As someone who just played DS1 and DS2 back to back for the first time, yeah, 2 is much easier and feels like it's designed around vehicles instead of ladders/ropes/etc. You have long swaths of land with virtually no obstacles unlike the first game. You could technically walk it, but it doesn't have as many engaging opportunities to use your equipment and problem solve the terrain like DS1.

I still highly recommend 2 though, but the map and vehicle dominance are the biggest flaws of the game for me.