Dead Space (PC, 2008)
Graphics-8.5 Sound-8 Control-7.5* Challenge-7 Story-6.5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7 Fun-7.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
*w/ mouse fix patch and v-sync turned off
+
Good VA overall, Great overall animation and lighting effects (many different death animations), Good sound design overall (similar to Lost tv series), Very good art direction
Can take out individual body parts of enemies and shooting their limbs is the most effective way of dealing with the first enemies (inspired by RE4 but more intricate and gory here)
Good sense of vulnerability in some ways (begin unarmed - not for long though, get separated from your team early on, small flashlight mounted to your default gun, surprise attacks, parts where the lights go out, vacuum/space areas where you need to use oxygen stations or canisters to survive for longer periods, enemies appearing in shafts or scuttling out of the way before attacking, parts of the scenery suddenly getting blown up or breaking in scripted events - system shock, invincible enemy at one point)
Decent map system (shows the layout and your position, what you've explored, doors and if they're locked or not, the next objective, some points of interest, can rotate and yaw+zoom in/out)
Some interesting abilities (stasis module - make an object or enemy move in slow motion for a limited time (lets you avoid some combat), kinesis - grab and move/throw objects and corpses from afar (similar to half-life 2's gravity gun and a psi ability in system shock 2, lets you grab consumables from afar as well, only objects around your own size or smaller can be thrown), )
New enemies tend to appear while backtracking and sometimes the level design is altered as well
Control config
Some decent puzzles (timing puzzles involving stasis fields, moving certain objects to progress with kinesis, luring the hunter boss into a spot where it can be killed (Soul Reaver?), mining asteroid, block/bed sliding in chapter 10)
Upgrade your weapons/rig/suit/tools at upgrade stations with node items (guns - damage, capacity, reload speed, shot speed/fire rate; rig - HP and air supply; suit - armor and inventory space; stasis module - energy and duration, kinesis range, basic upgrade grid for each which is kinda similar to the one in FF10 but simpler - sometimes you have to spend a node item on an empty node to get to where you want which is fairly expensive)
Shops (weapons, suit upgrades for better armor and larger inventories, ammo and healing, can be upgraded to sell better gear - have to find the schematics for weapons+ammo types+suits, can sell items). These are also item stashes - items placed in one can be accessed via any other shop
Difficulty options (easy-very hard/impossible, have to unlock impossible by beating the game on any difficulty, besides stat differences enemies also dodge your shots on higher difficulties)
Subtitles toggle
Some interesting level gimmicks (zero gravity chambers where you can jump between ceilings and walls, explosive barrels that can be carried and thrown with kinesis, protection segment, tunnel with the fans near the end) and enemies (enemies that crawl on walls and can follow you between floors when using lifts, some enemies don't take the most straightforward path towards you if they can flank you, the bull-like enemies (brutes) can break certain walls, enemies that spawn the small swarm enemies if shot in the belly with something other than the force gun, explosive sack enemies can be used like explosive barrels after dismembering them, enemies that suck the oxygen out of a room until killed (this part is pretty easy though))
Some hidden rooms
Some shortcuts
Generally easy to distinguish interactive objects (highlighted+pop ups when close)
New game+ (works only if the same difficulty mode is chosen sadly - select the cleared game file; you get to keep weapons plus upgrades, suits, RIG upgrades, money and everything you had in your inventory and in the in-game store stash)
Can sometimes lure enemies into instant death hazards
Secondary firing modes for all weapons
Two mini-games (turret segment where you shoot asteroids (also used for a boss) - decent, zero grav ball game - didn't play it)
Satisfying feedback when attacking and getting hit
Upgraded weapons look and sound a bit different when fired
Unlockable level 6 suit (30% damage resistance)
Some minor sequence breaking opportunities (when taking the horizontal lift through the fog you can hit the refueling mechanism from afar with kinesis without stepping off of it which triggers the next sequence for that mission, line gun mine (alternate fire) to skip tentacle grab segments, rail skip in centrifuge room, can skip freezing the bridges that fall back down during the final mission)
One good twist near the end (kendra)
Alien language (some notes here and there - can find an alphabet in chapter 6)
+/-
Partially non-linear (very guided beginning with frequent voiced assistance and pretty much only objective-specific doors being unlocked, can't go back to the first area after finishing chapter 1, can choose between two different sub objectives in chapters 2/3/7/ (3 in chapter 4 and 10 (though the different paths don't branch out as much in the latter), 4 in chapter 6), can choose whether to use a node to upgrade something or to unlock a door at some points; can't fail a mission and keep going)
Pretty frequent save points overall (20+ slots, shows difficulty/current area/time taken) and frequent temporary checkpoints as well
Objective markers+path markers (can't turn either off except for segments where there are two objectives active at once in which case you can switch to the one you're not moving towards)
Can't jump, Can't crouch
Placed health items
Can't manually talk to NPCs in the intro gameplay - feels like a semi-interactive in-game cutscene
RE4-style over the shoulder viewing angle (pretty zoomed in - can be tweaked with the widescreen fixer app for a more zoomed out view)
Game doesn't pause while checking the map or inventory (adds to the sense of vulnerability)
Shows your HP/energy/ammo on the avatar itself (works well enough but feels gimmicky, can't see current ammo in a clip without aiming and sometimes you still can't see it due to bright lights in the environment)
Over the top ragdoll physics for corpses
Plenty of gore (stomp enemies (or NPC corpses) to pieces when they're lying down, aliens taking over people and transforming them, insane doctors "operating" on people, etc.)
