The combat mechanics are great and a general improvement over the first game. The physics remove any stiffness and all animations feel completely fluid. I spent hours just messing around in the dev mode, jumping at the highest point off a cliff and spamming 'V' to have Turner's neck unexpectedly burst open and spray blood decals everywhere. This was largely what most players had to mess around with during the excruciatingly long wait between the Alpha program and release.

Now the game is here, it's disappointing what these highly-refined combat mechanics were wasted on. It's clear that a huge portion of time and energy was spent on making a fantastic in-house engine and that alone is an achievement in the current Unreal-dominated landscape. Unfortunately these high production values don't mash well with the very basic, visual novel style of storytelling that worked previously, causing a weird disconnect that I can't seem to shake. The campaign feels like a fan mod, though I can see why perhaps they didn't want to spend too much time on it when after all these years they provided the fans with all the tools to make their own stories. Regardless, the story didn't seem to hit as hard for me this time, and the final boss didn't even come close to the terror of the first game (which also had the rather unnerving realistic textures, where this game goes for a more smoothed out CGI look).
This is an impressive toolbox, but without much content to carry it. I can commend Wolfire for sticking it out for this long, this might be the last time we see an independent in-house engine for anything again.