Is anyone else not enjoying this as much as the original?

[sapientCrow]

I actually like LOG2 far more than 1.

It is more open. The way it is laid out is an evolution from the very linear approach.
The multi leveled areas reminds me of 3d chess from star trek.
The additional puzzles and the mechanics ofr them were awesome.
The addition of boss fights is fantastic.
The added aggressiveness and AI to enemies awesome!
The more open method of character generation.
Creative addition of Races and Classes (Ratlings, Farmers!)
Added digging and treasure hunting!
Much more to this list but those are my key ones.

I have enjoyed experiencing this evolution and that is what I feel it is in this series.
I am looking forward to what they do with 3 and what others do with superior modding capability.

[minmay]

(Forgotten River basically points you towards the Bog, and Sleet Island essentially gives you only one choice as not everyone finds the "special key" and the Cemetery is blocked off)

On my first playthrough I actually did the Pyramid before even entering Desarune.

I'd say the game enforces pretty linear exploration: There's one path that leads you to new areas (Forgotten River -> Desarune -> Sewers -> Stormbeach). The remaining areas - the bog, pyramid, cemetery, crystal mines - lead to dead ends. It's kind of like linear RPGs with sidequests, but not as explicit. So it can produce decision paralysis, but it turns out all the decisions end up leading to the same place.

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I think LoG2 is a much better game than LoG1 overall, with better puzzles, atmosphere, and theme, but in my completely unprofessional opinion there are definitely some points where it's worse:
- feature creep, the number of mechanics seemed excessive. Admittedly this is tricky when you have a fanbase that will scream and moan if you don't copy every tiny little mechanic from the first game (reason #6753 that I never want to be lead design for a video game sequel).
- art direction. The art itself may be better, but some of it doesn't fit together very well, most obviously some of the LoG1 monsters (skeleton archers alongside the axe-wielding skeletons come to mind) - I don't mind reusing old assets, but they should be in the right style!
- save/load times, I normally don't complain about newer games being more demanding, but holy balls, the save/load times

[steelsoldier]

The thing that I feel most disappointed about Grimrock 2 is probably the classes, I know that in Grimrock 1 we only had 3 classes, but the thing is, I feel cheated, I feel like the majority of the classes arent good, they dont well what they are supposed to do, whereas other classes are just plain better because they are.

I just hope that an incredibly good community modder is able to balance the classes properly, I am not talking about the farmer, I am talking in general.

[LastFootnote]

I reached the sleet island/forgotten river area a while ago and so far I've been just wandering around the bog feeling lost. I get this nagging feeling that there's stuff I'm missing that I'll need to come back later and get or something, which is never cool. In fact a lot of what's going on feels like I'll be backtracking later to do, the levels don't feel as self-contained as in grimrock 1. I know the first couple of areas were quite linear and that was cool, I could deal with that, but I guess it kind of opened up too quickly or something? I don't know. If a game goes into being able to go anywhere do anything quite early on I feel incredibly lost, I had a similar problem with gothic 2, combined with that game having some far reaching consequences thing going on.

I didn't have the same problem with morrowind or any of the other elder scrolls games, because although it was really sandbox-y you could still define goals and work purposefully, whether that's doing quests, or raiding a dungeon, or saving up money for something, or even just developing your characters skills or something like that. You could think of a thing you wanted to do, and go do it. In grimrock I have no idea what I want to do

To be honest this is more a personal thing than any failing of the game, or at least it seems that way from other people's reactions.

Rithrin has it right that the overall goal seems to be to collect power gems and turn them into elemental essences. The bog has 4 gems and a shrine where you can combine them, so it's pretty self-contained.

As for the nagging feeling, I think I can assure you that the backtracking is mostly confined to treasure maps and the like. Most puzzles are solvable without needing a specific item from elsewhere.

If I were you, I'd explore the river as much as you can first. I think you can explore almost all of it without needing to go elsewhere. After that, complete the bog and get the essence there. After that, check out Sleet Island to the north of the river. Then I guess you can choose which area to enter? I've only been to the ruins so far. I completed them very recently, so I can definitely say that I didn't need items from elsewhere to get through them. Nor were there any out-of-reach treasures that I needed to come back for.

[Rithrin]

The LoG1 theme of "one giant dungeon" was really cool, definitely, but I would gladly take LoG2's less claustrophobic layout over seeing the same two wall textures for weeks on end.

[dark jelly]

I enjoyed the original more, and I'll come right out and admit: it's purely because it was one, big, linear dungeon. That design hits the spot for me.

I'm still enjoying Grimrock 2 a ton (the original is one of my favorite games). Combat (including enemy designs, AI, and boss fights) is much better, almost enough to make me prefer this game despite my innate preference for Grimrock 1's design. Character building is much better. If the game could somehow be packed into one, big, linear dungeon it would be perfect. But then people who prefer the more open design wouldn't like it as much.

[Sir Tawmis]

I reached the sleet island/forgotten river area a while ago and so far I've been just wandering around the bog feeling lost. I get this nagging feeling that there's stuff I'm missing that I'll need to come back later and get or something, which is never cool. In fact a lot of what's going on feels like I'll be backtracking later to do, the levels don't feel as self-contained as in grimrock 1. I know the first couple of areas were quite linear and that was cool, I could deal with that, but I guess it kind of opened up too quickly or something? I don't know. If a game goes into being able to go anywhere do anything quite early on I feel incredibly lost, I had a similar problem with gothic 2, combined with that game having some far reaching consequences thing going on.

See, for me - in LOG1, if you couldn't figure out one of the riddles/puzzles, you were typically "stuck" with nowhere else to go. With LOG2, there's been times I have been stuck on a riddle/puzzle - but, the game is more open so I can go into other areas (like the areas that connect around Sleet Island) and explore and do other things! This gave me time to either do other things and refresh my brain, and possibly come back and figure out the puzzle myself - or post on the forum, explore, and by the time I finished exploring another area, someone on the forum has provided a hint to grant me the knowledge to complete the puzzle I was stuck at. LOG1, when you're stuck - there is typically no additional exploring to do. You either figure it out, or you don't proceed. So I feel this gives me more chances, to go about, do other things, and come back to a puzzle later.