should I play the first game first?

[Soulmancer]

Or just skip it and go straight to this?

[Kain]

Skip, previous one is a roguelike that barely offers a plot, it's technically a sequel, but you could never tell by the way it's written, this game is the previous one, but way waaay better.

[Pappy]

It's up to you. The first game is really good, you can usually find it pretty cheap and it will introduce you to both the story and the gameplay. Having said that, there's no reason that you have to play it, it's totally up to you to decide.

[Recumbent]

I really enjoyed the first one, but it is a roguelike and plays differently. There's a constant pressure to keep moving and you can't explore at the same leisure as this entry.

[Soulmancer]

so two very different games, but this one is more awesome?

[Nordblut]

Originally posted by Soulmancer:

so two very different games, but this one is more awesome?

Depends on what you are looking for.
As mentioned the first one is a roguelike while this is more a Diablo with space ships as characters.

[Mythos]

Originally posted by Soulmancer:

Or just skip it and go straight to this?

I liked it, it's a great game in it's own right. But you could totally skip it too. There are some back story and characters in the first one that carry over.

[Viper]

This is a better game and they are not connected.

[Grendal]

Originally posted by Viper:

This is a better game and they are not connected.

They are connected, the story of ES2 is a direct sequel to ES1. Many of the same characters appear in both games.

[Vic 2.0]

Would I be entirely lost, story-wise, if I skipped the first game? Or does it do a fair job of telling you what happened before this one?

[Pappy]

You don't need to play the first game to understand the story. The 2nd game is essentially just a continuation of the story from the 1st game so you really don't need to know what happened before, it doesn't really impact the 2nd game's story.

[Snipesnippydiznipsnipzipndidip]

Like beein said, not neccessary, but you get deeper into the characters.
It is more fastpaced than this, you have to hurry most of the time and some things are changing constantly that have an Effect on your Shipwhich and gives a more intense Gameplay. This is more relaxed. I am missing some of the old Effects to be honest.
But its pretty cheap on Sale and still worth the Bill.