Just wanted to throw my 2 cents into the discussion.

Personally, I felt Wasteland 2 did a fantastic job as a sequel to the first with tons of stuff carrying over in the form of easter eggs and actual content. While I did not know FO1 was supposed to be a direct sequel to the first Wasteland at first, I found out later once FO2 was released.

I too loved FO1 over FO2 because I felt they put too much in the way of easter eggs and humor that took away from the feel of the original. However, my biggest gripe and the one thing that makes me still say to this day that the original was one of the greatest CRPGs ever, was the fact you could play it without harming a single soul. Period. Even down to the final boss. No way in hell you could get away with that in FO2 or any of the other sequels.