Vel_Grozny: If you're after a single player experience, skip 1 and go to 2.
Considering the official campaigns you may be right, but let's not forget that both NWN games explicitly came with the tools to create your own adventures and both games are heavily about the modding communities as well. In that regard, NWN has tons of high quality single player content, much more so than NWN 2.
To the OP:
Even though I like that NWN 2 gives you control over a full party, personally I prefer the engine of the first game, and although a bit more dated and less colorful, I also prefer its graphical style and consistency. In NWN2 I often had issues with performance (it's very demanding for what it is, even on powerful rigs) and with the camera (often too close, clunky to handle), and the pathfinding wasn't that great either. Although to be fair, the first NWN has its share of issues, too, and neither are to an extent that they make the games unplayable. In the end it's just a matter of preference. Some prefer NWN, others prefer NWN2, many like either. Eventually you should get both games, they're both worth it.
Concerning the official stories, NWN2's main campaign makes some slight references at NWN's campaigns (you meet at least two characters from NWN in NWN2, but the stories are independent of each other and NWN2 is designed so that you can also enjoy it without knowing NWN.
Oh, and NWN2 has a lot more feats and abilities, so if you're easily overwhelmed by a lot of info and choices, character creation in NWN is a little bit simpler and easier to get into for someone not that familiar with D&D yet.