Had a blast with this one. Really audacious and ambitious design with a lot of moving parts that start to click into place in your brain, fun to come to grips with a convoluted system like that, at least with my personal taste. Weapons felt chunky and satisfying with a good diversity of strengths. I've also never played through an immersive sim before unless you count Bioshock (i don't) and I found the high-concept "endless nihilist party that's gone on so long it's become sad" setting perfect for the violent humor of the genre. Loved also this design where you are free to experiment in all different ways as you learn the levels/playgrounds through repetition. A less open-ended shooter design would get boring far more quickly when combined with the time loop schtick. The writing and lore and especially dialogue was flavorful throughout and I loved the tension and spark between Colt and Julianna.

However… the promise of open-endedness rings a bit hollow when you do your final run and realize it’s been funneling you towards a pretty scripted correct way to do things. I too often felt like I was following a compass to the next waypoint instead of truly exploring, andddd the ending after all the struggle was abrupt and left too many questions though, not in a satisfying artsy way but in an "i get the feeling the developers ran out of time to make it better" kind of way. Oh well, fun while it lasted, even if it didn't leave as lasting an impression as I thought it would.