dont get me wrong, im loving it, the story, the shooting/combat has improved dramatically but..
it seems too linear.. the missions are you start at one end of the map, battle through loads of people, find someone to talk too, battle through another load of people then mysteriously get extracted back to the ship or another part of the level. it all sems too scripted.
also, you are only given options to talk to some people, most are linked directly to the story line. in the first you could wonder round and chat to all sorts of aliens and odd people.
another criticism is the lack of RPG elements in it, ok you get to level up certain areas of combat, and you get to upgrade other parts but theres no selling parts you scavenge, no finding interesting weapons you can equip in the field or unequip, no finding unusual items that you dont know what they are for but are worth a fortune etc etc. in the old one, ok, the infantory screens were a ballache but it gave you alot of freedom in what type of gun to equip with what ammo, what type of armour to equip with what addons and, most of all, all these different companies with ritch backgrounds to choose from. for me that is what made the first so believable, here its like you only fond weapons and stuff when the game wants you too, again getting this feeleing like it is being scripted.
apart from this, the game is still awesome, the story is good and is keeping me playing it, the graphics have greatly improved and the gameplay and combat has improved too, i just wish you had that little bit more freedom tbh
ahh well, ill carry on playing and see if things open up.