When I heard about this game I was really excited, it was only a few days before release. Prior to this I saw some gameplay footage of the initial "demo" type.

Anyway I want to share my first impression of this game and to be honest it's not a good one. At first this game looks absolutely intriguing and unique. Upon playing it for the first few minutes you feel like this game will be special. The aesthetics are appealing, the soundtrack is immersive and the overall atmosphere is tense. You're put into a tough situation and need to find the best solution to the current situation with taking every risk into consideration.

This all sounds really exciting but the novelty wears off so fast once you discover the true nature of this game. It's basically a ressource management game where you have several options at your disposal in order to win a scenario, you need to find the ideal path in order to succeed at the level. Unforunately the game fails miserably at this, the basic management of the game is flawed and absolutely random.

It just feels random. For instance In the first scenario where the player needs to buy time in order to hack a terminal and keep the hostages and security at bay. I calm a hostage and even though I calmed him, the next turn he attacks me. Tried it on original mode and easy mode, happened both times. Tried shouting him down instead of calming him, he still attacked me, on original and easy mode. Other times he didn't. I don't understand how I'm supposed to micromanage properly when the results of one of the most crucial management areas is seemingly decided by randomness. This happens quite often which severely hinders the enjoyability of this game.

I understand that a high difficulty is appealing but this game is outright frustrating and doesn't give the player that many options to begin with and even those the results vary wildly, leaving you with frustration and no actual control over the game. The gameplay is also really repetitive and you will be clicking the same buttons a dozen of times after each failure. At this point it just gets tedious and a pure trial and error experience.

In conclusion, the concept of this game is amazing but it is flawed and isn't rewarding. There is to much luck for a game that has such a big emphasis on ressource management.

Disagree. There is some amount of random probability, but it's controllable.
I'm not sure you understand game behavior right.
Animations and words show hostages morale state: shaking and "i need to run" means he is too scared and ready to run for his life, sitting tight with straight legs "he's destracted..." means he is relaxed and ready to attack you.
Hostage is attacking you when he is too relaxed. Instead of calming them maybe you should kick, shoot guards? Shout has much softer effect than kick or shooting. Also, don't leave them resting in room for too long.
Scared hostages just ran away.
You could prevent hostage attack/run by shooting leg (shot and after some time cured hostage usually returns to neutral state).
Also, consider trading hostages before they run.

If you discuss things with your boss while he hacks into the system (which takes no 'time') he comes very close to breaking the 4th wall in explaining how the elements work. If you ask him about everything he'll make some valuable suggestions. In fact, talk to everyone and click through all your 'green' options right away.

You can get to the point of beating the first level the majority of the time once all the elements *click* - lose a handful of times just to see what affects what where, and it'll make more sense why people react the way they do .... the second level, however, is a nightmare, albeit one that can be completed....

Try to get to the third. The third level is great - I'd love to play a game that was essentially that level on a larger scale.