One stealth section let me die repeatedly until a prompt finally appeared to tell me I should use a mechanic that had never been a part of stealth before. In one single section, an arrow appears over your head to tell you where to look. Spectral butterflies appear to lead you around. Sometimes it feels like some things have been added to fix some of these issues. Death or escape are the only resolutions and you don't know which one is coming until it happens. 'Press the right stick to hold your breath' the game explains at one point without ever clarifying when and how this might help. He's basically invisible most of the time and there's no clear indication of when he can see you or when you're in danger. (At one point I had to electrocute him to get past which I don't really think is how ghosts work.) These moments also lack as much threat as they do narrative purpose. Either because he rocks up for no clear reason, or because you have to solve some arbitrary puzzle to progress. These Maw sections are often big non sequitur moments. It strips the fun out of exploring when you realize finding something boils down to when you're meant to, not when you actually do. There's rarely much agency as a player - the gameplay doesn't serve the story, but rather controls it, using object picking puzzles and treasure hunts to meter it out. This odd structure of objects only becoming relevant when you find them in the right order is a constant theme: gameplay and puzzles acting to fence you into a path so you can receive a tour in the way the guide intended. A few minutes later I found some arbitrary object that then created a breadcrumb trail to all the areas I'd previously discovered with the objects I couldn't touch before, now able to trigger sequential pieces of a story reward. At one point I entered and explored a room, wandering between a series of clearly important areas - tables covered with items and so on - that were inert, and apparently contained nothing of use. There's a big lack of freedom to what you're actually able to do. While there are some good puzzles, there's often a sparsity of things to interact with, making progress a simple job of matching up what little you're given, in the order you're meant to.
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