I read from another review something along the lines of "If you have even a passing interest in this game, play it" and it turned out to be everything I wanted and more. It's your first day in the SCP facility known as Gate and I would recommend putting in your 2-weeks notice as soon as you reach the bottom of the elevator because it takes about 80-100 hours to complete. You will be paid only in work experience and whatever money you steal from your coworkers lockers. TLDR at the bottom.

Gameplay: It's a Sci-fi survival crafting game with a massive interconnected map and multiple factions fighting over... whatever it was that happened on your elevator ride down. Now It's your new job to find out what happened so you can all leave and go home. You'll be inventing your way out (because you're a scientist) and you learn how to create things by finding new items and using them with others you've already found. Resource management is key in this game because most items do not respawn. Many resources are finite, so waste nothing. As you work on your exit, you'll eat, drink, sleep, poo, fish, shoot, throw, craft, and build experience doing it. Your play style becomes more viable as you play, but you don't need to worry about grinding for experience because you generally get enough through just playing and your only rewards are some passive buffs and minor damage increases.

Map: It's huge. The facility is comprised of multiple large wings, with smaller zones within them. It connects to other facilities, parts of itself, and outer worlds through trams, roadways, portals, or whatever way you invent to get around. I preferred using a jet-pack, bionic legs, and a cube. While the map is very wide, it is also dense. Every vent leads somewhere, every hallway connects places you need to visit, every room was an office or living place that someone lived or worked in and is full of resources to use for yourself (though you don't need to open every locker, box, and closet. If you have all the duct tape, cloth, paper, and glue you'll need, you can stop searching the usual places. None of your coworkers kept the Ashbringer or Lordvessel stashed away) There are locked doors everywhere that you can later open to give yourself shortcuts, so look for them... unless you want to take the long way everywhere which I wouldn't recommend. While resources don't respawn, enemies do... after a bit of time.

Combat: You can swing weapons, shoot weapons, throw weapons, invent weapons, care for your weapons, desperately look for resources to make ammo for your favorite weapons, then switch to a new weapon you actually have ammo for. There isn't a single weapon you can use to dominate everything because of the limited resources, so expect to utilize multiple weapons or fighting styles to progress. Every encounter is deadly, and death is inconvenient. There is no perma-death, but you do drop your entire backpack and have to respawn at your bed, or last check-in station. Stealth is viable, choosing not to fight is viable, sneak attacks deal increased damage, and enemies have weak points and weaknesses to exploit so there are plenty of ways to choose to handle enemies in your path.

Story: You'll learn what happened on your elevator ride by speaking with coworkers you find and reading other peoples emails (you should click on attached images in these emails because you can learn new crafting recipes from them). There is a journal you can use which indexes every creature, employee, place, soup recipe, and entity you discover. You'll refer back to it often, though I did google a few things... no shame, just imagine you're using the company intranet.

I can't think of many games to compare this one to. If I were to compare it to Dark Souls, it would be only in its map design and how it punishes death. If compared to 7 days to die, it would be in it's survival / crafting elements. Fran Bow is a good game about falling down rabbit holes, but this game has a much deeper rabbit hole, larger map than Dark Souls, and more in-depth crafting system than any other than I've played. It's all the best elements of the survival, crafting, sci-fi, souls-like genres and it's done almost perfectly. My literal only minor gripe is the ending, and only because I wanted more.

TLDR: 80-100 hours of polished and thoughtfully built video game. If you think you want this game, get it. Full price at $35 is a steal. There is more polish and content here than most triple A games. Absolutely recommended.