I just hit level 47 (out of a possible 100) and think that sharing what I've learned about this game is probably a good idea.

After level 36, the skill trees allow you to trivialize 75% of the heists, to the point where you can get the loot and get out within minutes (or even less than a minute) and just start grinding.

The bank heists all take place in the exact same area with the exact same map and assets. And entire maps are re-used for some other heists as well.

The randomization feature only serves to make the long-term heists (which are less effective money/time and experience/time) artificially more difficult or absolutely trivial.

Stealthy approaches are only possible at higher levels (without constantly restarting and retrying) and is only viable for lower levels or on two parts of the larger heists (both are possible without stealth).

The multiplayer "lobby" consists of heists popping in and out of a small map where you have to hunt and wish for anything you want to play. There is only peer-to-peer connections where the host holds all of the power. There is no host migration, so if the host leaves or disconnects then you are booted and get nothing. 3 out of 5 game you try to join will fail to connect (with generic messages) or hang trying to connect. Also, when you join a game in progress, it will spawn you right on-top of someone, ruining any stealth.

The equipment and mask customization system is nice, but the method of getting any sort of customization is quite bad. You have a chance of getting a weapon mod (from any item, not just items you own), a mask, mask component, or trivial amounts of cash. This chance occurs at the very end of heists.

On the same note, the money (which becomes trivial lvl 36+) is needed to add on modifications to weapons, if you detach the mod, you have to pay again to put it back on.

Mask customization is similar, but if you use components to customize a mask (material/pattern/color) and then sell that mask, you lose whatever materials you used to customize the mask. You only get 9 possible slots for masks, so this is a big problem (also consider the fact that getting up to level 47 I only gained enough materials to make five masks, and some of them look like shit).

There are also still plenty of bugs, crashes happen more often than an be normally expected, and there are some really quite annoying bugs (using a push-to-talk key causes a micro-stutter for some people).

Don't buy this if you want to play alone, the AI is so dumb they might as well have not been included.

tldr:

Game has a good core mechanics, but is not polished and has some just plain stupid mechanics.

That's a shame to hear. I got the original on PlayStation Plus and was really enjoying it. Still, maybe it'll get better once they've patched it a bit and added more content.

One question: how long have you played to reach that level? I have to admit I did not like the first game either, and all this talk about the grinding is really pushing me away from buying it.

I've played 21 hours (according to steam time), but I'd have to say about half that time has been getting into a game/loading screen/lobbies. It starts getting trivial at 36, which is about 10-15 hours, even less if you have friends that can grind you up, or if you find games that will let you hang around. My play time was from the beginning when close to none had the stuff needed to make it trivial.