I'll be brief because I can't imagine I'm saying anything new. Completed full WM2 POE1 and now POE2 about 5 times.
POE2 has a lot of QOL improvements, and the sea faring is fun. Unfortunately everything you discover is paper thin. Most of the "crag/cave/temple" stuff you find adds up to less than the Endless Paths alone.
Companion quests are absolutely rubbish compared to POE1. So thin. Go here. Talk to this person. Maybe go here too. End questline. Aloth sniffs at everything, Pallegina acts like I plucked her feathers personally, Eder mopes about. Xoti fell in love with me but still wont stop talking about Eder (but otherwise well written). Serafen is so offensive to the rest of my party that my choice is to have a party of just him, or leave him on the boat. Tekehu isn't much better. Maia is well written but seems to slaughter people no matter what I do. Ugh.
Side quests are loads of fun, even if they aren't always obvious that you've made a step forwards. This isn't helped by...
Only one main place in the whole game. In POE1 the first city felt as vibrant as most of Neketaka, whilst there were other places too. POE2 Has Neketaka, Maje (one screen, two buildings), Dunnage (four places, three of which contain a single building), Hasongo (two tiny buildings) and a couple of villages. SO lacking in "stuff".
The main quest. Oooh boy. Let me see if I have it right. I go to a place, listen to him talk and can't influence him at all, then go to another place and repeat that, then go to another place and repeat that, and then the game ends. It's basically go to four places and click through dozens of meaningless text boxes with zero influence or choice except one, right at the end, which only affects a tiny thing.
The bounties are fun, but beyond playing as a Goldpact Paladin, no role play use at all. I can slaughter every RDC ship on the map, but the RDC still love me. For RDC also read Principi, VTC or Huana.
Very very little matters. The big "whoa this is a choice after which you can't go back" faction quest lines appear so early on that I didn't believe they were points of no return. Two or three quests, boom, pledged for life and half your party goes off in a hump. Assuming they haven't already left because I have a party of five with massive conflicts (Xoti and Pallegina, Pallegina and Maia, Everyone and Serafen, most people and Tekehu). Sure I could cripple myself by only taking two with me, but that's ridiculous.
Tl;dr : Overall It feels like a fantastic idea (sea-faring and exploration) let down by puddle-deep plotting, too brief companion quests, a main quest that is utterly inconsequential unless it exists to point out how meaningless our existence is in the face of Gods, and .. well that's about it. I do enjoy sailing about though and don't feel that my Obsidian Edition pre-order was wasted. Just it's not a patch on POE1 in any way. It reminds me of Elite (a game I've put 1500+ hours into) in that it's an amazing framework upon which hangs nothing.
Ahh thank you. I shan't sleep in every hut I find then just on the off chance of glimpsing the grumpy ex-mayor. It would certainly make the game easier if you could carry him around with you. "What on earth do I do with Copperhead?" *insert pund* "Aha!"