Have to go to the map screen to change which objective the path marker/navigational line is tied to (objectives menu doesn't work)
Lockers sometimes unlock when backtracking through an area you've been through (determined by the game and not your performance or if you found a key - perhaps done for pacing since you have a limited inventory and it seems more of them unlock based on chosen difficulty mode but I would've preferred either of the former)
Can't tweak the length of the kinesis beam while holding onto an object (could've been done with the mouse wheel for example). This ability could've also had some more interesting upgrades like being able to carry objects while running, carrying two objects at once, stacking objects to reach higher or using them as a shield like the pod in R-Type for example
Borrows text and audio logs as well as some of the vibe of the setting from System Shock+some mechanics (secondary firing modes for weapons and some other things). Also borrows a bit from the movie Event Horizon
No dodge move (melee punch/swing attacks serve as weak breakout moves to avoid being grabbed and mashing E gets you out of a grab)
Can't cancel out of a punch or a stomp attack animation (fine unless you happen to spam the button a bit as you'll then swing 2-3 times in a row and not be able to switch to a gun)
Can't open doors while carrying something
Silent protagonist (doesn't quite work for this game due to some NPC encounters and the protagonist's motivation being his wife)
Can't throw living enemies with kinesis (balance reasons probably though it would've been cool if you could upgrade it to be able to do it for smaller ones)
You're forced to kill enemies fairly often (sometimes you're locked into a room until you clear it)
Can't find rather than buy weapons
Ammo and health is pretty common on Normal (sometimes makes opening a door with a node item less rewarding unless you take the time to backtrack to a shop)
Can attack some NPCs but nothing happens and there's no reaction (other times your avatar simply refuses to shoot)
Enemies sometimes stop and scream at you
Force Gun is kind of weak and slow until upgraded a lot - the alternate firing mode projectile could've been a bit stronger by default perhaps
Enemies don't respawn (Normal) - means it's pretty much always worth it to backtrack for items if you don't mind spending a bit more time (only when you backtrack as part of progression do new enemies appear)
Better to focus on about 3-4 different pieces of gear as you won't have enough money to upgrade all of them fully (Normal)
The sense of urgency could've been a bit better while escorting the marker during the finale (then again it wouldn't make sense considering you're being summoned by the alien hivemind)
Ammo drops seem to mostly adjust to which weapons you have
-
Some control/interface issues (inertia when looking around with the mouse+slow acceleration and deceleration/smoothing - can't turn it off in the options however you can mostly fix it with a patch (still feels a bit laggy when making fast and large movements unless you turn off v-sync - doing this can cause some issues however), weird diegetic HUD that floats in front of your avatar (sometimes isn't properly centered or your head gets in the way a bit), no mini-map and the regular map screen is a bit small, can't turn off floors above your current position on the map screen, can't browse the map - only rotate and yaw+zoom in/out (sometimes it's not even centered on your location if you zoom out a bit), not enough contrast between unexplored rooms and the black space around them on the map screen, the map screen doesn't save your chosen viewing angle, some delay when opening the inventory and map screens, can't skip cutscene dialogue - the best option would be on a per line basis (the game also tends to lock you out of saving and opening doors during dialogue), somewhat slow acceleration when starting to move, somewhat unresponsive movement - quickly tapping does nothing, tutorial popup messages are a bit distracting but you can play while they display and remove them quickly, can't see your total amount of ammo without going into the inventory menu, can't aim straight upwards, can't open doors while viewing the map, some delay when entering and exiting stores and upgrade stations, have to drop an item away from the item you want to pick up if you're at max inventory capacity since you can't press a button to cycle between items lying next to each other - same thing happens if an item is lying next to a recharge station, can't place map markers - map doesn't mark node locks, a bit too hard to hit enemies with the stomp move, sometimes can't move past ankle high obstacles, if you start holding aim mode while swinging