Effectively, it's a runner that lets you stop or slow down to change your direction. I can see an inspiration from Race the Sun here.
However, the nature of having to stop for every single thing means that the pacing is incredibly rough. It also took me a little bit to register good hits because missing is incredibly punishing.
For others trying to get through, the strat is to sprint forward as much as you can, and only feed when your hunger bar is at least 1/4 emptied. Illumination is not capped at 0, so your sprint and hunger become resources that you want to keep regenerating. Leaving sprint at full is wasteful, and eating when hunger bar is full is also wasteful.
I feel for the team here, though, as I was learning about 3D space on this go around myself. I'm sure we'll be seeing you all again in January!