It is indeed a weird mixture. I think Garden Warfare 2 suffers a lot from the same problems that TF2 had during its later years after the character updates slowed down and the beginning of MVM; when it was a really small team doing not only the updates, but also trying to push out new content as the other members focus on making other games. Though to be honest, Garden Warfare 2's problem lies more in the words: "Length and Focus."
GW1's TT maps were smaller in scale as they were meant to handle a 4v4, while 2's is 7v7; It explains why the 1st point and sometimes later points take much longer to transverse. Additionally, even if you obtained the current set of character stickers, when the new character update occurs, there is no real way to receive it than going through its said sticker pack (Zombopolis and Frontline Fighters initially); this did rarely occur in GW1, but within a couple hours, you can obtain every character and their upgrades. It also feels like the initial character design of the 1st 4 characters on each team is forgotten as with the increased focus on larger set pieces and character diversity takes more of the forefront. "BIGGER, BADDER, BUTTER." being the main tag line. A thing I miss is the variety of modes like Zomboss/Dave's Van and Taco bandits.
As mentioned by others, portals, boss hunt, and garden ops have been great. It really feels like a challenge and heavily encourages player cooperation, differentiating it from the usual monotony. The battleground hub is a fantastic edition to the game, as having a player's own personal server to explore and invite their friends, helps to extend its life. This might only be for me, but I really enjoyed the Gnome's challenge, as it not only gives the player a new area to explore and play the game in a slightly different way(using the key in each door), but rewards the player with 2 new characters (though the length it took to get them was a little ridiculous). Another plus for GW2 is also the menu layout, GW1's menu really feels oversimplified like TF2's menu, GW2 just lets you enter the backyard immediately to test and explore the character of your choice, then you can make your choice on what you want to do.
Overall, Garden Warfare 1 helped to establish a lot of what is present in 2, but to me, feels like a more solid experience in terms of game variety. GW2 really expands itself to allow newer players to quickly jump in, and leave when they want. This can alienate players as while it is a new experience, it may not be a lasting one, which is why community events and portals help to keep the game alive. Ultimately, both are fine games, it is just their area of focus and length that separates them. Another slight thing to note is that the game came out 2 years after the previous one, which is pretty fast in terms of development time. To get whole new content just within 2 years span is interesting and have that continually updated for longer than a year is great.