and then press attack you'll just keep swinging instead of switching to the gun, aiming controls get screwed up when you're grabbed by the tentacles and by the final boss, can't use the mouse pointer in the pause menu, items used only for selling don't stack, can't remap weapon switching to the mouse wheel - game uses a weird unoptimized for PC system where you can't map each weapon to a number, diagonal movement is closer to forward/backward than sideways movement, minor hit detection issues when trying to shoot off the arms of the leapers, pressing the reload button doesn't register if you're moving - have to stand still, camera shifts focus to your avatar if you get knocked down or hit by certain other attacks - makes it fairly easy to accidentally be aiming in the wrong direction when it goes back to normal, overly long animation when QTE killing the enemy that turns corpses into enemies and some other enemies if they reach you in melee, shop menu doesn't wrap around, game is overly picky about your positioning when interacting with some objects)
Trial & error (the acidic swarm enemies can kill you really quickly, centrifuge room hazard after restoring gravity - instant death, various surprise attacks from behind, some enemies blend into the background - chapter 7 onwards, hard to spot certain enemies while in a vacuum as you don't hear them, surprise attacks by tentacles during the finale, hard to tell if a brute is dead or not - same with the wall enemies that spit out small enemies)
Some invisible walls early on and you can't climb waist high objects, Can't fall into pits
The text only logs break gameplay flow a bit
Unskippable bootup logo
Some tedious aspects (kinda slow elevators (very slow in hydroponics), annoying how the path tool only appears for about a second since it just means you either have to keep pressing the button (stopping each time) or check the map in which case you can't run at the same time, some delay on nearly every door (for dramatic effect and sometimes loading possibly but it gets annoying at times), some sticky surface segments feel pointless, a few too many dialogue scenes in chapter 10)
Can't pick up and place explosive canisters without using kinesis
Sometimes cheesy tone (evil laughter from people that went insane, random whispers)
The flamethrower kinda sucks? (eats ammo and low DPS, doesn't work in a vacuum area)
Sometimes overly intense music/ambience while nothing is happening and the strangled breathing when you have plenty of oxygen left gets annoying (the semi-muted sound design in vacuum areas is otherwise cool)
Unfinished looking animation when hitting a wall in melee and getting knocked back
Somewhat glitchy visuals when a movable object or corpse is pressed against a wall
Kendra is kind of annoying at times (more negative and hysterical than the others)
Repeats the tentacle scene a couple of times
Game tells you to dismember the enemies 5 times in the beginning
Pretty easy second boss (tentacle wall) besides when it hits you and the camera starts spinning. Easy turret segment boss and easy final boss (the final boss is visually intimidating at least)
No abilities or tools gained after the early game - Some more movement abilities would've been cool
Puzzles don't grow more complex in the late game besides one block sliding one in chapter 10 (chapter 9 feels like some potential is lost with maybe luring exploding enemies into obstructed paths besides it being more linear than most others, the second hunter boss encounter might've been more interesting if you had to signal to an NPC to use the shuttle engine fire and there was more of an escalating intensity to it)
Can't save zach, kyne or kendra
Kind of repetitive messages from your wife over the course of the game
Cheesy final scene before the staff roll
Doesn't make sense that your wife was dead considering she physically helped you progress at one point
No unique enemies in the final mission
Bugs:
-Carried explosive barrels can suddenly disappear when moving between rooms, taking an elevator or even when moving from one side of a room to the other
-Sometimes crashes (happened once)
-More sensitive mouse look while walking on sticky surfaces and at one point right after the turret segment if you get hit by the enemies while moving in the vacuum area
-Game froze before the hunter boss when I turned off v-sync (the human villain didn't appear)
-Turning off v-sync (to fix aiming delay) causes the camera controls for the 3D map to get super fast
-Kinesis grabbed objects occasionally get stuck on walls or other obstacles when it seems they shouldn't
-Died for no reason at one point in the communications array room (death animation looked like I ran out of air but I wasn't in vacuum - v-sync issue?)
