It has though. There are hints "everywhere" (not to be specific, otherwise I'll spoil it) in the game, but it's not vital to play AW2, I would add what you said about AW1, "you'll miss some details."
AW2 is a step forward to the shared universe of Remedy.
The Alan Wake and Tom Zane characters are mentioned in Control a number of times, and the FBC make several appearances in Alan Wake II.