Huge downgrade from the first game unfortunately. Instead of a puzzle marathon with an interesting story running throughout it, this game is broken up into chunks, with mandatory story segments between the actual puzzles (of which there aren't nearly as many). And I hate to say it but the story is boring and doesn't make any sense. Having a story driven by characters when the characters are completely flat (literal) robots just doesn't work. It ends up being a slog that you mash through to get more puzzle.

The puzzles are a bit of a disappointment too, coming off of the first game. They're easier on the whole - only a handful gave me any real trouble, whereas I got stuck for some time on a solid half of the original game - and while the new mechanics are interesting, there are too many of them and not enough puzzles to explore them to the extent they deserve.

The new way of handling secrets, exploring open worlds, is not my preferred gameplay but it was done pretty well - I didn't find all the stars in the end, but I had fun looking for them. I still had a good time, and the last bit of the game really made me come away with a better impression than I was expecting.

I compared it to La-Mulana 2 while playing and realized later that Portal 2 is an apt comparison as well. A sequel that tries to do too much, adding a bunch of wacky characters, and fails to see what made the first game great - clever puzzles, focused design and a sense of mystery. I appreciate what they were trying to do, but for me, it didn't land.