G1 map was more dense in landmarks and organic story pieces. You could look into the distance, see something interesting and get curious about exploring there.
G2 map has much less of that and it feels much more generic, bland, gamey and uninspired.
Not sure if it's fixable in EA but I'm just going to put this out there - you did something very right in G1 and failed to replicate it so far, when it comes to map design.