I just finished this. Whoa, what a great game! Almost 50 hours of fun and eye-snipping with a good story and a fine world to explore.
It's much better than Atom RPG in many aspects and is a perfect expansion of the original story (of our hero, the story per se has almost nothing to do with the original).
There is room for improvement, but let's put it in more readable pros/cons points:
pros:
+ good story and writing - well, still a lot of quirky and weird stuff, and MQ is nothing special, but everything is serviceable and gives you a proper feeling of urge and pushes you forward with the plot
+ much better UI - from bigger inventory (still no search option and too few sorting options), through more readable characteristics and map - mind you old system has it's own charm, but this is more convenient
+ whatever was good in Aom is also good here - battle system with the possibility of giving orders to your teammates (no one died me even once)
+ graphics is a bit better - more details, better colour, better icons etc
+ better ammo crafting and house system
+ weapon upgrades are great!
+ builds seem balanced - you can be sniper, AR-guy, crossbow grenadier, pistollero, a madman with an axe or Chuck Norris - every build will get you through the game, I don't have a feeling that only 1-2 are good and the rest are placeholders (still melee chars have to spend too much APs to get to the enemy thus are generally harder to play, bu8t you can always use stun grenades etc)
+ world is filled with quests or exp-givers, I had fun with literally every single NPC interaction
+ choices and consequences - if you put a drug dealer in jail, there won't be a replacement in some magical way - you will lose the possibility of buying drugs from that place
+ few groups to join, where joining one means you can't work with the other
+ atmosphere is just brilliant!
+ even if a bit of a parody, the world still feels natural and well thought (fuck you, Bethesda!)
+ most quests give you some choices and ways to solve
+ gold balance for the first 40% of the game is just brilliant - you are struggling with money and are not sure what to spend for, as there are so many possibilities - better gun, better upgrade, better armour, more coffee, skill-book, armour upgrade, training, prostitutes... a lot of ways to spend your cash (too bad in the end you will have so much money you will not be even searching bodies anymore)
+ POWER ARMOUR! And you can modify it and even change how it looks, and IT LOOKS AMAZING!
+ running through the world just before the game ending to check if there is something new to do gave me a few new quests! - Great stuff!
cons:
- balance is shit - the game is easy, especially if you learn how to play in the previous title (and if you transferred char from Atom RPG you will have much more skill points and char points), you start with a basic weapon and with a proper build, it can get you through 50% of the game, especially with mods. You still can die from a lucky burst, which is good, but like 80% of fights felt like - oh, those guys again <yawn>
- halfway through the game you don't know where to spend your cash and skill points. Even perks points are useless at about 30-ish level.
- some characters seem out of place
- no dog in my team
- no car to drive
- just two followers
- lack of weapon variety - well, at least for Sniper build there are like 4 rifles in the whole game better or on par with starting gun
- skill points inflation - skills limit is raised to 299, but there are plenty of skills that do not need to be put that high (e.g. technology or lockpick, I did not find any lock nor computer that needed more than 110-130 of those), so you will get to 299 with your weapon of choice skill, speechcraft, sneak and whatever-you-like (first aid is good for skill-perks) and you end with a gazillion of skill points that you don't know what to do
- therefore even skill checks are too easy to pass, so not only battles are easy, but also the game as a whole
- not as many atmospheric places as in the first game - while bunkers in ATOM RPG gave me sometimes The Glow vibe, I didn't feel this here
- last battle is a joke and your enemy there is bullshit. No spoiler here, but if you quickly destroy enemies with the most damage potential, you will see HERO HIT FOR 0 HP plenty of times.
- too easy to rise your stats temporally - not only addictive, expensive drugs but also cheap food.
Still, a brilliant game, especially for this money (I bought both supporter packs, and I still feel like I have stolen something from someone). Gaining exp is fun and head-blowing animations remind me of Jagged Alliance 2 :D .
tl;dr : BUY IT! PLAY IT! 9/10 will play again
EDIT: One thing I forgot - a few people mentioned Dan from 1st game being in Trudograd but I haven't met him. I hope they will add him in the expansion (or I missed something important)
EDIT 2: I didn't find how to skip sex scenes. There should be that option, as those scenes are boring and long!
. Also, I abused the fast reaction perk - this stuff is broken.
