I had more fun in my initial playthrough of this game than the first, and it has all the same charm, but I'm reluctant to say it's better. Instead of blending horror and action into a thrillingly tight experience like the first game, it goes for a more relaxed style where you can take your time exploring open world segments. The first game wanted to be a fast-paced trip through a variety of horror setpieces, so a dreamlike world was a great way to bind the pieces together, but it's less tailor-made for the premise of the sequel. Turning that dream world into a relatively stable environment with lower variety still allows for some interesting moments, but the uniqueness was certainly lessened, and the resulting methodical pacing prevents the sort of intensity that characterized the first game. It does have some unique strengths of its own though, being smoother the whole way through and much more impressive on a technical level. The writing is also surprisingly strong for a game even tangentially associated with Shinji Mikami, and Sebastian Castellanos is one of my favorite game protagonists in recent memory. I had a ton of fun with The Evil Within 2, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it's one of my favorites of the year, it just didn't go in an unambiguously positive direction overall.