Great game. It's interesting to compare this to the first game, because they are quite different gameplay experiences. You do the same things, but the structure is completely different. The first game is a straight dig down with some caves once in a while, this game has a whole world to explore with several seperate digsites. It does a lot more of the whole metroidvania backtracking thing, tho the fasttravel doesn't really let that become an issue. Same as the first game, the way your powerlevel increases is very satisfying, though there is a lot more "move that makes previous abilities obsolete" in here. It also doesn't really let you get in the zone of digging and cashing out as much, which could be interpreted as a positive or a negative depending on your stance on if the first game gets boring at times, but for me I would have liked some more time just digging and making my cave in the early game. However what replaces that are some pretty fun puzzle caves all over the place. There were a couple in the first game, but they really stretched out with them in this game. They dont really get crazy, you could compare them to zelda BOTW shrines in complexity, but they're nice as some variety in the game.

Not a fan of the little floating guy next to you trope that this game relies on for conversations, but eh whatever. In a worldbuilding sense its a fun connecting piece between the previous two steamworld games.

Had a lot of fun with this one.