Multiplayer is fun, Campaign needs better AI.
First for the single player Extreme and maybe Hard modes will be difficult to play. Your health comes from the Battle Gauge system and when that goes it is over. The Chapters are all divided into Areas, and if you die in the last Area of a chapter, you are forced to start over from Area 1 - No save system. Granted the AI doesn't penalize you, but they don' t help you either. When they die they don't take from the gauge, but there are many times in battle where your followers are needed to perform a task, unfortunately they sit around making you have to do it yourself. Having to control one point and prevent the enemy from taking yours gets annoying when you constantly have to run back and forth even though your teammates are there and can't activate a simple data post. In the middle of a chapter this becomes annoying, especially if there is a counter and you have to restart the chapter. These are the times on Hard and Extreme where you become frustrated. It is better to have live action players with you, but note that with every live person's death, the gauge goes down, and have someone who knows what to do. The Trials give something else to work on, but eventually you have to be perfect to pass them. It is fun but annoying at times.
The massiveness of the original is gone. Most of the battles are with human enemies and the occasional Akrid. The final Boss battle is somewhat big, but the rest of the game doesn't seem like there is an investment like the original when it comes to facing the enemies on EDN III. Where the original had snow everywhere and Akrid on a big scale, they seem smaller and less lethal with the sand and trees around. Plus the human enemies make it like any other game.
Similar to the first game, the multiplayer is the real fun of the game. However, ranked games now only contain Elimination, Team Elimination and Post Grab. The other games that were the highlight of the CE of the past are now available only as unranked player games. Players are on regularly now as was the first, but you can guess that eventually it will become as barren as the first is. The multiplayer is still kept simple in gameplay, but now has the addition of choosing some of your weapons as well as the addition of abilities. While it isn't as noticeably effective as some of the Call of Duty abilities, it does allow for some pre-game advantages (grenades). But new players will feel left out if they just start playing MP. Players are rewarded with new weapons and abilities from the credits they receive from the campaign. So they have the advantage ahead of the rookies.
For the Achievement Hunters, it is best to stay away from the game if you want the full 1000gs cause it is a long one. Difficulties do not stack (left over from the first game) and you have to keep the game for a six month anniversary achievement. Some of them are the usual fare (complete this level, kill x people). It takes time to level up all the character factions and while you level up can level up in campaign and MP, there is one little thing that you must also "level up"...noms de guerre. There are achievements that require you get all noms and it will take time for the ones that require weapon use with specific damage as well as a few others dealing with Areas completed. Annoying ones include winning faction matches three times with each of the five different factions (15 weeks minimum, that is if you are lucky). The main problem is that there is one for getting in the Top 10 and being Number 1 on the leaderboards. With time, this feat becomes more and more difficult since more people in the world have been playing and without perfect runs on the training boards and boosters on the ranked games it becomes harder and might be near impossible as we get further from the release date. There are no weekly boards anymore so these may be the ones that prevent you from getting 1000/1000.
Being a fan of the first release, I was expecting more. The lackluster story gets boring after you played through it and it will eventually become a grind for those Area and Level 99 achievements. And while the MP will eventually start to wane, it is best to play it now. The graphics look better, but I want to fight aliens, no other humans. I still pop it in for the grinding, but really prefer the older one. The game may be set 10 years from the first, but it really seems to be behind in the times.