For speed plays the game feels reasonably easy on story mode but only if you stay on the path. Once you wander off that path, you tend to get mauled by a pack of bears and eaten by a high dragon.

Every portion of the battle during The Thing created *very* high tension game play for me. I didn't like my performance the first time through so I restarted before its final climatic scene where the Elder One has his "little chat." The second time I replayed the whole sequence of that quest far more strategically. Really good gameplay. I also liked how each bit of story played out during The Thing.