Its environments feel like an in-between of organic and chaotic/labyrinthine as all the places you visit on each floor feel like a place people used for a reason (research labs, congress rooms, bedrooms, nuclear waste rooms, etc.), also each floor and, in a less pronounced way, each stay delivers its own particular visual design, from the props to the color palette. But they end up feeling repetitive and therefore disorientating. The map adds to this feeling as it is labyrinthine (as any pragmatic building would feel on a map) but helps with some distinctive locations you can use as a reference.
Revival stations take away part of the tension as you can abuse them, also you can save the game at any point. Therefore causing some enemies to feel like no threat, also, the tension fades away when you get to the station all levels have.
Enigmas surrounding your mission, Shodan, the station, etc. solved via text and voice logs, which contributes to the sense of a real place, more specifically a scientific station with a rogue IA, you can perceive the despair of the people talking through those notes and the hate and revenge hunger they have for Shodan. When you visit every level, you can feel its story. After the first one, you already grasp what's going on, but the places you visit tell their story that's deepened by those logs.
Stamina or energy is used in a very clever way. As you need it to run and shoot energy weapons, you run very fast but stamina is a valuable resource you have to manage it properly. As a downside, it's easy to find energy suppliers.
We can see in this game some mechanics that constitute fetishes in nowadays games. Breaking everything for no reason is one of them (logs I talked about before are another one). In this game you can break some things, mainly screens, Shodan face appears in them sometimes, so breaking them works as a catharsis for the hate you feel for Shodan.
Your mission makes you go forth and back, look for specific items or clues to get to a place, or have the ability to do something you couldn't before. You have to revisit some places, understand what a place was used for to get the idea. You feel like Shodan is watching every step you make, being her will what makes you go one or another place.
Revival stations take away part of the tension as you can abuse them, also you can save the game at any point. Therefore causing some enemies to feel like no threat, also, the tension fades away when you get to the station all levels have.
Enigmas surrounding your mission, Shodan, the station, etc. solved via text and voice logs, which contributes to the sense of a real place, more specifically a scientific station with a rogue IA, you can perceive the despair of the people talking through those notes and the hate and revenge hunger they have for Shodan. When you visit every level, you can feel its story. After the first one, you already grasp what's going on, but the places you visit tell their story that's deepened by those logs.
Stamina or energy is used in a very clever way. As you need it to run and shoot energy weapons, you run very fast but stamina is a valuable resource you have to manage it properly. As a downside, it's easy to find energy suppliers.
We can see in this game some mechanics that constitute fetishes in nowadays games. Breaking everything for no reason is one of them (logs I talked about before are another one). In this game you can break some things, mainly screens, Shodan face appears in them sometimes, so breaking them works as a catharsis for the hate you feel for Shodan.
Your mission makes you go forth and back, look for specific items or clues to get to a place, or have the ability to do something you couldn't before. You have to revisit some places, understand what a place was used for to get the idea. You feel like Shodan is watching every step you make, being her will what makes you go one or another place.