Not really going to waste my time reading Polygon, but to answer the hypothetical question: I think most people agree it wasn’t a full on Bio/System Shock game, more a corridor shooter, but a decently fun one nonetheless. I think most of the complaints I’ve seen over the years were about some of the political aspects of the writing, not the gameplay itself.
At this point just assume that anything even slightly not “wholesome” is going to be deleted by the mods here. I wouldn’t be surprised if this comment also got deleted for pointing that out.