I'd say give it a chance. I'm a huge fan of the first game and the early story part where everyone ♥♥♥♥♥ on Raz in this game made me so mad I uninstalled this but I decided to reinstall it the other day and had an absolute blast. I actually just finished it now. As someone who grew up with the first game and watched a youtube playthrough of Rhombas of Ruin I have to say they REALLY do enhance this game so I would say play 1, watch ROR on youtube and then come back and try this game again.

The better levels happen after Hollis. Once you get the chance to go outside the main base and Raz is past the "big fish back to small fish" arc the story starts to take off.

Only trinket hunt/side quest when you feel like it. Roll around on your levitation ball to get places faster. Talk to the different characters, because DF tried to make everyone fairly unique. The only thing you might miss out on is callbacks to the first game, but those won't prevent you from understanding the story.