Just beat the Act 3 boss. Easily the hardest I've fought so far, but didn't take me as long to beat as 3 of the DLC bosses in HK1 (you know which 3). Still was a good 3 hours, but I wasn't really using tools and I was tired and hungry and dehydrated so my reaction times were just a bit slow lol. Only got through because cogflies are busted and let me basically just focus on not getting hit in the final phase.
This game kicks ass. Not perfect, and there's some stuff I like about HK1 more, but still EASILY a 9.5/10 for me, no question. I still need to find some stuff (1 mask piece, 1 spool piece, and two slab keys + whatever is in that section of the slab), but I'm more than satisfied with my purchase and game time.
It's really impressive that they made a sequel that's familiar enough to get back into the flow of things and feel like an evolution of the base they had, while also making it different enough that it doesn't feel like going back to HK1 would feel like a downgrade.
Look, I can name a few instances in MY life where I tried to reach mutual understanding
and i can TELL you, always faster and easier to just kill em. Just is!