Dread also has an issue with area designs not feeling distinct enough. Too many metal halls and grey caves. Its animations and cutscenes go so hard though.

Also the fact that the morph ball is only introduced after like 2 bosses and a dozen different abilities actually lends itself to a lot more interesting level designs with that restriction. Often the ball was like, the first upgrade to the point it was taken for granted.

I also love the games unabashed love of Fusion. Very underrated entry but the game has so many love letters to it. The EMMI encounters are just expanding on the SA-X encounters from fusion.