Yeah, I didn't use a guide my first time through and only got 70-something. In some ways the game rewards typical gamer behavior (persistence with the commspheres), but in others you have to go against the grain (not visiting places in order -- if you go in order in Chapter 3, and to a lesser extent in Ch. 2, you get screwed out of whole chunks of story). I wonder whether an RPG can be non-linear and present the player enough choices without taking that risk.