I can kind of understand why they went down this route though eh? Ummm. I saw an interview one of the devs did with Angry Joe. Seemed like they wanted to create incentive for people playing co-op to troll each other and compete. I can kind of also understand it from the perspective that you can elect to play as a power hungry sourcerer, as opposed to a stalwart team player. Here is the link if u'r interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63-ws3_jhx0As for your concern about them partitioning the land between the different acts. I totally share it dude, I really dislike the fact you can't visit old areas. It makes the game world feel less alive and more gimmicky. I could understand why you couldn't revisit Fort Joy, but I was disappointed to see the trend continue. Now that you mention it that's probably my other major concern; after of course the half-baked and uncomfortable pet pal experience. That being said this game does a lot right doesn't it? I think the spells are a lot better. The rework to summoning in relation to DOS 1 was definitely needed. I love picking new races. I think the armour system is interesting. I'm having trouble making crazy weird builds like I did the first game (I played some robe wearing Fire Knight), but so far the Death Knight I looked up is pretty fun.
Giving more options to troll or compete is fine. But the way they made it, they killed the coop-feeling you had from the first games. There are no interactive dialogs like in the first. One guy talks and all others can only listen, pushing them into passive roles if you want to play coop.
If Player A talks to an NPC and Player B does it afterwards, it is as if the Player A talking never happened. From some events you therefore can 'earn' rewards with every character seperatly like the thirsty corpse in the well. In the first game it felt like you were two soulmates fates to travel on together, now you just feel like up to four random dudes, following the same path by accident. Also in the end you still get forced to fight each other anyway. I already saw the Angry Joe video long time ago and it made me worry if I remember correctly, but sadly it kind of got even worse than expected. Not shared exp and not shared social skills just shove into your face, that you are not really a 'group'.
Honestly I expected something like the first game, after you escaped the prison island. Hearing that it won't be that way, just is extremely disappointing. There are so many flaws to the combat system regarding balance and progress my friend and I ever never really bothered to play that far. The armor system kills all the crazy and/or controll oriented builts. The only thing that really matters is pure damage now. Attributes lost all their depth and same goes for skill trees. Requirements for high level skills are so low, that there is no need for real investment, instead you will invest in Skills like Warfare or Polymorph, even if you don't need their skills, just because their will offer a better general damage boost instead of a specific one.
Regarding summoning I'm not sure. I love my summoning as a support with witch craft, though in late game summons lost their importance and this is not really different in the second game, excluding lone wolf probably. Also being a summoner but being able to handle only one summon at the time like everyone else, that really sucks.
Regarding races: undeads are awesome though probably overpowered, elves are irritating but still kind of cool, but all other races feel extremely lacking and unspecial. Also why are normal spells from first game now racial skills and even so kind of weaker versions of those? Same goes to the fact, that some skills from the first game now need source, which I find very irritating.
In general speaking: there are some cool ideas, but in the end most stuff feels half baked and lacking and core issues from the first game like inventory management did not see improvement at all.
P. S.: In the first game you got a real feeling for getting more and more powerful overtime. In this game it lacks, you already get that feeling at the start. Bigger numbers is not enough to feel yourself really more powerful.
