The story is not as punchy as 1's but you can tell that Sam Lake is starting to get his footing as a writer here and I respect the more meta and almost self-parodying direction this one took. Some say the game is easier but it felt just the same to me, it's just that the controls are far smoother so I felt like I was fighting the enemies more than the controls this time. I am shown once again that it would be really cool to get addicted to painkillers.