Tight, claustrophobic sandboxes allow for sequences highlighting the causality of player action due to the proximity of guards; in that respect, it represents not only a marked improvement over the previous entry's limited and exploitable areas but immediately begins enforcing the most prominent theme of the game. Tranquilize a guard only to be discovered when dragging their body, forcing you to scramble to find a hiding spot for a clearing. Then in the subsequent tightened security phase, use a box to crawl near the exit, get a guard's attention near the exit, and choke hold them as leverage for escaping. Everything the player does has consequences, has some observable effect on the environment that can help or hurt them.
Beyond the tanker chapter, Big Shell is structured so most rooms are struts connected to another, the player tasked to approach them in one of several ways resulting in subtle shifts of the original challenge depending on the perspective you approach them from. Maybe there was room to go further with the idea, but it comes across the same, connection enabled through choice and consequence. There are numerous mirrors and tangents in the narrative, the obsession with parents, siblings, children, and family is no coincidence.
I find it fascinating that the game commentates on complex ideas of anonymous dissemination of information, the role of digital information in human advancement and the jarring sense of encroachment on one's perception of reality, but the conclusion is very simple, gesturing to the very basic idea of ecology. Despite the gizmos, the networks, despite the finale with enough increasingly grand and indigestible revelations to make your head spin, no matter the method of connection the fact is that we all are, and only you can decide what it means to live for you and your progeny, and that discovery may be the only truth you can rely on in times to come.