I feel BL2 is better than the first, but not mind-blowing better. I think everything in the game works 80-90% of the way it did in the first but was changed slightly for the better.

The two things I am not fond of are:
1) The snow setting. Seems like over 1/2 the game is spent in the snow. I know the end of BL1 was set in snow, but the bulk of the game was desert. To me it’s like they set “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” in the snow. It just doesn’t feel quite right.

2) The menus. They look much better, but changing your equipped items is harder to navigate. There are times I can’t see items in my inventory because the character model is in front of it.

My complaint about the snow is probably a reason why I disliked the Island of Dr. Ned (who totally isn’t Dr. Zed) since it was more like a jungle.

Its not like ME. You could play the second without play the first one but you would miss a lot of the jokes. The thing about Borderlands is it is funny as hell. You would miss out on a lot of inside jokes not playing the first. 4 of us were playing together last night and we all were saying the NPCs taglines from the first game when we saw them in the second.

Id say play the first one first, and make sure you have your sound on so you can hear all the dialog.