-One of the save points in mission 11 never went out of "standby" mode - where you bring back the shuttle and "reunite" with your wife
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7 Fun-7.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
*w/ mouse fix patch and v-sync turned off
+
Good VA overall, Great overall animation and lighting effects (many different death animations), Good sound design overall (similar to Lost tv series), Very good art direction
Can take out individual body parts of enemies and shooting their limbs is the most effective way of dealing with the first enemies (inspired by RE4 but more intricate and gory here)
Good sense of vulnerability in some ways (begin unarmed - not for long though, get separated from your team early on, small flashlight mounted to your default gun, surprise attacks, parts where the lights go out, vacuum/space areas where you need to use oxygen stations or canisters to survive for longer periods, enemies appearing in shafts or scuttling out of the way before attacking, parts of the scenery suddenly getting blown up or breaking in scripted events - system shock, invincible enemy at one point)
Decent map system (shows the layout and your position, what you've explored, doors and if they're locked or not, the next objective, some points of interest, can rotate and yaw+zoom in/out)
Some interesting abilities (stasis module - make an object or enemy move in slow motion for a limited time (lets you avoid some combat), kinesis - grab and move/throw objects and corpses from afar (similar to half-life 2's gravity gun and a psi ability in system shock 2, lets you grab consumables from afar as well, only objects around your own size or smaller can be thrown), )
New enemies tend to appear while backtracking and sometimes the level design is altered as well
Control config
Some decent puzzles (timing puzzles involving stasis fields, moving certain objects to progress with kinesis, luring the hunter boss into a spot where it can be killed (Soul Reaver?), mining asteroid, block/bed sliding in chapter 10)
Upgrade your weapons/rig/suit/tools at upgrade stations with node items (guns - damage, capacity, reload speed, shot speed/fire rate; rig - HP and air supply; suit - armor and inventory space; stasis module - energy and duration, kinesis range, basic upgrade grid for each which is kinda similar to the one in FF10 but simpler - sometimes you have to spend a node item on an empty node to get to where you want which is fairly expensive)
Shops (weapons, suit upgrades for better armor and larger inventories, ammo and healing, can be upgraded to sell better gear - have to find the schematics for weapons+ammo types+suits, can sell items). These are also item stashes - items placed in one can be accessed via any other shop
Difficulty options (easy-very hard/impossible, have to unlock impossible by beating the game on any difficulty, besides stat differences enemies also dodge your shots on higher difficulties)
Subtitles toggle
Some interesting level gimmicks (zero gravity chambers where you can jump between ceilings and walls, explosive barrels that can be carried and thrown with kinesis, protection segment, tunnel with the fans near the end) and enemies (enemies that crawl on walls and can follow you between floors when using lifts, some enemies don't take the most straightforward path towards you if they can flank you, the bull-like enemies (brutes) can break certain walls, enemies that spawn the small swarm enemies if shot in the belly with something other than the force gun, explosive sack enemies can be used like explosive barrels after dismembering them, enemies that suck the oxygen out of a room until killed (this part is pretty easy though))
Some hidden rooms
Some shortcuts
Generally easy to distinguish interactive objects (highlighted+pop ups when close)
New game+ (works only if the same difficulty mode is chosen sadly - select the cleared game file; you get to keep weapons plus upgrades, suits, RIG upgrades, money and everything you had in your inventory and in the in-game store stash)
Can sometimes lure enemies into instant death hazards
Secondary firing modes for all weapons
Two mini-games (turret segment where you shoot asteroids (also used for a boss) - decent, zero grav ball game - didn't play it)
Satisfying feedback when attacking and getting hit
Upgraded weapons look and sound a bit different when fired
Unlockable level 6 suit (30% damage resistance)
Some minor sequence breaking opportunities (when taking the horizontal lift through the fog you can hit the refueling mechanism from afar with kinesis without stepping off of it which triggers the next sequence for that mission, line gun mine (alternate fire) to skip tentacle grab segments, rail skip in centrifuge room, can skip freezing the bridges that fall back down during the final mission)
One good twist near the end (kendra)
Alien language (some notes here and there - can find an alphabet in chapter 6)
+/-
Partially non-linear (very guided beginning with frequent voiced assistance and pretty much only objective-specific doors being unlocked, can't go back to the first area after finishing chapter 1, can choose between two different sub objectives in chapters 2/3/7/ (3 in chapter 4 and 10 (though the different paths don't branch out as much in the latter), 4 in chapter 6), can choose whether to use a node to upgrade something or to unlock a door at some points; can't fail a mission and keep going)
Pretty frequent save points overall (20+ slots, shows difficulty/current area/time taken) and frequent temporary checkpoints as well
Objective markers+path markers (can't turn either off except for segments where there are two objectives active at once in which case you can switch to the one you're not moving towards)
Can't jump, Can't crouch
Placed health items
Can't manually talk to NPCs in the intro gameplay - feels like a semi-interactive in-game cutscene
RE4-style over the shoulder viewing angle (pretty zoomed in - can be tweaked with the widescreen fixer app for a more zoomed out view)
Game doesn't pause while checking the map or inventory (adds to the sense of vulnerability)
Shows your HP/energy/ammo on the avatar itself (works well enough but feels gimmicky, can't see current ammo in a clip without aiming and sometimes you still can't see it due to bright lights in the environment)
Over the top ragdoll physics for corpses
Plenty of gore (stomp enemies (or NPC corpses) to pieces when they're lying down, aliens taking over people and transforming them, insane doctors "operating" on people, etc.)
