Disclaimer: I never played DD1

Summary: the game can come across as oddly bare bones in certain ways. At it's base, it's a sandbox game with a limited pool of enemies you fight repeatedly and a lacking story. But it also has features most games don't attempt: the simulation aspects, climbing on enemies, the pawn system, the travel system, etc. I found it to be an immersive and engaging world, where I was constantly planning where to go next and what vocation/skills to try. It hooked me, and the highs overshadowed the flaws

Pros:
- Pawn system: the most prominent unique aspect of DD
- Combat: core combat is fun, switching up vocations and pawns keeps it fresh. I enjoyed every vocation I used and kept rotating basically as soon as I maxed my current one out.
- Simulation: combat is physics-based, quests depend on time/place
- World: dense with hidden areas and chests, encouraging you to explore
- Travel: lack of easy fast travel, loss of health over time, and how long it takes to get places makes traveling meaningful/engaging and often require planning
- Combined there's a certain level of immersion, and the hook of the game was simply wandering from place to place
- Endgame and warfarer vocation hit at the perfect time for me: the loop was finally growing a little stale, and I fully upgraded the vocations I cared about. Warfarer and the new stream of higher level enemies felt like the final reward

Cons:
- Enemy variety: could use a few more enemy types, including a couple more bosses, especially at the end
- Difficulty: after the beginning, the game becomes pretty easy and doesn't ramp up much at the end
- Unique locations: the world is impressively dense with small hidden secrets and traversal puzzles, but I wish it had more unique, impressive locations. The dungeons all look the same and are simply caves. Feels like all the effort with seeker tokens and cave dungeons could've been put to something greater. The closest they get to this for me is the Aborheart.
- Quest design: I appreciate simulation-based quests (some aspects reminded me of Kingdom Come Deliverance) and when solutions aren't obvious, but some of the quests felt poorly designed
- Triggering quests: this is partially a personal problem, but I missed quests due to not talking to people (or not talking then waiting and talking again). Some I eventually started, but felt later in the game than designed for, which led to extensive backtracking
- The "stealth": the first gaol was a clusterfuck where I killed the guards, then had to wait a few days. Still not totally sure how stealth/disguises work. Then the masquerade was weird: at first it seemed like the guards were chill, but then attacked me after the cut scene
- Related, Ernesto died, and two of the Coral Snakes escaped from the gaol (I guess because I unlocked all the cells before they got arrested). Tracking down where they were and what happened required online help
- Story: general premise was cool, but fell flat overall

Edit: after starting NG+, I found out I actually missed a few things due to possible bugs. Didn't get offered the forager and logistician specializations when I should've. Got it this time after completing the same quests.