Wow, I just played the first two parts and I think the best thing by far is the game's personality. It's most obvious in the levels, which are varied enough to never get boring and show the whole spaceship, from the clunky giant-gears-and-pistons underbelly to the plush royal suites. But it also comes out in the newsreels you watch, the infomatic text, the endlessly varied portraits and pictures on the walls, and the fact that this game has guys in giant metal diving suits AND twin duelling pistols. (These, btw, are by far my favourite weapon in the game. What I particularly like is the fact that reloading them takes a surprisingly long time - you have to be patient, but it also feels like the player is really enjoying handling these wonderfully civilised weapons.)
I also really like what you've done with the loading screens. Each of those captured the steampunkiness perfectly, but managed to incorporate my loading-text so it didn't look out of place.
I have a few criticisms but they're not game-breaking. Firstly, I came across some strange boundary-box problems in level 6: there were a few rooms where I bounced up against invisible objects and found it difficult to get past. A bit of crouching, running and jumping got me through, though.
Secondly, the audio balancing in this episode is much better than in previous instalments so have a pat on the back for that, but I think it could be even better. The main problem I found was not that the voices were too quiet (I don't think you could have made them much louder without losing quality) but, rather, that the other background sounds in the game were too loud. Listening to one of the radio messages was fine in a silent room, but if there was hissing or whirring then it became difficult to make out what they were saying (though not impossible). The main culprit was CONSUL which, I confess, I made a bit hard to understand in the first place, so it's probably my fault
But overall I've had great fun playing through this - you can tell it's got lots of time and love poured into it!
Secretary of Unknowable Knowledge for the Rock/Dink administration '08