One step forward, two steps back.
quite a letdown compared to its predecessor.

pros:
- better voice acting
- ships are now sidegrades instead of straight upgrades
- missions have side objectives that reward loot like torpedos and equipment
- weapons feel more distinct from another
- more varied soundtrack
- more mission types
and that's about it i guess

cons:
- the cool underwater cyberpunk setting is completely underutilized
- boring as hell story
- what the ♥♥♥♥ is with the writing of the characters?
- needs a janky hack in order to support widescreen, whereas aquanox 1 worked fine straight out of the box
- only 4 ships
- difficulty varies wildly between missions
- the ui is somehow even worse compared to aquanox 1
- everything is brown and piss yellow instead of the unique blue / green color scheme of aquanox 1
- no sally

your mileage may vary but to me aquanox 1 is the vastly supperior game.