>>529192651
Most of 2's assets were designed for normal maps to carry their presentation, so they didn't have shading or reflections drawn on to the texture like many of CE's assets.
Normal maps generally require dynamic lighting to look right (because they need light direction data), so when that was cut everything ended up appearing very flat.
You can see an approximation of what the game would have originally looked like (minus stencil shadows) in the restored lighting mod.
I think CE is still more aesthetically charming due to how vibrant it is, but 2 absolutely got robbed graphically.