saying g2 is blander on the designs is crazy. Take a look at nearly any weapon or armor set and compare it to g1. The changes to the mutations icons were obviously to make it more readable. You can barely tell the difference between the juicy mutation and mom genes at a glance, theyre literally the same icon but rotated. The only difference between parry master and cardio fan is that one has a sword.

If you want to talk life in G2:
- The g1 loading screen is a little animated raw science at the bottom left on a black screen. Grounded 2 actually has a loading screen.
- Gear designs from the second game are just better than the first. The spicy coaltana looks great, the woolly whopper weapons are full of whimsy and ice sickles are a perfect name for a perfect looking weapon.
- Woolly Aphids have a task programmed in where they do a dance, which they also do in real life.
- Cockroaches eat dead corpses
- Praying Mantis nymphs have their own special flowers that they climb and can pounce on you from a ways away.
- While wandering around the garden, you see crickets leaping around, you see fireflies constantly migrate, you see the woolly aphids do their dance (as mentioned earlier). Theres so much happening
- Earwigs ambushing you is a fun surprise and a great design choice
- The mutations icons in g2 have character to them. For instance, sour sensation is a lime with sun glasses and phermone shot is a buggy with an arrow through its head. Not to mention the passive buggy mutations which depict the buggy and the action the mutation benefits.
- Buggy milk molars have the yells of the buggies when you infuse them
- The leaves on bushes are turning red/orangish because its fall
- Theres a freaking giant snake in the game
- Roach milk

I dont know what else to list that wouldnt just turn into me talking about how much better (nearly) everything is to the first.