I've played GH2 v0.501 for 20 hours or so, and I've found that it is a big improvement over v0.460. In general, the main story lasted longer and was more varied, though it still tended to deadend in the #A state. I've added a few bugs to the tracker over on Sourceforge page for a couple of minor bugs, but I do have a couple of observations to make.
Mission Difficulty is uneven:
While doing random missions for a spinner, I end up fighting a Buru Buru or two and a Wraith, but main story and non-random missions (i.e. dust cloud mission) were against much better equipped and skilled opponents. It is aggravating to switch between missions that you win without taking a hit and missions where you are one-shoted by the first attack.
Main Story gets stuck in a rut:
During one play through I got stuck with the "go see X, Y knows where X is, you must duel Y to learn of X's location, you beat Y and find X who wants to be your flunky" mission pattern 3 times in a row. I know that not everything is fleshed out yet, but I felt like Mario rescuing toadstools while looking for a princess.
Unsealed armor is near useless:
The first mission (the free mecha one) is usually in a vacuum environment and getting blown out of a Mecha without sealed armor is deadly if you aren't rescued. Therefore, unless you are up for switching out all of your armor segments every time you enter or leave a vacuum environment, the 60-75% of armors that are unsealed are useless. Honestly, I think I purchased one set of unsealed armor in over ~20 game starts, and that was because I couldn't find anything sealed that I could afford.
Rescue the NPCs missions are overly difficult mid-late game:
While trying to saw the NPC that is lost in the asteroid mine I found that the only successful tactic to save him was making a mad dash to the stairway and hoping that the Fungal Hunters, Exorg Floaters and Hunter-Killers didn't notice him first. One wonders how they mine any ore at all with all those vicious monsters hanging around.
Close combat in vacuum environments is frustrating mid-late game:
Even with close to 2 mil in the bank I had yet to see any armor better than the Encounter Suit after visiting most spinners. When fighting the Armored fungus, sphere and hunter, it only takes a handful of hits to reduce a section of the Encounter Suit or SkinSuit to 0 DP exposing you to vacuum. If they were 0 mass, armor patches (like quick fix pills) might work, but would eliminate the use for the General Repair skill. The end result is that ranged combat is only real option, which basically means that early points spent on Martial Arts and Armed Combat are a bad investment in the long run.
That's about it for now. I'll post more as I find it.
P.S. The Shil still sucks at flying and usually falls to its death when it tries to turn around to fight you, I think it is jumping, but I could be wrong.
