Any point in playing the first one beforehand? Or is this just an improvement on a formula?
I’ve not played the second, only the first but it didn’t really have a set story as far as I’m aware, so should be fine
I think it’s worth playing the first because it’s a much smaller scale and sets up the world. This one is set 30 years later so the society from the first game has significantly grown and expanded, with a lot of the evolutions in gameplay stemming from that. You probably could jump right into the second, but you may feel like you’re missing something at the start.