ITSP is inspired but uninspiring, if that makes sense. It absolutely looks the part. The art style is pretty unique, and does a good job of conveying the vastness and indifference of the setting; it's very atmospheric, and it's dripping with the 'otherworldy' vibes that I'm a sucker for. And there's a decent framework to build gameplay on in here too: the abilities you get are varied, intuitive and fun to use. And yet despite all that, I came away from this game feeling pretty indifferent.
The actual gameplay in ITSP is pretty inconsistent in terms of quality. The highlights are some of the environmental puzzles which require you to observe and experiment with unfamiliar objects to work out how to proceed. These parts feel pretty organic, and I appreciate how the scanner tells you which tools you have can interact with any given object, which prevents needless flailing in the dark without making the puzzle solutions too obvious. But these high points can be pretty few and far between, especially in the latter half of the game, and most of the time is spent on mundane things like generic redirecting laser puzzles and clunky and awkward combat.
The combat in this game really sucks; I appreciate how many of the abilities you get can be repurposed as combat tools, but fights in this game are chaotic and frustrating. There are plenty of times when a perfectly good puzzle sequence is ruined by the game's need to spam respawning projectile-shooting enemies all over the screen and turn what should be a methodical investigation into an absolute clusterfuck. For the most part the boss design is substantially better, but if anything these have even more unnecessary projectile spam. It feels like 'spam a billion things on screen' is the only way the devs could think of to make the game harder; it does make the world feel more hostile, which is good for atmosphere, but it's also just stressful in a bad way. I think this game would have been substantially better if they just took out combat altogether, and maybe ratcheted up some of the already present environmental hazards if they wanted to maintain a similar difficulty level.
There's also a massive missed opportunity here I think. The game is framed as an expedition into the heart of an unknown entity, and structured like a metroidvania... and yet I never really felt any sense of exploration. In general I'd say the level design is quite poor; the first area makes some attempt to have the branching looping paths inherent to the metroidvania genre, but after that the game becomes extraordinarily linear. There is always a big marker on your map telling you to 'go here', and it's always pretty obvious how to get to wherever you need to go. The only deviations you really need to make from the path are for a few easily found collectibles down short branches, and ocasionally you have to backtrack slightly to use a new ability in a previous area; but these diversions feel somewhat tacked-on, more a way to justify being a metroidvania than an inherent part of the fun. The level design definitely gets worse though as the game goes on, and in the last couple of levels even these sidepaths stop being a thing. You end up just proceeding down the game's linear paths because there is no other options, rather than out of any desire to explore.
So yeah. I think this could have been great with a bit more focus and polish on the gameplay side of things. But as it is, ITSP ends up being a remarkably forgettable game considering how strong it is on an aesthetic front. I'd say on balance I did enjoy playing it overall, despite some very frustrating combat roadblocks, but this game could have been so much better.
The actual gameplay in ITSP is pretty inconsistent in terms of quality. The highlights are some of the environmental puzzles which require you to observe and experiment with unfamiliar objects to work out how to proceed. These parts feel pretty organic, and I appreciate how the scanner tells you which tools you have can interact with any given object, which prevents needless flailing in the dark without making the puzzle solutions too obvious. But these high points can be pretty few and far between, especially in the latter half of the game, and most of the time is spent on mundane things like generic redirecting laser puzzles and clunky and awkward combat.
The combat in this game really sucks; I appreciate how many of the abilities you get can be repurposed as combat tools, but fights in this game are chaotic and frustrating. There are plenty of times when a perfectly good puzzle sequence is ruined by the game's need to spam respawning projectile-shooting enemies all over the screen and turn what should be a methodical investigation into an absolute clusterfuck. For the most part the boss design is substantially better, but if anything these have even more unnecessary projectile spam. It feels like 'spam a billion things on screen' is the only way the devs could think of to make the game harder; it does make the world feel more hostile, which is good for atmosphere, but it's also just stressful in a bad way. I think this game would have been substantially better if they just took out combat altogether, and maybe ratcheted up some of the already present environmental hazards if they wanted to maintain a similar difficulty level.
There's also a massive missed opportunity here I think. The game is framed as an expedition into the heart of an unknown entity, and structured like a metroidvania... and yet I never really felt any sense of exploration. In general I'd say the level design is quite poor; the first area makes some attempt to have the branching looping paths inherent to the metroidvania genre, but after that the game becomes extraordinarily linear. There is always a big marker on your map telling you to 'go here', and it's always pretty obvious how to get to wherever you need to go. The only deviations you really need to make from the path are for a few easily found collectibles down short branches, and ocasionally you have to backtrack slightly to use a new ability in a previous area; but these diversions feel somewhat tacked-on, more a way to justify being a metroidvania than an inherent part of the fun. The level design definitely gets worse though as the game goes on, and in the last couple of levels even these sidepaths stop being a thing. You end up just proceeding down the game's linear paths because there is no other options, rather than out of any desire to explore.
So yeah. I think this could have been great with a bit more focus and polish on the gameplay side of things. But as it is, ITSP ends up being a remarkably forgettable game considering how strong it is on an aesthetic front. I'd say on balance I did enjoy playing it overall, despite some very frustrating combat roadblocks, but this game could have been so much better.