I think The Messenger could be way better. The game lacks in many aspects.
First of all some controls are not bad, neither good: if the platforming needs 3 buttons why the hell they are set in A/Y/B (Nintendo Switch)?! The L button is not for grapple but for the map and that does not make any sense.
I understand that in a game like this the narrative is not important, but that doesn't mean you should try to be funny in each line. This type of writing gets boring pretty early.
Finally I had a huge problem with some checkpoints and with backtracking. The former is the fact that many times the game is boring because you need to do pretty easy rooms just for one hard room (this becomes exhausting with some power seal rooms); the latter is that there is no fast travel, the teleports are not enough to justify that.
Other than that it's a good game: the boss fights are good, the music is fine and I loved the two graphics (especially from a narrative perspective, that was pretty cool).