Mechanically, feels just like X-Wing or Tie Fighter — which is to say, great. Everything from those last two games comes across here, except that the campaign missions added on are offensively challenging.

I'm not sure if it's because they're balanced for the idea that you'll have 7 other human players alongside you or what, but I'm unable to complete the first mission of either campaign, despite having finished the previous two games. I read the manual, took down notes on controls, gave my wingmen commands — no dice after about a dozen tries.

Dropped the difficulty down to easy, but the gap is unfortunately vast. The missions go from borderline impossible to requiring no strategy whatsoever. Really disappointing!

Absolutely astonished how much I enjoyed this game coming to it in 2021. Took about an hour to wrap my mind around the control scheme and how it wants you to jump in and out of mouselook controls, but past that I just couldn't stop playing.

The control interface you're presented with is profoundly intimidating, which is (unfortunately) helped by the fact that you can largely ignore it and still be successful. I never felt the need to use any mods other than the headlamp, threw maybe five grenades during the game and used no patches other than for healing.

Combat is also somewhat frustrating — most projectiles are hitscan and you take quite a bit of damage, so I spent the majority of my fights leaning around a corner to shoot the edge of a hitbox on an enemy I couldn't actually see.

Despite those complaints, I found the act of exploring the station to be a thrill, and was surprised at how effectively the game communicated objectives through storytelling, something modern games can often struggle with.

Some puzzles were obtuse (one that requires you to find a particular severed head comes to mind) but largely fine.

The same cannot be said for the cyberspace sections, which are blessedly few. The controls are confusing, your objective is confusing, combat is confusing, and the graphics make it nearly impossible to navigate. A great place in which to fight the game's final boss!

Despite her lackluster final performance, malevolent station AI SHODAN is obviously the standout part of the game, and the influence on evil AI in gaming since then is immediately obvious. If only the rest of the fairly bored-sounding voice cast had put in even half the effort heard in SHODAN's performance.

Anyway, consider me fully appreciative of why this game was so influential back in 1994. Can't wait to play the sequel.