>>14326398
The reason why I had low expectations for CoD1 was exactly because I had already played a bunch of the later games. The problem with the later games is that the whole regen health and enemy respawning dynamic removes suspense from the game and makes it a tedious and repetitive experience.
CoD1 is also more suspenseful regardless because of how it paces its encounters. It keeps you guessing whether there is an enemy around the corner or not whereas other games would just have an enemy around every corner.
The allied NPCs in CoD1 are also more vulnerable and there are numerous moments in the game where you are encouraged to keep them alive because you'll have a much harder time on your own. With the rest of the CoD games, I don't remember giving much thought about allied NPCs, either too many of them were invincible or they were replaced too quickly for their deaths to matter.
The level of challenge in CoD1 is also much higher and clearly designed around M+KB. Enemies sidestep in irregular intervals and have faster and deadlier aim, requiring faster reflexes to deal with and further adding to the suspense in the game.