Admittedly, I purchased this game on release date but did not actually play it till 12/2017 and complete it till 01/2018. This game and entry is a must buy to any players of the first game. Questions you have from GR are answered and revealed here. It's not just a sequel that adds a new existing story and focuses on the future. Lore from the first game is established and explained here.
Having made sure to purposely revisit but also first hand experience GR through its remaster before delving into its sequel, GR2 was a fantastic sequel.
The story and writing is extremely well done, and is longer, bigger, and more epic than GR. The lore is intact and capitalized on, Kat's origins are explained (including the event of how the first game started), the timeline changes are handled well without, if any, major plotholes, the accompany of the special gravity creatures are explained, the world tree plays a part in the story, the dark ocean narrative from the first game is not absent here, all characters focused on competently play their part in the story (and Raven is a very engaging character to see more of in this installment), the ending is satisfying and presented great, etc.
Music is not amazing but it's good and does its job. Gameplay is better overall, with a few flaws, combat wise. The overall gameplay as a whole is much better. Camera seems worse but the event requires certain collisions with the surfaces in the game so it's mostly situationally worse. Better UI. The online components (which are ending 8 days from now) are very fun (unfortunately some people will miss out on a fun extention to the game here, which may not affect the core GR2 experience, but is a fun side of gameplay).
Graphics are not as stylize as the first game, but it's still great. The level design is good. The geometry of the level design has been revamped in this game to include bigger and flatter surfaces so that walking, running, and sliding on and underneath rooftops is actually possible. This is actually a part of the game I praise, because the underneath portions of buildings that you usually don't explore or need to go under are designed to an extent that puts it on the tier of actual levels you're advancing through.
The story was the best part about this game. Just purely amazing writing here. For a basis on the quality of the story, I'd put it up there with the Uncharted series (haven't played Horizon Zero Dawn or Nier yet; they're in my backlog). However, better than inFAMOUS series. The games are actually similar to inFAMOUS: Super Power Heroes, Comic Book style presentation, etc. I essentially find this a higher tier/quality style inFAMOUS game, and im talking the 1st and 2nd game.. the series, not just Second Son.