In summary: Games are good but actual story and side stories are probably 7.5. Production though is awesome! The best I've personally seen in Japanese media and tbh the saving grace for me to give this drama a rating higher than 7

Characters

I actually dropped it at first after episode 3 because there are no longer interesting characters for me. The main character Arisu is sadly not doing it for me and I couldn't really care more about his survival. However I've seen Japanese Twitter mostly talk about Niragi (a character that appears in later episodes) so it prompted me to pick it up again. Nonetheless the main characters that appeared in the first half (Arisu, Usagi) are uninteresting but the others in the second half (Chishiya, Kuina) are more charismatic and will definitely make the season 2 worth more looking forward to.

Story

The comments here were right that it kinda dwindled down during the second half. If you're looking for something similar, a stronger alternative would be Liar Game.

All in all it's not a bad watch but I'm not head over heels over it -- I don't feel like my time is wasted but I don't think you'll miss much if you don't watch it either. I'm ecstatic though that this got a Season 2 and is helping pave the way for Japanese dramas to get the hype it deserves internationally <3