It still sold huge on release, and most people were still reasonably happy. It's one of the top selling games of all time.Well most PC games tend to go through this. People compare the new entry with the old one but forget about all the dlc and updates the old got.
RCT2 is probably in my top 5.
I mostly skipped RCT2. I got RCT1 later in its life and took a while to buy 2. Then 3 came out and I jumped over at launch.