I've seen a lot of complaints that Wade isn't anything like he was in the previous book, but uh... Did y'all read the previous book? And the opening of this book?

His behavior as an obsessive, petulant, whiny, stalkery, moody creep is exactly what I would have expected. He went from having literally no social life outside of the Oasis at the beginning of the first book while obsessing over a game to sort of having a virtual girlfriend who dumps him (still virtually), to cyberstalking her to the best of his ability at that time (he's blocked but is constantly messaging, keeps calling, even shows up blasting music from a boombox), to then getting rich and famous and getting IRL friends (and finally getting some physical intimacy on ANY level - hugs) and getting the girl (and now having romantic physical intimacy for the first time), to one week later getting dumped by said girlfriend.

Did you really think he wouldn't go full incel?

I would have been more surprised if he didn't go full incel.

Due to his other previous behaviors in the first book, though, I expected that he would mostly be able to pull his head out of his ass and get it together for the most part. But then the new quest drops and he has a distraction that he can obsess over.

I get it. I understand the personality. It is exactly what I would expect from the Wade of RP1. And that is not a negative. He still has the ability to grow and evolve as a person, and while I don't like that he gets exactly what he wants (to complete the new quest) in this book, but I understand the necessity of it in the plot.

I really enjoyed the ending, though. More than I thought I would. And I can't explain why without spoiling it. Hahaha!

If you liked RP1, then I personally think it's worth it to give RP2 a chance, but considering how many people don't like RP2 that loved RP1, maybe I'm wrong.