I bought this because I loved the style of Curious Village, and wanted more of the same. Which is what I got, sort of.
The story is carried on from where the first game leaves off, and I really enjoyed this aspect. The science may be slightly dubious, but I was able to suspend disbelief and just go with what the game was telling me. The cut-scenes (most of which happen right at the end) are beautifully animated; however, I still hate the voice acting (particularly of Luke - all mockney, it's horrible) so I mainly played with the sound off, just reading the subtitles. I do wish there was a way to turn off only the speech, though, because I liked the music and found it mainly added well to the atmosphere.
I liked the variety in locations, too - the train was a nice addition, and having two towns (one of which was huge!) was great.
The side-games were mostly very good. I liked building the camera and the tea-set game. I HATED the hamster game, because the focus was on getting the hamster to loose weight, rather than just get him fitter. I also hated the snide sort of remarks made about fat people (one woman, who admittedly had an obnoxious personality, in particular was mocked as having "tent-like" clothing), and I don't see why that sort of thing was necessary.
My two major complaints, however, relate to the gameplay itself. First of all, the puzzles. While many puzzles were good, interesting, and challenging, I found some insultingly easy. I don't mean to say that I'm super-clever or anything, because I'm not, but there were some when I used a hint coin just to see if I wasn't missing something in thinking the answer was obvious (I usually wasn't). These were puzzles that were rated all over the map - from the very easy early ones to the supposedly more challenging later ones.
The other thing I didn't like was how the game held my hand. After having a conversation about searching, for instance, a certain part of the town, I don't need an extra box to tell me that the Professor and Luke decided to search that bit of town! I can figure that out for myself, and in a game that relies on exploration, I don't appeciate being "told" where to go.
On the whole, if you liked the first game you'll probably like this one. The story holds together and is compelling enough that I couldn't put the game down until I'd solved the main mystery, there are plenty of puzzles (I had no problem completing enough to progress with the story, but there are still 30 or so that I haven't found/solved), and the graphics are good. The side-games are mainly involving, although I find the message behind one troublesome. Is it easier than the first game? Yes. Is it as good as the first game? No. But it's still a decent way to spend a few hours.