Good
- really innovative and a pioneer of a game for the survival horror genre. Amazing at the time, and still is a great game to this day
- the game takes advantage of the fixed camera to make the environment scarier. Enemies can be heard, but are out of frame when entering a room
- gives the player a tense, somber, and mysterious feeling. Despite feeling scared, you want to push on to see what the plot is about
- the environment design is beautiful. The map design is complex, but varied and diverse. The game takes you all over the place in an organic way.
- most of the puzzles are well thought out, and takes some thought to solve. It is satisfying when you do.
- there's a decent variety of enemies, which keeps things interesting.
- music comes in at the right time. Most of the game has you going around in silence, but sometimes somber music will creep in, adding to the dread and isolation
- the focus on resource management added a lot of tension to the overall gameplay
Bad
- item carrying case is a little too small. Often times, I am forced to back track or save scum just so i don't burn through resources on enemies, or I'm forced to backtrack to storage box to retrieve a key item. This wastes a lot of time and is tedious. By default, I store it all in there, cause it's never clear when you need to use it.
- the fixed camera makes the movement controls pretty awkward in some combat situations.
- most of the dialogue is pretty bad
- some puzzles are a little too cryptic. Given there is not hint system, it can be very annoying to get stuck wandering around.
- the map isn't detailed enough. There are so many different kinds of locks and keys that you easily lose track of which door you can unlock when you finally find the key. This could've been fixed if they allowed player to label doors and notes for individual rooms.
- ribbons for saving isn't a good idea, because this screws people who can only play in short bursts. Maybe cause of work, or on short bus rides.