They’ve completely ballsed up with the pacing/order of their story. Characters are killed off, and almost immediately forgotten about by the main cast. Moreover, the characters that are killed (Besides the obvious one) are so underdeveloped it’s unreal; which is then only addressed via flashbacks (and even then, the character development in them is limited). It seems pretty backwards. There’s very little impact with the characters that die, which would be fixed if there was some reordering of the story/flashbacks and more development of the side characters. The actual sequences in the flashbacks are probably the best parts of the game, but the gameplay itself just isn’t attention-grabbing anymore. Definitely a bit dated in that respect. Visually, the game is a masterpiece. Likewise with the soundtrack, it’s pretty amazing, but...it’s just not groundbreaking in the same way as the original. Boiling the entirety of the first games story, and its conclusion into a simple revenge plot for the sequel is also pretty unimaginative. I’d say 6/7 out of 10 is about right.