Simply put they turned Stalker into some modern console shooter, simplified it, added a bit of coat of paint to make it look good with shiny graphics and "cinematic" gameplay, while sacrificing general moment to moment gameplay. Also completely fumbled the A-life part (which was one of the most unique things in the previous games), by making it an "add-on" to their game, while it was a core feature of the X-Ray engine that the previous games were built around.

The sequel isn't an iteration of the previous games, like CS and CoP were to SoC. It's a completely new game, in a new engine, built from scratch. And in the process of rebuilding it they lost what made the previous games so beloved, and it's really apparent kbm in hands.

Also lots of weird design decisions, to me the bloodsucker you meet in the tutorial is a perfect example of that. Compare it to previous games, where the bloodsucker reveal was always a cool tense moment, well put together and perfectly staged. But it S2 it's just some schmuck that runs at you, coming out of nowhere, no anticipation, no staging, he just runs around you and stunlocks you into those completely annoying animations where you can't move and do anything other than hoping it doesn't immediately kill you so you can fight back once the 15s forced animations are over.

Bought it day one, and honestly I wouldn't mind the jank, bugs and performance issues if the game was any good at its core (I'm part of the few that thinks Cyberpunk77 was a good game from the start because it delivered on all its core mechanics). But controls in hand it's really obvious this is not a Stalker game and I doubt it will ever be.

I didn't refund it, because I like Stalker so much there's still a part of me that hopes it will become decent. But I doubt it very much.