Me and my friends have it. Here's my thoughts.
Story- no real effort to improve the storytelling. I've played 10 hours and have no interest in the story, because well there isn't any storytelling. Lol.
Gunplay - vastly superior to the first. It feels weightier now. Movement into cover is more realistic. Everything about the gameplay has been improved for the better. Bare in mind I'm not endgame yet.
Visuals- an improvement over the first game. Definately. But don't expect this to impress to much if you have played Red Dead 2 on X or even Shadow Of The Tomb Raider. I would say Gears 5 later in the year is going to be vastly superior in this aspect.
I'm not to sure how I feel about them dumbing down some of the RPG elements. By that I mean the Wow type buffs and debuffs the first game had. Playing a support character now is nowhere near as tough to build a character for. And is much more limited in this regard.
Overall the experience is great so far though. 7/10 from me.