Don't fix what isn't broken!
The sequel (or I guess prequel) was like a CRAPY B movie.
I was severely disappointed based my expectations from the last game. And as I said, there were too many changes, and not good ones either. The only notable changes that I liked were the ability to use Shadow more, and the ability to keep explosive cannisters in your inventory. And the graphics were improved. There may be more, but I can't remember them right now. But the weapons system was a lot worse in this one. It takes 16 shots from a .45 to bring down an unarmored baddie from something like 10 feet away. I'm no kung-fu killing machine myself, but it wouldn't take me half of a gun store to bring down one guy who's standing out in the open in spitting range.
Your adrenaline runs out too fast. In this version, you can only disarm once per group of bad guys, and holding a human shield constantly uses your adrenaline, after which Jack lets the hostage go (and he doesn't even shoot them!), although the human shields seem to be invincible, and he does say some funny things when he releases them, like "not on the first date!", "oops!", or "thanks for your help."
Another thing that pissed me off was that the bosses can only be injured a certain amount before they become invincible and you have to wait while they and their infinite-spawning henchmen take potshots at you until you can fight him again. What's up with that?
But the thing that pissed me off the most was that whenever you get a weapon, Jack auto-switches to it. I looked hard for a way to disable this, but I couldn't find it. Small thing, right? Well, the way it works out is that you end up wasting valuable ammo in a good gun that you need to use for long range, because you auto switch to it while you're in the middle of blasting an evil-doer from close range with a crappy short-range gun. Veeeeeerrrryyy annoying. Almost as annoying as using 14 letters to spell "very".
And finally, the worst part. The story was a huge reason why I got this game in the first place, but it's worthless. The story develops poorly and there aren't really segments of it like in the first. The result is that you don't really keep pace well. Basically, it feels like he's on one single rampage that lasts for 2 days or something like that. I had trouble telling what was exactly the climax and the end. In the first one, the story and the action were harmonized and you could tell where you were going and what was happening. Not so much here. Jack's comments aren't as witty and sharp.
In all, they messed up the way the game plays, and they added an atrocious story to it. Although it makes better sense in the end, that closure is by no means worth it. It feels like they had half the budget to work with in making this.
I don't begrudge the money I spent on this game, especially at 10 dollars , but only I got it because of the first one. If you have to choose PLEASE get the first one, and don't let this one ruin your opinion of the series. If you're a die hard fan like me, then by all means, get this one. You may like it even if you aren't a fan, because of the action. So consider yourself warned: don't expect something anywhere near as good as the original.