I love the game, it's still good, but the first one was better. This one feels less free and narrow; smaller in scope. The land parts aren't as mysterious or fun as the first games islands. The biomes are not as interconnected like the first game where you progress through the biome to get deeper and deeper. This game, you go to a biome, then leave and travel across the top again to get the next one.
The deep parts of this game aren't as terrifying as the last one and it's way easier to figure the map out because the old one had deep parts in 360 degrees from the shallows. This one is more like a pool, theres a shallow end and a deep end. Some of the details are more visual beautiful, but it is definitely lacking the mystery and feel that the last one hit so well.
I hope it changes in the future release but once you get to the bottom of the bottom which has 2 insane amazing biomes, and the mushroom biome is beautiful as well, but you reach the end or the caches and think to yourself, this is it? Theres no reason to come back. And one base in the central part of the game is enough, you just go to a biome and come back, they aren't so far away like the first one where you have to tactically move down.
I wouldn't say I expected more, just thought they wouldn't have taken the best aspects of the first game and dialed them back. Why you do dis?