[Early Access] Missing a poorly telegraphed encounter near the beginning of the game led to 14 hours of aimless exploration that was meant to be punctuated by dialogue, exposition and character development. Instead that plot advancement was crammed into the last two hours as I revisited areas I'd already fully explored, just now with a brief bit of dialogue and magically unlocked doors. The plot threads, however, were intriguing and tied into the first game in interesting ways.

While Below Zero maintained the same sense of mechanical progression from the original, the biomes felt less varied, and the world was significantly smaller. Large enemies were more of a mild annoyance than an interesting challenge.