I once got the big box of this game for cheap at a computer fair, but never made it past the first area cause everything was so darn verbose. Guess I didn't miss too much? I can totally see the 1999 games storytelling discourse praising exactly this kind of stuff as "mature" writing, though.

I actually think it's still worth playing for yourself, but only to highlight the gap between the praise and reality. Gaming is littered with unchecked and oft-repeated "truths", and it's important to take a clear first-hand look at them from time to time.

I likewise didn't get far with it for other reasons. I just found that it felt like very hard work, so I checked out after about 30-40 minutes. Sounds like I did myself a favour