Have to go to the map screen to change which objective the path marker/navigational line is tied to (objectives menu doesn't work)
Lockers sometimes unlock when backtracking through an area you've been through (determined by the game and not your performance or if you found a key - perhaps done for pacing since you have a limited inventory and it seems more of them unlock based on chosen difficulty mode but I would've preferred either of the former)
Can't tweak the length of the kinesis beam while holding onto an object (could've been done with the mouse wheel for example). This ability could've also had some more interesting upgrades like being able to carry objects while running, carrying two objects at once, stacking objects to reach higher or using them as a shield like the pod in R-Type for example
Borrows text and audio logs as well as some of the vibe of the setting from System Shock+some mechanics (secondary firing modes for weapons and some other things). Also borrows a bit from the movie Event Horizon
No dodge move (melee punch/swing attacks serve as weak breakout moves to avoid being grabbed and mashing E gets you out of a grab)
Can't cancel out of a punch or a stomp attack animation (fine unless you happen to spam the button a bit as you'll then swing 2-3 times in a row and not be able to switch to a gun)
Can't open doors while carrying something
Silent protagonist (doesn't quite work for this game due to some NPC encounters and the protagonist's motivation being his wife)
Can't throw living enemies with kinesis (balance reasons probably though it would've been cool if you could upgrade it to be able to do it for smaller ones)
You're forced to kill enemies fairly often (sometimes you're locked into a room until you clear it)
Can't find rather than buy weapons
Ammo and health is pretty common on Normal (sometimes makes opening a door with a node item less rewarding unless you take the time to backtrack to a shop)
Can attack some NPCs but nothing happens and there's no reaction (other times your avatar simply refuses to shoot)
Enemies sometimes stop and scream at you
Force Gun is kind of weak and slow until upgraded a lot - the alternate firing mode projectile could've been a bit stronger by default perhaps
Enemies don't respawn (Normal) - means it's pretty much always worth it to backtrack for items if you don't mind spending a bit more time (only when you backtrack as part of progression do new enemies appear)
Better to focus on about 3-4 different pieces of gear as you won't have enough money to upgrade all of them fully (Normal)
The sense of urgency could've been a bit better while escorting the marker during the finale (then again it wouldn't make sense considering you're being summoned by the alien hivemind)
Ammo drops seem to mostly adjust to which weapons you have
-
Some control/interface issues (inertia when looking around with the mouse+slow acceleration and deceleration/smoothing - can't turn it off in the options however you can mostly fix it with a patch (still feels a bit laggy when making fast and large movements unless you turn off v-sync - doing this can cause some issues however), weird diegetic HUD that floats in front of your avatar (sometimes isn't properly centered or your head gets in the way a bit), no mini-map and the regular map screen is a bit small, can't turn off floors above your current position on the map screen, can't browse the map - only rotate and yaw+zoom in/out (sometimes it's not even centered on your location if you zoom out a bit), not enough contrast between unexplored rooms and the black space around them on the map screen, the map screen doesn't save your chosen viewing angle, some delay when opening the inventory and map screens, can't skip cutscene dialogue - the best option would be on a per line basis (the game also tends to lock you out of saving and opening doors during dialogue), somewhat slow acceleration when starting to move, somewhat unresponsive movement - quickly tapping does nothing, tutorial popup messages are a bit distracting but you can play while they display and remove them quickly, can't see your total amount of ammo without going into the inventory menu, can't aim straight upwards, can't open doors while viewing the map, some delay when entering and exiting stores and upgrade stations, have to drop an item away from the item you want to pick up if you're at max inventory capacity since you can't press a button to cycle between items lying next to each other - same thing happens if an item is lying next to a recharge station, can't place map markers - map doesn't mark node locks, a bit too hard to hit enemies with the stomp move, sometimes can't move past ankle high obstacles, if you start holding aim mode while swinging and then press attack you'll just keep swinging instead of switching