
Yeah the beginning is a bit rough because apparently the alien is specifically programmed to not leave you alone in the first level or two that it appears. My initial experience was similar but after the first level it got a lot better.
To me the game either works great and you get a legit scary experience or the alien pops out at the wrong time and you have to briskly walk through the rest of the level or die instantly.
If that’s true then most of the challenge was “wait until bad weather, pause, move gates up/down. wait until good weather, pause, move gates down/up” which is not much of a challenge. I think that’s fine since they also prevent stupid mistakes where you miss one gate but don’t notice until well after.