The AI of your squad is pretty well-programmed, and they do an effective job of killing the aliens.  The trust and fear factors do have an affect on their behavior, but in practice they are not too hard to manage if you pay attention.  Their main function is to add to the game's atmosphere of fear and paranoia, which they do quite well.  You'll hear them vocalize their fears as things get more foreboding, and nothing can quite match the effect of watching a squad mate vomit at the sight of a gruesome killing.

Speaking of gruesome, there are a lot of blood and guts in the game.  You'll come across scenes of carnage left over from earlier thing attacks which can include blood splattered walls, random body parts, and mutilated corpses.  While the violent scenes are not particularly gratuitous (one can image that rampaging aliens would certainly leave a mess in their wake), the game is certainly not for the faint of heart.  Further solidifying the game's M rating is the use of expletives by your squad.  Again, this is not out of character for soldiers in a dangerous situation, but if such things offend you you should look elsewhere for your game playing entertainment.

The things themselves come in a variety of shapes and sizes.  You'll encounter many small and very fast two-legged things.  These are relatively easy to kill, and only pose a real threat if you let yourself get surrounded.  There are also various blob-like and tentacled things which stick to ceilings or walls and make charging into a strange room a bad idea.  You'll also encounter larger things that can't be killed by gunfire.  You'll need to use a flamethrower to burn them to a crisp before they go down. 

In addition to the combat, the game requires some puzzle solving in order to complete a level's objectives and advance the storyline.  For the most part, the puzzles are not overly challenging, and generally require you to find items such as keys or junction boxes in order to open doors to new areas, or to find the right area to trigger a scripted event.

The game's real challenge lies in the management of ammunition and in its save game system.  Unlike a lot of shooters, ammo is not lying all over the place waiting to be picked up.  You'll find some ammo on corpses or in supply rooms as you make your way through the base, but if you are not judicious in your use of it, you can easily run out and make things very difficult on yourself and your squad.  Being unable to supply a squad mate with ammo while he is being attacked is a good way to lose his trust, assuming he even survives.  Save games are managed in a manner resembling that frequently found in console games.  You are not free to save your game anywhere.  Instead you'll have to locate special tape recorders which allow you to save your progress.  While some gamers might feel deprived by the lack of support for saving their progress at any point, it actually forces you to be more cautious.  You'll be forced to carefully enter new areas because of the risk of losing some of the preceding gameplay, making you adjust your play to fit with the game's setting. 

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