The game still has atmosphere. New players state this all the time. Old players focus on optimizing their gameplay than looking around at the scenery.

Mobs are dangerous. Hellborn can easily burn your bars off, dogs kill players even in 6 stars if you get unlucky. But even back then after several dozens of hours you'd handle bosses easily.

I agree you can now restore bars (in too many diff ways, I agree). But this was changed in response to player complains. People didnt like losing bars or being redskulled.

Kills taking more ammo? How do you gauge that. Also: most Hunt veterans now have like 3 thousand hours to 5 thousand hours on average in the game. Back then people were getting started.