The Relocation Map is the fastest way to move around the station.

At first, the map and camera tools are enough to stabilize the vessel. One of your early tasks is to disconnect a damaged module that is putting stress on the rest of the station. There's a fictional detachment procedure that is part mini-game, part puzzle -- a series of codes and timed button prompts that imitate the old-but-trustworthy software on many spacecraft.

Once you've mastered the basic interactions, Fisher will let you temporarily access a Guidance Sphere. The floating camera will take you closer to important objects on the ship, such as laptops and clipboards, which have story-critical schematics and audio-log emails.

Every piece of evidence is stored in your Memory Core, a stylized archive accessible from the SamOS menu. You'll occasionally find data fragments or corrupted diagrams that need to be paired with a hand-drawn note before they make sense. Combining them is straightforward and strangely enjoyable due to the circular interface, which links each node with a colorful wire. By the end, you should have a Core that looks like a colorful Spirograph.

Schematics will help you open, close and lock module doors.

The Guidance Sphere is also necessary for a few trips outside the space station. It's a nice change of pace but can, at times, be mildly infuriating if you lose your sense of direction. Most of the modules look the same and only some have their corresponding number stenciled on the side. If you accidentally spin or tilt the camera, it can be devilishly tricky to find a specific control panel or the airlock that you began the spacewalk from.

Over time, you'll unlock new parts of the station and investigative tools, including a full crew tracker with live medical information. Fisher is a competent astronaut but gradually needs you to complete tougher, multi-step missions to save the ship and its surviving members.

At one point, for example, I was asked to send an SOS message. That meant finding the captain's laptop and guessing that the passcode was related to a nearby post-it note that said the word "graduation." I eventually figured out the clue, obtained the authorization code and visited the astrophysics terminal to retrieve some coordinates. These were buried in a grainy, telescopic image littered with random objects and meaningless labels. I eventually found the correct object and entered the relevant digits into my built-in communicator.