The Experiment is an interesting concept in game design but shortfalls in technical implementation ruin the experience.
I'll begin with the good side of "The Experiment", the story. Simply put, the tale woven into this game (or perhaps the game is woven into it) is detailed and not as cliche as one might first come to imagine. A multitude of characters are discussed each with their own attributes and pieces of important information. The story is revealed through a combination of digital documents and flashbacks. I won't reveal any spoilers but I must say that the more you learn, the more you want to know when it comes down to this game.
The bad side of "The Experiment" is pretty much everything else starting right before you even install the game. Firstly, the publisher did a very poor job of marketing and distributing the game. I had to order my copy of Amazon.com. The least they could have done is offer a digital download. After a fairly standard installation you face several annoying, unskippable splash screens including one of a very uninteresting camera which merely blinks a red light on and off for 30 seconds.
Then you face the daunting task of actually playing the game. A meager ingame tutorial is provided and several key features are skipped. The worst offender, however, is the control scheme. I'm afraid pressing light switches and waiting for this 20-something year old granny to decide to follow your orders is a fresh take on infuriating. There is significant lag time between when you tell her to go somewhere and when she finally gets her lazy ass round to moving. She also has the decidedly odd ability to see lights THROUGH WALLS, yet she lacks the perception to see a light turn on 5 meters in front of her face.
Not enough exciting gameplay for you? Well how about a few quickly thrown in minigames to spice it up? Whats that Jimmy? Are the controls hard to operate...oh don't worry, you need a password to operate that anyway...
...Which brings me to my next point. Turns out that the French all fancy themselves as 1337 hackers as that is clearly what a large portion of this game is about...finding or decrypting the passwords of a large troop of your dead shipmates. Sadly, the experience is not as rewarding as it could be. Rather than require just 1 or 2 passwords for the entire game ( which has suited various adventure games for several years now), experiment requires the collection and recording of hundreds of passwords and user names. Its a bit like finding 2000 needles in a haystack, sure you are likely to find a needle, doesn't mean your gonna know when or where to use it.
And finally, at the latter portions of the game, the developers seem to have splashed out a bit more on the special effects and lighting. Crashes and severe framerate drops plague much of the end levels which is a shame since it really ruins much of the experience.
Ultimately, this game could have been great as a standard first or third person adventure title yet I can't blame nor scorn the developer for trying out something new. Sadly, a frustrating control scheme, cheap minigames, password-searching quests and performance issues cripple and otherwise interesting game.
PS: there are a couple of other issues I forgot to mention such as poor and disjointed translation from the French version and apathetic voice overs.