And as for the story, it's okay at best. It does have a fairly decent mystery/atmosphere at the beginning.
But the actual exploration and gameplay really doesn't factor into the story. That is, the "story" is mostly told by journal messages from your sister. You don't find these journals in your exploration; they just auto-play when you pick up a note or a photo or whatever. I guess they had to sprinkle it in throughout the game to keep you interested, because if you actually just found it all at once (as your character does at the very end) it would be quick, somewhat boring, and disappointing.
So essentially you just have a story being played to you in pieces while you walk around. The story has almost nothing to do with your exploration, other than the fact that the developers laid it out that way. There are plenty of red herrings to keep up the suspense so the exploration is fun for the first hour, maybe. Then the exploration/mystery basically resolves itself, almost independent of the main story.
You might call it a game just because you control a character and interact with virtual objects. But it's about as much of a game as putting a person in a room and saying, "you're allowed to touch things." That is... there's no actual game to be found. It's still entirely linear, and the only difference between this and watching a movie is how long your character stands around poking at cups and binders before you decide to walk to the next plot point.
Now, in terms of replayability: there is none. Even if it were a movie, it wouldn't be rewatchable. It's the kind of story that, once you know the ending... all the atmosphere and suspense and mystery at the beginning of the game vanishes. It becomes completely pointless.
There are no choices. No antagonists. No real conflict. Nothing to resolve. Really only one mystery to solve, but once you have the answer there's no point in trying to re-solve the mystery or look for clues and hints you missed (like a good mystery novel would have). As a story, it's mediocre, and as a game, it's very poorly done.
This isn't a story-driven game. It's just a story.
And as for the story, it's okay at best. It does have a fairly decent mystery/atmosphere at the beginning.
But the actual exploration and gameplay really doesn't factor into the story. That is, the "story" is mostly told by journal messages from your sister. You don't find these journals in your exploration; they just auto-play when you pick up a note or a photo or whatever. I guess they had to sprinkle it in throughout the game to keep you interested, because if you actually just found it all at once (as your character does at the very end) it would be quick, somewhat boring, and disappointing.
So essentially you just have a story being played to you in pieces while you walk around. The story has almost nothing to do with your exploration, other than the fact that the developers laid it out that way. There are plenty of red herrings to keep up the suspense so the exploration is fun for the first hour, maybe. Then the exploration/mystery basically resolves itself, almost independent of the main story.
You might call it a game just because you control a character and interact with virtual objects. But it's about as much of a game as putting a person in a room and saying, "you're allowed to touch things." That is... there's no actual game to be found. It's still entirely linear, and the only difference between this and watching a movie is how long your character stands around poking at cups and binders before you decide to walk to the next plot point.
Now, in terms of replayability: there is none. Even if it were a movie, it wouldn't be rewatchable. It's the kind of story that, once you know the ending... all the atmosphere and suspense and mystery at the beginning of the game vanishes. It becomes completely pointless.
There are no choices. No antagonists. No real conflict. Nothing to resolve. Really only one mystery to solve, but once you have the answer there's no point in trying to re-solve the mystery or look for clues and hints you missed (like a good mystery novel would have). As a story, it's mediocre, and as a game, it's very poorly done.