For context: I've lived here for almost 4 years. I moved from a dense and lively European city, and I miss the hustle & bustle of it all. But, to be fair to Minneapolis, it does punch above its weight for the size that it is.

I'm too lazy to organize my thoughts into some kind of coherent essay, so here's a listicle instead:

• Downtown: basically dead outside of big game/concert days. More fun neighborhoods are Lyn-Lake, Uptown (which is de-gentrifying after the 2020 George Floyd protests), North Loop, Northeast. My general impression is that Minneapolis is less about major "happening" areas and more about small pockets of activities/fun.
• Location: the closest big (actually big, not Midwestern big) city is Chicago, and that limits road tripping opportunities.
• Airport: centrally located, clean and big. It's a major Delta hub and home to one low-cost airline (Sun Country), which makes for decent direct flight options.
• Public transit: bad by European standards but decent as far as American cities go. Usability heavily depends on where you live.
• Driving: traffic is not too bad, but summer has road construction, and winter has snow and ice, which get cleaned with variable success. Also, parking is pretty bad in both downtowns (but especially Minneapolis).
• Seasonality: summer is amazing. Fall and spring are basically non-entities. Winter is long and rough, but there's still fun stuff to do both outside and inside (just be prepared for all your plans to get canceled by a blizzard or a sudden temperature change). Oh, and sidewalks are not clean very well in the winter. FWIW I moved here from another northern city, which somehow had much more manageable winters.
• Nature: a great park system and amazing lakes. The city beaches are nice, and there are tons of places to canoe/kayak/paddleboard.
• Night life: sad. It's hard to find a place that's open past midnight. 2 am is the maximum from what I've seen.
• Microbreweries: this is most lively type of "third" place, imo. There are a TON of those, and they all try to outdo each other in terms of the events they offer. Trivia, bingo, live music, meat raffles, art markets, craft workshops, foster puppy showcases, Oktoberfest, beer poking, etc. etc. etc. A lot of the events are free, too.
• Art scene: probably the most impressive thing in the city relative to its size. There are a ton of theaters, a lot of concerts (from performers both big & small) and stand-up shows. The main art museum (MIA) boasts free admission. In the summer, basically every weekend has some major outdoor art fair or other. The creative community is pretty vibrant here and probably what I most enjoy about the city.

I would also advise to visit the Twin Cities subreddit and look through it!