Well, it's not absolutely necessary, but it's certainly a good idea. This game assumes you know the basic concepts of its world that are only explained in the first game, like who Rosa and Lauren are, how Joey's tie works, why Joey is even here, and so on.
Unlike normal walkthroughs, in Nice Game Hints you can select just the puzzle you want hints for. Here are listed the puzzles for "Do I need to play the games in order?" in The Blackwell Convergence. The guide you choose only contains information about that puzzle, reducing possible spoilers for other puzzles.