Absolutely amazing. A perfect showcase as to why games SHOULDN'T have dialogue skills: talking my way through all the conflicts in this game required actual thought at every turn and the final "boss" requires you to make callbacks to multiple other optional conversations in a truly brilliant moment of design. Absolutely deserved its nomination for best writing, and the opening's "Karen" dialogue option is one of the best brick jokes I've seen because while it seems incredibly stupid on the surface there is a punchline coming and the game doesn't even deliver it to you, you have to figure it out and laugh at it yourself. That's how much confidence is on display here.
Half a star off because while there is very little combat, the little that does exist is incredibly janky. But also you can get a legitimate ending in the first ten minutes if you realize you should just shoot a certain character in the face, and that alone makes the bad combat system worth it.
Also reminded me how much I love history, and that was great too.

Maybe it's because I expected to hate this game due to my feelings on the first one and only played it since it was free on gamepass, but my expectations were blown away. Don't get me wrong, character movement and combat and the way Rockstar refuses to allow you to do anything other than what they want you to is a major negative (seriously, I failed a stealth mission because I approached the objective from 3 feet further to the left than it wanted me to (I was not detected). That's inexcusable). Still, the overall experience was captivating and I had a lot of fun living out Arthur Morgan's life. I finished the game at 86% completion, which was everything except the collect-a-thon side quests that didn't seem fun at all.

This is an incredible experience. I phrase it that way because while I think there are a select few legitimate complaints to make about the game, these are only really relevant on a second playthrough. If you want a phenomenal and often jaw dropping 45-50 hour experience, this WILL deliver.

The combat just feels so good to play, like a character-action dark souls. The story was surprisingly compelling and I was genuinely immersed and even occasionally moved by the events and performances. Clive might have gruff protagonist voice but he's not written that way, he's shockingly compelling and so are most of the supporting cast. There's a ton of charm on display here, and some of the most jaw dropping boss fights I've ever played. I think this game begs to be completed fully on your first playthrough (ie most of the side content is borderline essential to the story and you'll want to do it).

For those criticisms I mentioned, the only one I think is valid is that there is a lack of build variety. You can craft better swords and armor but you just pick the one with the highest numbers, and your build is just which combo of six (nine, technically) abilities do you like best. BUT given how fun this game is to play and how you are getting new abilities to try out and integrate right up until the end, I feel like this can only be a knock against the game on a replay (after you've already got those 40-50 great hours out of it).

TLDR: a fantastic game to play once, but that once will be a very solid length of time.

The first half of this game was a full 5/5. This is the best environmental art direction I've ever seen in a game. Every inch of the world map is packed with gritty detail and just feels alive. The music is perfectly matched to the setting, even the main menu track stays hauntingly beautiful after all these hours. The story too, while fairly shallow, was compelling at first: rather than some save the world plot, you're a slave to ultra late stage capitalism who is suddenly given a shot at freedom from indentured servitude when the corporation that owns you suddenly fails. The idea of trying to carve out a place in this crapsack world was oddly affecting to me.

Unfortunately the game suffers later on from a plot shift and incredibly uneven difficulty. Simply put, if you're not playing co-op this game becomes unfair at the end no matter how much you level. By the time I reached the last few main story missions I had completed EVERY side mission, was overleveled, and had fully upgraded weapons, and was suddenly getting wiped by enemies. For example, the final mission is suggested level 25. I was level 28, and the final battle spawned endless waves of level 30 enemies. I had a lot of fun with the combat, but this really ruined the experience. Secondly, the story shifts to being about corporate warfare and totally drops the engaging plot threads from the first half of the game, and then doesn't even deliver an interesting ending. By the end, I was finishing it just to get my 100% since I'd come so far already. Still, for something made by a team of less than 20 it's incredibly polished.

This is a classic case of "The first one would be better if this one didn't play so much better". Every addition made to the formula here is good, I especially loved the blaster. The world is fun to explore, the combat engaging, the story intriguing. But honestly I'd rather have had a more linear game with a more expansive and bombastic story. This isn't dark souls with wallrunning, it's a star wars game. It's at its best when you're having engaging sword duels, digging into the plot, traversing the galaxy. I had fun exploring the world, I really did, but I just would've rather seen it go another way.
Bottom line, I had fun. I got all the collectibles I cared to and customized everything in a way I liked, defeated most of the bosses (including the spawn of Oggdo, oof), and then finished the story for a nice sense of completion. For that, it was a good experience.

I wish I could've done the bounty hunting missions but my game bugged out and never unlocked those (vendor won't speak to me, bounty tab in journal just says "undiscovered". So beware, the game is still rather buggy.