To summarize (for me), it's just got the edge over the first one, but only slightly. The action in the SP campaign is as good as any, graphics appear to be improved (if only a bit; I swear the textures are crisper and the character faces/animations are reworked) and the Spec-Ops mode is a nice addition. The story is a 'bit all over the place' at times. Well, maybe all the way through, but it doesn't really matter as the gameplay more than makes up for that. I started to get fed-up with the first one where you are continually fighting against small militia groups or some other rebel faction, as opposed to a foreign superpower.
What spoils it though are (deep breath) the constant performance issues and crashes some people are experiencing, the severely lacking story-length (8 hours tops?!), crippled multiplayer, and bundled steamworks crap which is required to install (anyone like trojans?). That's just the obvious stuff that jumped out to me. I'm sure people have their own for and againsts for this game.
Yeah, i posted in a thread here about the crashing issue due to resolution it seems to be stable up to 1440x900 but that being said..i believe they are working on correcting this issue other than that however i have had no performance issues i stay a steady 60 fps throughout the game sometimes it drops to 40 in heavily smoked areas.
my only complaint is it needs more griggs. i mean hey we can dual wield glocks so where is griggs to rap about it?
Sorry to break it to you, but Griggs was nuked in the last game...