Context: never played DD1, just finished NG+ on DD2

The core loop of exploring the world hooked me: the world is engaging to traverse and combat was fun throughout. In particular:
- Vocations/pawns keep combat fresh. I was constantly leveling new vocations and switching up the team composition
- Interactions are physics-based, from basic movement to interactions with massive enemies
- Lack of easy fast travel, loss of max health after taking damage, and how long it takes to get places makes travel meaningful and often requires planning
- The world itself is dense with lots of areas to explore

Combined there's a certain level of immersion, and simply wandering from place to place was the hook. The endgame and warfarer vocation also hit at the perfect time for me, and really took it over the top.

Main cons:
- Enemy variety: could use a few more enemy types, including a couple more bosses
- Difficulty: after the beginning, the game becomes pretty easy and doesn't ramp up much at the end
- Dungeon variety: every dungeon is basically a cave, and there's overall a lack of unique locations
- Story premise was cool and had some enjoyable parts, but overall fell flat

"Jank":
- Performance in cities is not good
- Stealth: I still don't understand how it's supposed to work
- After aggro-ing guards, then camping outside the city, I was seemingly allowed into the masquerade (the guard literally said "welcome in!") until the cut scene finished and I was sent to gaol
- Because I unlocked the doors in the Battahl gaol prior to the empress quest, the Coral Snakes were not there for the subsequent quest (the guards didn't lock the doors again after arresting them?). Had to lookup where to find them
- Didn't get the forager and logistician specializations when I should've. Only realized when I got them on NG+

Summary: overall had a great time, between a 4 and 4.5. Don't love the combat or story enough to go higher

Pros:
- Choice and consequence is excellent. Tough choices and lasting consequences with branching outcomes. I like that you are often punished in terms of loot/money for making the "good guy" choice
- Enjoyable combat and character building
- Generally enjoyable setting/tone, certainly is unique

Cons:
- You have 6 characters and get levels quickly: can be overwhelming and hard to know how to build characters without outside help. Don't really know what the skills do before you have to make "permanent" choices, compounded by money being scarce initially (you can pay to respec). Overall not a huge negative after initial hurdle and probably fine to play completely blind, but I hate the feeling of "messing up" my characters due to the game not giving me enough information
- Combat can become a little stale towards the end of the game when you have your characters locked in
- Some humor can be hit or miss, a little overbearing

Some specific story/writing complaints:
- Why can't someone take over Gipper oil production other than cannibals?
- Angela Deth asks you to essentially commit a coup against a popular leader and presumably kill many innocent people in the process. Why would people support us after that? Also seems unrealistic how 50% of Rangers automatically turn against you
- Would've loved to have a more in depth conversation with the Patriarch or the Rangers at the end. Feels like it was missing a finale confrontation/discussion and instead I was forced into a binary decision to support Angela or not