If your cursor is not in the center of the screen, you start slowly spinning in place. This can be most annoying. While the spin is slow if you are close to the center, it is still there. So if you leave the game for a few minutes, you can be seriously disoriented on return. The character may be facing an entirely different direction than you intended.
Game play is relatively linear.
There are a number of things that must be done in order for them to work. Conversations are linear as well. I tapped into the computer before talking to the captain and still had questions related to the computer. The game is relatively inexpensive, but it isn't one that anyone would rave over. I found the puzzles to be too annoying, like needing to do one 9 times over, once for each planet.