I bought it but got a refund. I was a huge fan of the first game and enjoyed CoP well enough, though it felt like a completely different game that only shared aesthetics with the SoC.
I think I played for about an hour and in that time it felt like I was being led by the nose through the "quests". I don't know if the world opened up after that a linear "curated" experience isn't what draws me to that game. The first anomaly you went through had an obvious path so you didn't have to throw bolts, (I'm not sure that was even in the game unless I just missed it).
I'm a tard who plays PC games with a controller and there didn't appear to be aim assist which I know is lame but is also standard at this point when you use a controller in FPS (or it is there and I just suck terribly). Also the inventory interface was rough with the controller with some seriously counter-intuitive control scheme decisions.
The game was pretty enough and ran fine but just felt kind of cheaply slapped together compared to the obviously lovingly crafted first one.
And really minor complaint that there was no Russian voice available. I know there us Ukranian voice and its close enough to Russian that it doesn't matter for atmosphere, but it feels unnecessarily petty considering you know everyone who worked on the game probably spoke both.
The design is not great.
People spawn behind you in areas you've just cleared in a way that absolutely murders immersion. It doesn't feel like you're in a world that has people moving around, it feels like you're in a world composed of inhabited points of interest with a barren wasteland in between, with the game occasionally rolling some dice and spawning guys just behind you. The developers apparently saying they have a good system in place but it's just broken right now is an obvious 'dog ate my homework' level lie.
The economy is a joke. Every guy you fight obviously has infinite ammo... except when you kill them, you find they had a partial magazine in the gun and less than ten extra rounds in their inventory. On top of that, their guns are almost always in such poor condition they're totally worthless, yet they never jam on the AI, only on you. They're also visibly wearing armor, but that armor lootable less than 1% of the time. It all adds up to a feeling that the game is constantly rewriting reality to keep you from making money too fast. The repair costs for your gear once you've upgraded a couple times is so high you'll be running in the red every time you go out.
The day/night cycle is very fast, and the game is not particularly fun at night: it's just too damn dark to see anything, your flashlight has a maximum range of about 15 feet, the enemy is almost impossible to see beyond that range, and there are no flashlight upgrades or night vision in the game. I suspect the AI entirely ignores nighttime vision penalties.
There's paid fast travel between bases, but with how valueless the in-between space is, this is a game that would benefit from unlimited fast travel between all discovered locations. The amount of time it takes to run from spot to spot is the primary factor in whether I'm willing to explore a spot I haven't been to. That goes double if I'm trying to bring back enough gear to afford my repair bills.
Haven't played in a while but I recall getting night vision was a highlight in the first game. There the first set you got really sucked and the later sets get better, not sure if that was vanilla or mods though.
Having none at all seems like a major oversight.
Also the point of interest thing is what turned of off of CoP. SoC had these open maps where stuff just happened. CoP had neat circles on the map pointing out to where stuff happens and nothing in between but terrain.