I just finished the game. The story is awesome, and it ended very very appropriately. Executed very nicely. The weapons customization is a loving blast, lets me play how I want to play. And I went through the entire game without ever needing to use MTX (the game gives you "rations" that you can use instead of MSPoints (or whatever currency you use depending on console) that you obtain throughout scavenging for resources). I feel the shift from pure horror to horror/intense action was necessary based on the story. In the beginning, the game is about pure mystery. As the story unfolds, things happen, knowledge gets known, and things need to get done. Isaac isn't a super-soldier. He's a loving engineer. He needs all the help he can get. With that, people come in, and with people, comes a sense of relief. Stories and atmosphere has to change to progress. The game is still creepy as hell, just not the horror-fest the first one was.
Let me emphasize that I never used MTX, stop crying.
