Tried the card in our recently finished Dunwich Legacy campaign in a relic-heavy Jim Culver deck with Chthonian Stone, Key of Ys and a few other relics. Sure helped a few times, albeit being rather expensive from three resource. As a side note, have you noticed the woman in the picture looks like Lara Flynn Boyle from 1990s TV show Twin Peaks? :-)
This upgrade definitely thematically and mechanically sets in stone what style of deck you're going to play, but I don't think I quite realized just how powerful this card is over it's predecessor until recently. The lvl 3 version forces you to discard if you end up with an ally under your control, while this version technically allows you to have allies under your control if they are cheated in with tech like A Chance Encounter and Flare. Allies are often some of the best cards in the game so it's worth considering. The only problem of course is this'll only work in multiplayer.
As an aside, any word on whether or not story allies can be taken? I think it's clear they can be put under your control during a scenario, but the modified deck-building restrictions seem to indicate that you cannot include story allies from scenario to scenario because they are usually described as "does not count towards that investigator's deck size" as is the case with Lita in Night of the Zealot. The key phrasing is "deck size" as opposed to "deck parameters" or something similar.
What a truly fantastic upgrade to the original Colt Vest Pocket! The level zero Colt Vest Pocket was always held back first and foremost by its need to be put into play on the same turn you intended to use it, which relegated its use to being put into play by cards like Joey "The Rat" Vigil, Sleight of Hand, or Fence. If you spent an action to play it, you would typically only have two left to fight with it, not to mention the fact that doing so could trigger an attack of opportunity. For the level two version, you can play the Colt Vest Pocket the same way you do most weapons: on any turn where you have an action to spare to prepare you for future enemy cards. The +2 combat is welcome too for a faction filled with 3 combat investigators who likely want to spend at least some time fighting enemies. However, I remain unconvinced that this gun - even in its upgraded form here - has a place at most Arkham Horror tables.
There is still some difficulty in taking full advantage of the Colt Vest Pocket. You still only have one round in which to use its 5 ammo. Rogues are obviously the class for extending a turn with additional actions (Leo De Luca, Quick Thinking, Haste...) so it is plausible you could play this and spend four or even five actions fighting with it on a future turn, but then there just aren't that many enemies with that much health! One thing you can do if you are playing Leo Anderson, "Skids" O'Toole, Tony Morgan, or Jenny Barnes is play "Eat Lead!" to shore up one of your attacks, and of course the ammunition from the Colt Vest Pocket is much more expendable than that from other guns. "Skids" and Tony get extra actions to shoot the new Colt, and Jenny's Twin .45s can also end up with plenty of ammo, so I think for these three investigators who can also take "Eat Lead!", this is a convincing enough combo to be worth considering. As for other cards that grant additional actions, I think Haste is going to be the most effective card at extending the gun's reach because the Colt highly incentivises taking multiple actions of the same type in a single turn, so they're a natural pair.
So: the level two Colt Vest Pocket is most at home in an investigator with actions to spare who can spend its ammo either taking on something with a large health pool, or for fighting lots of enemies at once in a round where another gun might run dry. The former is going to be campaign or scenario dependent, but you can make the latter more likely by playing with more players. The problem is that this role is traditionally filled by higher level weapons that do more damage per shot than the Colt Vest Pocket, such as the Chicago Typewriter or the new Beretta M1918. This is typically considered better than spending more actions fighting for less damage because you take fewer skill tests, each of which comes with a chance for things to go wrong with a failure. The Colt is half the experience cost of each of those big guns, but then if you are supporting it with other cards with levels highter than zero, such as Haste, you could have just purchased a bigger gun and had fewer pieces to assemble! Now, this isn't necessarily an either/or, as many particularly fighty investigators, such as Tony Morgan, are going to want plenty of weapons, but it bears thinking about how you might spend your experience most efficiently.
I think for now this is going to be a pretty niche pick, but this is certainly a much more broadly playable card than its level 0 variant. Perhaps in future there will be a scenario where a large enough party of investigators are guaranteed to draw multiple two health enemies in a single round, and the Colt Vest Pocket (and the .45 Thompson) will be likely to outperform the higher level Rogue guns. Until then, this is a reasonable if a bit wonky sidearm you might take if you want a particularly high density of weapons.
Followed is a weird card because it's good for builds since they can carefully dictate their damage, yet it's also decent for offensive builds like Tony, Mark, and Leo because it doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity. I don't think there's yet an investigator who adores this card since they can probably get by with off-class tech, but the card itself has great theatrics, and does it's job pretty well all things considered.
Compare with a few other cards of similar effect at lvl 0, each granting 2 clues:
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I took it in my Sefina deck on a whim because I wanted something to pick up a few spare clues (and naturally I wanted an event), but we already had our cards stretched pretty thin between Akachi and Luke in our Dream Campaign. Eavesdrop wasn't going to fly because of Sefina's piss poor and obviously Preston wanted Intel Report, so you could say I was stuck with Followed. How did it fair?
Pretty well honestly. Fighting in an evasion deck usually means dishing out incremental damage. Hatchet Man, Sneak Attack, Delilah O'Rourke, Coup de Grâce, and even Backstab deal a specific amount of damage that is test-less (you typically need to evade but that's easily handled with Suggestion or Stealth - Blinding Light in my case) and easy to control (as opposed to erratic damage like .41 Derringer, or overkill, ala Shotguns). This is useful because for one, I'm already planning on evading the enemies anyway, and for two, I can get their damage right up until that last HP before I play Followed. Typically I get +3 for the check for two resources. This is preferable over something like Streetwise because with Followed, you get an extra clue. Eavesdrop gives you no bonus and as others have pointed out, an unknowable difficulty test (though evade values seem generally lower on the whole but I could be wrong).
It's not like you aren't planning on fighting enemies or getting clues, and any worth their salt should have an ample cash flow to pay a measly 2 resources. Eavesdrop might be cheap but it's only good for characters with high , while Followed is good for any or build. Jenny, Preston, and Sefina can easily afford it, and Finn is the king at evading. Tony Morgan likes it because he does get a free engage/attack, and let's not forget that Followed does NOT provoke attacks of opportunity so he doesn't need to bother with an evasion. Skids is the only one I can see not wanting this because the man's always broke. If he's going to pay for something, it better be test-less like Scene of the Crime. As for off-class s who might like it, I could see Wendy, Leo, Mark, and maybe a jank Rex who could use it to grab 3 clues and then play "I've got a plan!" to deal the full 3 damage. It's not like he needs the bonus so it's really the extra clue and the protection from attacks of opportunity he's looking for.
But I digress. The question remains, why not just get the clues with your off class faction? You're correct, just do that. But Jenny, Preston, and Finn all either have a limited number of off class support, or they have more than enough cash to play this. Why bother with taking up Jenny's precious 5 off class cards or Streetwise when you're going to have to make the skill test anyways? Intel Report is great, but if you really want to maximize it, you're going to need an obscene amount of resources. That's fine, but it will hurt the bank eventually. Lockpicks are good, but this way you can carry a two handed weapon around and nab clues while you're mowing down enemies. Like I said, it's doing lots of good work for Sefina. If you're goal is to be a passivist, then this card isn't going to help you. To me, it's about equal with most of the other 2 cluing cards, most of which cost you 2 resources and/or require a skill test. Plus, I gotta say, it is pretty satisfying to beat these eldritch monsters into turning tail.
Drawing encounter cards does not trigger this effect, also see FAQ from Dr. Henry Armitage.