The direction of the story was railroaded in the original, but the player's flexibility in how they approached each mission was definitely not.
HBomberguy did a whole video about how DXHR failed to achieve the same level of freedom of problem-solving that the original did. It's quite good, but also very long. Worth it, IMO.
He's absolutely correct on comparing it to the first game, but he may even be a little too warm towards some aspects of it. I also enjoy this video by Ross of "Freeman's Mind" [0]
HBomberguy did a whole video about how DXHR failed to achieve the same level of freedom of problem-solving that the original did. It's quite good, but also very long. Worth it, IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgJazjz9ZsA