Observation

Poorly designed, unintuitive puzzles. I got softlocked a couple of times and had to reload. Constant bugs as Emma traverses the station, phasing in and out of walls, teleporting in the middle of animations... Just sloppy. I hope you like hunting for 4 digit codes for 8 hours, because that's all the gameplay you get while they occasionally throw you tiny story moments. More than halfway in and there's very little in the way of story development. The game won't run unless you tell windows to run it in an older compatibility mode. Just lack of care from the dev team, who could have patched this any time in the last 6 years.

Having serious camera issues (like the character clipping out of the environment) in the final release is unforgivable; the gameplay is tedious, and the camera is extremely slow; you can't skip irrelevant cutscenes (zero replayability); the camera is terrible (and it gets even worse if you bump into or graze anything); the lighting is among the worst I've ever seen, you can literally get lost inside a tube because the camera is so bad, creating a disorienting effect where you graze something and lose your bearings; the puzzles are simple, but the sluggish camera makes them tedious and boring; I struggled to finish it because the interface is awful; the map is terrible; there are moments where you literally don't know where to go or what to do /not in the positive sense of "exploration") but because you might walk right past an object since you have to be at a very specific distance from it (neither too close nor too far), causing you to waste a lot of time searching for something you had literally just walked past; the story is generic, nothing special; controlling the camera is a nightmare, as is the interface for locating your drone; it's awful not knowing how to move from one area to another; it's terrible when an NPC bumps into you and gets you stuck, forcing a game restart because a bug has pinned you against a wall: etc., etc... I do not recommend it. I played it thinking it would be like *The Invincible*, but I didn't like it at all; I only finished it because I had paid for it. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Good game supported by exceptional presentation and an intriguing plot. As a videogame, I wouldn't say that it was a lot of "fun," mainly because you are controlling cameras and solving simple puzzles. However, curiosity drove me forward and ultimately it was a memorable experience. 3/5 SAMs.

Nice art, but sucks as a game.

Could've been executed better but still recommend. - Interesting story. It is very slow-paced, which works for the story and the setting. - Amazing setting and concept. - Looks great (except for animations but they're minimal) - Puzzles and mechanics are okay but do get repetitive. Sometimes feels a bit arbitrary; e.g. having to provide a sequence of codes and then a second set of numbers, corresponding to where each code came in a list on a sheet of paper in-game. Not quite as interactive as I was expecting after playing Stories Untold. But still okay. - Controls: the stationary cameras worked fine and I enjoyed playing through those. The sphere was an absolute nightmare to move around and I tried using it as little as possible. A gamepad is a must just to get through the sphere sequences. The frustration with controls ruined the spacewalking sequences. The awkwardness made me less inclined to explore the ship in depth. - Buggy: sometimes can get trapped in places (with the sphere). The final sequence is all on rails but the sphere is still clipped through terrain?! Immersion destroying. Why not just have that as a pre-rendered cutscene?

NOTE! Game says unsupported for steamdeck, but I have had zero issues after 2 hours of playing. (I'll update if i run into any troubles). Didn't even need to mess with the controls! Amazing and creepy game so far, i'm loving it!

TLDR, A shame. A damn shame. Because the premise is good. The initial storytelling - hell, the overall story and mysteries up to two thirds of the game are interesting if you like this genre. HOWEVER, there is one requirement for me to really recommend these stories - and I mean any space / space...horror-ish? / science fiction: The ending HAS TO live up to the story you've been building. It doesn't. It falls flat on its head and left me truly disappointed, feeling like I was walking the path towards something great... only to be met with a handshake and a "congratulations on your 6th place" salute at the finish line. There's a reason authors like Asimov, Clarke and Bradbury are masters at this genre: they tell stories that not only have you hooked and asking questions on every page; they also deliver endings that both live up to and exceed the expectations they guided you to construct within yourself. This just doesn't do that. It provided me a couple answers, the most easy ones I could figure out myself without watching the end scenes, while failing to leave me with enough interesting premises to ask for a sequel. Puzzles are "okay-ish". That's fine. In fact, I play these games for the story. So where most people can find unamusing puzzles something to critique, if the developer removed them altogether or gave me an opton to skip them, I'd be happier. They're just nonsensical hurdles in a race with a disappointing prize. 5/10 for the premise, the sensation it provides on being in a space station (very well done!) and good initial storytelling. Deducted points for a terrible and uninspired ending that leaves aside many of the interesting points in the story, and for doing a bait and switch and taking the game down for a year on Steam beacuse all of a sudden you got a deal with Epic. We do not forget.

The game looks good and the gameplay is unconventional but the story is WEIRD and not for me. You would probably like it if you liked 2001 A Space Odyssey.

I played this when it originally came out on the Epic Store and then it was cheap for a Steam Sale, so I picked it back up and played through it again. The positives are many and the negatives are few; the aesthetic in the game works super well and makes you feel like a tiny robot navigating a space station, the controls are both more and less complicated than you think they are which means you'll often get in your own way before you go "Oh, that's all?" and instantly solve the puzzle, the voice acting is perfectly fine, the graphics are definitely AA and a couple years old but the environmental and UI holds up exceptionally well, and then there's the plot. Not to give anything away, this is some straight science-horror that leans on the impending weight of a horrifying experience to come rather than jump scares. If I have any negatives, it would be that the puzzles are often a bit inscrutiable and when you solve them, you'll often be like "How would I have known to do that?" and that this is really a play once, uninstall game. There's no replay, no alternate endings, and no sequel to be had, so when it's over, that's all there is. I enjoyed it both times I played it and it goes quick enough that it's easily completed in a solid afternoon, so closer to a movie experience in a way. Fantastic if you want a solid, creepy little story - but if you either need something to keep coming back to OR you need your endings tied up in a tight little bow, you may want to look elsewhere. Recommended, with caveats.

Yeah, that was sick. I could see this becoming a successful film. Big "2001 A Space Odyssey" and "Arrival" vibes. Had to force it into Windows 7 for it to work though btw.