I never played the first one and bought this on a punt. I am not disappointed at all and find it very enjoyable.
Graphics are OK and sometimes look great and others it looks poor (ghosting TAA even without upscaling). The story so far is typical RPG affair where you are end of world saviour etc.
The AI can be annoying but the exploration and combat as well as the overall AI behaviour from your Pawns is perfectly adequate. They do stupid things one minute and you either laugh or rage at the ineptitude, yet in another moment they impress you with their improvisation. So just like real life friends, family or colleagues
I do love the fact the typical quest pointer is now an AI pawn that guides you to your goal with an almost nonchalant “I know this person, it’s not far, follow me”. They then take you on an epic adventure along half the map that requires two in game nights and multiple Ogre, Griffen, Minotaur and or dragon encounters. Yet another time a borrowed pawn told me “I saw a treasure chest nearby in my rift travels, shall I guide you to it?” I agreed and they took me on a 10 second detour up a hill and round an outcrop and said “It’s been a long trek but we got here in one piece”. I did laugh and wondered if it was just poor AI or a genuinely sarcastic AI moment.
Game of the year so far for me despite its flaws.