As someone half way through DL1 with my coop buddies... gah i hope it's not as annoying as you make it sound.
Even DL1 had flaws, like needing 12 hours of gameplay to unlock the grappling hook -.-'
hopefully, 2 gets some updates or convenient mods to remove the irritations
I didn't read much into it before I got a copy (I did glance over a couple of reviews and they seemed to show the game was okay to decent), but after playing the intro and feeling like a slow, floaty version (having just come from playing some DL1 the weekend before I played DL2) of DL1, it felt really off. Almost like I was trying to run through knee-high water and when I jumped I felt like I was floating and gauging the distances for landing felt awkward.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting it to be an exact take off of DL1, but I did expect it to be very similar and then improving the parkour. Maybe I expected too much?
There are a few things that really, really irritate me, though, and I'm only about 3 hours into the game
1) the visual indicators that come up on the edge of your screen when a zombie or bad guy is approaching you from your sides or back
a) the visual indicators turn red for every zombie that's after you during a chase
2) chases - if you've played GTA3 and you know how you can build up your wanted rating (higher the rating, the more cops come after you)....this is the same thing. The higher the chase level, the more zombies are after you and you have just a ton of red indicator lights dancing around the edge of your screen.
(there is no current way to disable these indicators in the game options. You can remove them (delete them) from the game itself if you can find the files that need to be removed)
3) The stamina bar for parkour/climbing, I hate it. That was one of the best things about DL1, you could climb and go and trying to escape the hordes of zombies you sometimes have after you. I hear climbing is much less of a thing in DL2 and it's more about running and trying to use other methods to keep on top of the buildings.
I'm hoping I can find enough enjoyment in the game to play through the main mission, but what I've experienced so far for me is just a sad sequel that can't hold a torch to the first game.
My advise, if you haven't read much up on the game or went through any reviews of it yet, don't. Try to experience the game yourself without feeling like you're already being let down before you even start it. But you will notice certain aspects that have been removed from DL2 that you could do in DL1.
There are mods out there that can fix a few things, such as allowing you to repair weapons (yep, you can't repair weapons in DL2). If you add a weapon mod to a weapon, it will automatically repair the weapon, but you cannot repair them like in DL1.