i played the steam next fest demo when it was available, and... well, it didn't grab me. i stopped playing after an hour because it was both hard and not interesting or fun enough to make me want to keep trying. and yeah, that was a demo, not the full game, but even a finished version does not interest me at all.

it sucks, because i actually LOVE the idea of exploring an alien world from a scientist's point of view! Outer Wilds is my favorite game and i'm really interested in Returnal! but once i actually started playing i was incredibly disappointed, because the scientist angle is just sort of slapped on top of a much more generic alien-shooting game, which has been done much better by other games. it tries to be both and ends up succeeding at neither.

(speaking of Returnal, it became incredibly obvious to me, after watching a friend play some of that game, that this game is trying REALLY HARD to be Returnal, but falling flat on its face, because it doesn't seem to understand what actually makes Returnal cool and what it does effectively.)

maybe it gets good further in, but nothing about it convinces me to stick around and find out.

my impressions are:
- another 3D shooty game that relies on hyper-realistic graphics to distract the player from how the actual gameplay, story, concept, etc. are mediocre, half-baked, not given actual development and care
- blatant Returnal clone, but without any of the stuff that actually makes Returnal good