Heh, trust me I was surprised myself at how quickly I was turned around myself by this game!
I would go as far to say that although the recent monitor and speaker purchases were planned, I originally scheduled them for a few months down the road but I did them now so I could improve my enjoyment of the game (*)…
It just hit me in all the right spots I guess (Exploration/Atmosphere/Combat) and harkened very favorably to a very old school gaming feel that I missed the last few years it seems.
I just had a very big problem overcoming not being allowed to save/retreading parts initially. Its more than a pet peeve for me. I guess I have an issue with sort term repetition (and being annoyed by it has actually put me into trouble at RL at times). Notice that if I put some time between it though (and the finer details of the experience dim a bit) I can replay favorites a boatload of times
Notice also that cheating a bit (backing up my save on Sen's Fortress and before Quelaag) Helped me a bit to overcome my annoyance at those bits and realize that I can enjoy the game as is, surprisingly!
I didn't feel the need to do this again after coming to terms with the game design there. I still don't favor it though but I am definitely not going to make an issue about it again…
All in all if #2 manages to capture me the same way I'll have another developer to add to my hall of fame (as I was hoping to do with CDPR although the W2 was just shy of getting there… Still holding out hope for The Witcher 3 to blow me away of course
)
(* My crappy z506 Logitechs in particular were constantly overdriven by the game… The Sub most of all. On the upside I finally got speakers decent enough to listen to music on
)