Yeah I can't say if 2 is good or not, as I picked it up on release and even during the short weeks I played it it was almost changing entire genres as they scrapped ideas. I've never gotten around to going back, though I probably should at some point.

But yeah, 1 was very different. Its 2d instead of 3d, so you can actually know what's going on half the time and not be constantly missing due to some Z-axis nonsense. And the sectors were localized, so you could just play in short bursts without having to think about the entire galaxy at once and accidentally getting yourself in a death spiral where you are forced to restart the entire game from scratch to escape.

Either way, its regularly on sale for a dollar. So even if you don't end up liking 1, you aren't going to be out of much.