about a half-dozen attempts to get through.
You're trying to guide a plane down. The "pilot" is, apparently, either just out of their depth, or possibly an untrained passenger taking over... it's not clear, because your communication is limited. You can only send a set of basic number-letter codes, and responses are coded in turn. You need to guide them through the correct procedures to deal with turbulence, pressure differences, storms, and so on. And communication isn't ideal; maybe you *told* them to open the flaps, but does that "ping" mean that they're saying they did it, or asking you to repeat the transmission? Better go to the "incoming transmission" screen to see and, hmm, what does "A3" mean, better go check the manual, and... ohh, they've crashed. Whoops.
I do think there may be a touch of developer difficulty at play here, that they've gotten so good at their own game they're under-estimating how tough they've made it... or maybe they just want this to be as rock-hard as it is. That uncertainty does give me questions; is it a design choice that moving right from "Send" doesn't move you to "Incoming", to deliberate add friction to seeing what the response to your commands are? Or have they not playtested with enough people to know how difficult it is for people who aren't the creators to navigate to the functions you want? I cannot say.
What I can say is that, when I finally managed to get that pilot safely on the runway, I felt satisfied. And I'm satisfied with this game; they've managed to get all the creeping dread of a horror game with no typical horror trappings. You're not going to get jump-scared by a scary face. The monitors aren't going to start bleeding. You aren't going to hear a music box playing a lullaby in the darkness. There's just you, some screens, someone trapped up there, and the horrible beeping that signals their impending doom.
B1
B3
A4
