Just finished Season 2 today. God, what a mess. Episode 1 was absolutely fantastic and had me at the edge of my seat, and literally every episode after that was incrementally shittier. I knew when the tranny appeared it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as the original.
What bothered me the most was its tone; Squid Game always had humour, but it was contained to appropriate, understandable moments. What the show excelled in most was its humane portrayal of its characters and the relationships between them, but none of the side characters were as memorable as the first cast; again, I attribute this to the tonal shift. I thought Season 2 would have a sombre tone as Gi-Hun sacrifices everything to stop the games, and while he is a great character with some heroic moments, you can't get as invested as you would like in his arc as everyone around him feels like a caricature. I did enjoy his "friendship" with In-Ho however, and I found it oddly poignant that once again Gi-hun's good nature is taken advantage of by a controller of the games. Still, none of the side characters are as compelling as Sangwoo, Ali Abdul, Sae-byok or Oh Il-Nam, and there are no moments as fantastic as the Marble Game, Tug of War, Bridge, Sangwoo and Gi-hun's fight, etc.
Anyways, the acting carried this show hard; everyone gave a good performance except that incredibly obnoxious Thanos guy. I'll still watch Season 3 to see the resolution and the cop guy confront his brother, but like everyone else I agree that this season suffered badly from being obviously cut in half.
Also, why are so many of the characters recycled? Ruthless North Korean defector with a human side, overconfident asshole who ends up losing, quirky woman, etc. All of them are poor versions of the original cast, and the other players are too evil to take seriously. This season lacked the sense of humanity, tension and animal desperation that made the orignal so memorable.