A fair sequel to the first game that equally creates positive and negative changes to the original.

The sequel seems more focused on the risk/reward of the dice than on abilities, but I still found the optimal way to play the game to be conservatively which made the game seem easy towards the end game, but less so than the first game. There's also seemingly no risk in taking in every potential crew member which would've been cooler if each one had different consequences (both gameplay-wise and story-wise). You also can't level up or change the performance of your crew members meaning I was using the same 2 crew members over and over again on contracts just to fill the skill gaps. You also feel fairly 'safe' throughout the entire game, as it is easy to avoid one of the main fail states and at some point it goes away completely.

The sequel feels much more linear and doesn't have multiple endings, making your decisions seem like they mattered less. I felt I had less of an attachment to the characters than the first game, that might be due to the larger map and how quickly characters can pop in and out of the story compared to the more concentrated first game. The main villain is frustrating; seeming both non-present and completely overpowered in the moments that they are present, they're more annoying than intimidating. A big majority of the characters seem to lean towards being 'good' (especially your crewmates) creating very little tension between you and the rest of the world. There's always a win-win situation or they are actually just decent folks, minus a few exceptions. The story also contains a lot of happy accidents/coincidences which feel unnatural.

Overall I didn't get the same satisfaction that I got from the first game but the new gameplay elements did enough to sustain my interest and keep things interesting. If you liked the first game, you might find this one alright, but if you weren't sure about the first game you won't find anything new in the sequel. I would give this more of a neutral score than a positive.