Initial Impression after 15 hours:
Gameplay: 4.0
Story: 0.5
Aesthetics: 2.5
X-Factor: 4.0
Overall: 2.75

TLDR: combat is good, everything else is tolerable to terrible. (I did not play DD1)

Gameplay: Combat is amazing. Vocations feel unique, and coordinating with pawns is refreshing and fun. Enemy designs are carried enough and interesting. Lacking universal combat options like dodge or block was odd at first, but it may be a decision I end up liking. Besides combat... well nothing works for me. Exploration feels terrible; wander for 2 hours and you will come across goblins, goblins, and more goblins. Seriously, how many times can I save a pawn for useless, uninteresting dialogue and have it still be fun or interesting? About 5 times. How many times will this happen wondering for 5 minutes? About 5 times. Loot gains from exploration are uninteresting.

Missions: the focus on missions without huge signposting is interesting and fun. However, designing quests this way is a huge risk and requires tight gameplay. I do not believe they pulled them off at all. Taking the quest where you explore the village at the edge of the map: I was told to try doing what I caught someone doing to me (following/tailing me). And so I did. I wandered around town for about 20 minutes, waiting for anyone to significantly move. Eventually, at night, a group of 4 people start moving up the trail and eventually climb down a ladder in the woods. Lo and behold the ladder is the secret entrance to the cave I needed to get into. Okay, that's all well and good... however, all 4 people were just idling standing at the bottom of the stairs. None reacted to me climbing down, none reacted when I talked to them. I followed them to their secret hideout and it was just boring and janky. Get to the end of some rudimentary platforming and I am rewarded with uninteresting dialogue and awkward NPC clapping cycles. The ambiguity and open nature of the quest did not save the quest from poor design, presentation, or story.

Story: I have not completed the game and still think I am not even at the halfway point in the story (hopefully). However, it feels like a very generic fantasy/chosen-one story with a lacking presentation. The open cutscene is maybe the most interesting part thus far, and it almost put me to sleep. Blocking is extremely boring. While the story and characters are not the focus of the game, my only motivation to continue to play is simply for the combat, which is not a large enough driving factor for me. Skyrim has better characters and dialogue than any part of DD2, which is a fairly low bar. I'd do anything to have a someone in DD2 have the tenth of the charm a skyrim character has.

Aesthetics: game's graphics are serviceable, monster designs are A+, character creation is A+, but the presentation of the story and dialogue are an F. The zoom in close up of a poorly lip synced dialogue line that is uninteresting should have been left in 2012.

X-Factor: Combat against large monsters and Pawn system. These are good and the only reason to play DD2. The Pawns themselves are utterly uninteresting and never have dialogue that is worth listening to, but that's the trade off of having summonable NPC's from other players. I wish they had more unique dialogue for different sets of personalities, so by hour 3 I haven't heard all their generic phrases, but what can ya do.

Overall: combat is good, while story, exploration, characters, and presentation are extremely subpar. I will attempt to finish the game and hopefully the story picks up in the latter half.

Initial impression after 20 hours:
Gameplay: 5
Aesthetics: 4.5
Online Co-op play: 4
Online Economy: 3.5
Story: 2.5

Amazing game. One of the most fun experiences I’ve had in awhile. I do not like shooters. I do not like online multiplayer games often. Helldivers 2 slaps despite all that. If the mission incentives are redesigned to stop players from farming and focus more on team play, while also adding more content for players to continuously unlock, this game could be a solid 10/10. First GOTY contender of 2024.