I'm playing SR1 and I'm not impressed with the experience so far.

Each time I reload the game, I start in the spirit world at the starting location and need to do the entire training course again just to make my way to the physical world and then need to walk all the way back to where I was at the level (with the baddies respawning).

There seems to be a lot of pointless repetition in this game. Talk about a waste of time.

Use warp gates.

Yeah, I figured out how to use them earlier. I kept pressing 'a', but you have to move towards the gate.

I felt the exact same way. I beat the game, but only because I'm stubborn like that. I didn't feel it was worth the frustration and tedium.

I think it was worth every hour and every move or step made. It actually does make sense to be (re)born at that specific location.

The gates definitely help in traversing the land so that "you may (now) progress where your path was hitherto impeded." :)

The dialogue in this series is just gold... :)