Some sequels to games are fine playing without having played the first one. Wouldn't say this is one of them. Found everything to be very confusing, it's hard to keep track of what is what and who is who and who wants what.
I prefer turn based combat over real time with pause. But turn based didn't really work that well in this game though, the combat can get *extemely* slow and once you unlock certain abilities (LOOKING AT YOU MAIA) you can cheese the living heck out of the combat. And there are a million different buffs and debuffs in this game, but sometimes you cannot see what they are or what they do, it's really frustrating.
Let's not even talk about the text based boat combat. Just ignore that part of the game.
The companions are interesting and have very good voice acting. The reputation system is nice. In general the writing is fantastic and the banter can be hilarious. I'm very happy the option to have romances is there but it's quite underwhelming.
The character customization has no limits and you can do some cool builds.
The story itself is intriguing but you get slapped in the face about colonialism and capitalism around every corner and it's just exhausting tbh. If you love politics, this game is for you.

Some sequels to games are fine playing without having played the first one. Wouldn't say this is one of them. Found everything to be very confusing, it's hard to keep track of what is what and who is who and who wants what. I prefer turn based combat over real time with pause. But turn based didn't really work that well in this game though, the combat can get *extemely* slow and once you unlock certain abilities (LOOKING AT YOU MAIA) you can cheese the living heck out of the combat. And there are a million different buffs and debuffs in this game, but sometimes you cannot see what they are or what they do, it's really frustrating. Let's not even talk about the text based boat combat. Just ignore that part of the game. The companions are interesting and have very good voice acting. The reputation system is nice. In general the writing is fantastic and the banter can be hilarious. I'm very happy the option to have romances is there but it's quite underwhelming. The character customization has no limits and you can do some cool builds. The story itself is intriguing but you get slapped in the face about colonialism and capitalism around every corner and it's just exhausting tbh. If you love politics, this game is for you.