I just read a bit of the RPS story on the game and I see my complaints are very similar to theirs. They compare it to "plugging leaks" and that's pretty accurate. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. There's a fun tension being in a scenario where it's always "going wrong" and you're always just keeping your head above the surface.
The initial hostage scenario does have great tension. You never feel like you can rest since the hostages are getting fidgety, the guards outside are creeping up, and the security systems are cracking down. Being put in that situation can be a fun puzzle to solve. However because they designed it to go bad so quick so fast, it never seems like there's enough time to manage everything. And when it does break bad suddenly, I didn't always understand why. One time the leader of the hostages suddenly decided to run without warning after I had calmed him twice. These random elements aren't inherently bad, but I feel they don't work when they game has a very clear and very strict set of requirements to move on.