to the gun, aiming controls get screwed up when you're grabbed by the tentacles and by the final boss, can't use the mouse pointer in the pause menu, items used only for selling don't stack, can't remap weapon switching to the mouse wheel - game uses a weird unoptimized for PC system where you can't map each weapon to a number, diagonal movement is closer to forward/backward than sideways movement, minor hit detection issues when trying to shoot off the arms of the leapers, pressing the reload button doesn't register if you're moving - have to stand still, camera shifts focus to your avatar if you get knocked down or hit by certain other attacks - makes it fairly easy to accidentally be aiming in the wrong direction when it goes back to normal, overly long animation when QTE killing the enemy that turns corpses into enemies and some other enemies if they reach you in melee, shop menu doesn't wrap around, game is overly picky about your positioning when interacting with some objects)
Trial & error (the acidic swarm enemies can kill you really quickly, centrifuge room hazard after restoring gravity - instant death, various surprise attacks from behind, some enemies blend into the background - chapter 7 onwards, hard to spot certain enemies while in a vacuum as you don't hear them, surprise attacks by tentacles during the finale, hard to tell if a brute is dead or not - same with the wall enemies that spit out small enemies)
Some invisible walls early on and you can't climb waist high objects, Can't fall into pits
The text only logs break gameplay flow a bit
Unskippable bootup logo
Some tedious aspects (kinda slow elevators (very slow in hydroponics), annoying how the path tool only appears for about a second since it just means you either have to keep pressing the button (stopping each time) or check the map in which case you can't run at the same time, some delay on nearly every door (for dramatic effect and sometimes loading possibly but it gets annoying at times), some sticky surface segments feel pointless, a few too many dialogue scenes in chapter 10)
Can't pick up and place explosive canisters without using kinesis
Sometimes cheesy tone (evil laughter from people that went insane, random whispers)
The flamethrower kinda sucks? (eats ammo and low DPS, doesn't work in a vacuum area)
Sometimes overly intense music/ambience while nothing is happening and the strangled breathing when you have plenty of oxygen left gets annoying (the semi-muted sound design in vacuum areas is otherwise cool)
Unfinished looking animation when hitting a wall in melee and getting knocked back
Somewhat glitchy visuals when a movable object or corpse is pressed against a wall
Kendra is kind of annoying at times (more negative and hysterical than the others)
Repeats the tentacle scene a couple of times
Game tells you to dismember the enemies 5 times in the beginning
Pretty easy second boss (tentacle wall) besides when it hits you and the camera starts spinning. Easy turret segment boss and easy final boss (the final boss is visually intimidating at least)
No abilities or tools gained after the early game - Some more movement abilities would've been cool
Puzzles don't grow more complex in the late game besides one block sliding one in chapter 10 (chapter 9 feels like some potential is lost with maybe luring exploding enemies into obstructed paths besides it being more linear than most others, the second hunter boss encounter might've been more interesting if you had to signal to an NPC to use the shuttle engine fire and there was more of an escalating intensity to it)
Can't save zach, kyne or kendra
Kind of repetitive messages from your wife over the course of the game
Cheesy final scene before the staff roll
Doesn't make sense that your wife was dead considering she physically helped you progress at one point
No unique enemies in the final mission
Bugs:
-Carried explosive barrels can suddenly disappear when moving between rooms, taking an elevator or even when moving from one side of a room to the other
-Sometimes crashes (happened once)
-More sensitive mouse look while walking on sticky surfaces and at one point right after the turret segment if you get hit by the enemies while moving in the vacuum area
-Game froze before the hunter boss when I turned off v-sync (the human villain didn't appear)
-Turning off v-sync (to fix aiming delay) causes the camera controls for the 3D map to get super fast
-Kinesis grabbed objects occasionally get stuck on walls or other obstacles when it seems they shouldn't
-Died for no reason at one point in the communications array room (death animation looked like I ran out of air but I wasn't in vacuum - v-sync issue?)
-One of the save points in mission 11 never went out of "standby" mode - where you bring back the shuttle and "reunite" with your wife