Reached level 10, playing a few more matches with my brother, then going back to R1 I guess. Some impressions from me below. Tried to write up new stuff, and go on the positive side.
Pros:
Tutorial is fun, but no titans in it.
Grapple is a nice addition, I don't think it'd work in R1.
Best fucking sliding in an FPS ever. BO3 was close judging by the beta, but this is just amazing. The length, the speed, the canted gun. An addition I expected more of in R2.
Nice new titan guns, Scorch main weapon,its trap, Ion laser are all fun additions.
Energy weapons for pilots give some good variety.
Levelling based on merits feels more natural to me than filling an xp bar. Makes me concentrate more on the objective too.
Networks is an interesting idea, can't wait to see how it works out in the long run.
AI hit reaction is certainly an upgrade. Grunt heads exploding is so awesome.
Reworked melee animations. The kick was so boring, the new uppercut looks so much better.
Pre-main menu music is pretty good.
Cons:
Lower TTK (why even introduce healthbars for this?)
Glowing enemy pilots
Depth of Field vignette
Glow effect (somehow R1 seems to be more clear on the visual side)
Decreased ADS FoV
No sidearms by default: Having 3 guns in R1 was such a blast, made me feel prepared for everything. This is like Stingers in MW2, wasting a slot on hunting for Killstreak Rewards.
Huge hitmarkers: What's the point? There is already a healthbar to see your damage. It's also hiding the beautiful gibs.
Medals popping up in the middle of screen for almost no reason. I killed a grunt? Got a medal, I must be fucking amazing. Yet no recognition of multikills.
Movement in general not as fluid, going back, R1 feels much more natural. Both for titan and pilots.
Alpha maps are way below R1 average quality. Boomtown is okay by me, but I dread every match on Homestead.
Stim nerf: The initial boost is amazing, but it wears off instantly.
Pilot looks locked to skills: Why even do this? (I wouldn't be surprised if it's just for the beta though. If not, have fun on 5v5 spectre matches.)
Predefined titans: Lot of the magic in R1 came from building my own titan, boosting it with each unlock and tweaking a bit. Ofc by now everyone uses the 2-3 best combinations, but the same is going to happen with the prebuilt ones on time imo.
Less AI, no grunt chatter, silence about Attrition Mode
The game is more focused on camping and playing it safe. In R1 I had no problem crossing the map on my favourite route. I was fast enought to avoid getting shot by pilots. Did not have anything to lose by dieing anyway.
3rd person animatons: I see no reason for these. Climbing into an Atlas, everything going dark, then the screens booting up one by one was iconic. Worst offender is the jumpship transition for less than a second. Assassinations take way too long too, and third person loses the brutality. It's rather hilarious now.
Amped weapons as killstreak rewards.
Rodeo rework with auto dismount: I loved juking people out of their titans. Now whenever I get a rodeo, I can sit back, just shoot the guy who took my cell, than take it back for the shields.