A few improvements are present in KKnD2:
AI is slightly better; a bit more balanced (but there's still balance issues); more game options (like game speed, built-in unit editor, more rounded-out skirmish mode, etc.); soundtrack is slightly better; utilized a (rather archaic by today's standards) form of facial capture for cutscenes; a "sell" function; lots of content, but...
Everything else is demonstrably worse...
For one thing, the game is rather butt ugly, like me; for starters, units look like they were drawn in MS Paint. While it has some environmental features (like bubbles in water/toxic waste oceans, for instance), the environments are at best serviceable. Evolved I can forgive, but the rest look horrendous. The 21st Century units got hit the worst of them all; the "railgun tank" looks like a fish out of water for the entire game, and it doesn't shoot a railgun but rather bright-yellow globs of sperm.
Bugs are horrid, and you NEED to modify the game in order for it to work half-right. Be wary of crashes that come out of nowhere.
Still no way to change soundtrack, but at least it cycles.
AI still kinda stinks, getting stuck on the environment often.
Balance is still a bit off. Every team has a unit in a certain class that is demonstrably better than its counterparts. Evolved Missile Crab, for instance, is markedly better than the others of its class; Barrage Craft is better than others; Flamer is better than others. The Series 9 has one of the worst units ever designed for RTS: the Radiator. It is a close-range unit that actually takes time to attack, whilst the others will wreck them in little time. The Mega Beetle is the only non-turreted unit of its class and suffers greatly for it. Oh, and Series 9 infantry cannot get run over at all.
Poor audio, namely the unit lines.
Campaign is garbage for the most part, because it's too long and there's very little mission variety.
Story is, once again, practically non-existent.
Such a shame, this one.
