Enemies running away, they usually stack up for a final fight, killing civilians/hostages, does not seem to determine failure/success (or it takes to lose a lot of them) etc
Loose timers that can be ignored for the most part, nothing constraining.
I'll take your word for it, the game isn't very good at informing you what happens when the timers run out, so after failing a mission early because I didn't realise there was a timer I'm bent on not allowing then to run out. Ice noticed the enemies running away tend to bunch up in the last stage, but often they also try to escape the last stage which kind of limits the options to "kill those two units before they get away".
Still enjoying the game though.