The missions still seem a little short, though a couple seemed to be deliberately so ("You have three minutes to ransack this place"). The Vanguard Overboost sections extend it a little, but not by much. And a couple sorties consisted mostly of little guys going "Look out, it's an AC- *DOUBLE-BAZOOKA'D!!*" So I guess the short answer is Yeah, I guess so? I'm not so sure, I've only complete chapter 01 of... I'm not sure.
I appreciate the added option to switch between Assembly, Tuning, and Stabilizing by clicking the left stick instead of cycling through menus and having to dismiss pesky automatic settings. And the menus seem to be layed out a little more conveniently, but I'm annoyed that they've switched back to a separate Shop section. Having to buy left and right back weapons irks me a little, too. The coloring menus are pretty similar to the last one (which I think is a good thing), but we're still stuck with those stupid emblem elements from Chromehounds. Schematics are still around, too.
ZOMG EDIT!: While affiliated with GA America, I've noticed a distinct lack of laser blades. The only blade-like weapons I've acquired so far include a crappy hammer I stole from the bottom-ranker, a pile bunker, and a decent blade that's too large to use as a hanger weapon. This will most likely be different in other companies, though; GA America seems to like heavy machines from the looks of the standard mech, which packs dual bazookas.