I agree with the topic creator. But I think he left out one VERY large complaint.
The gimmicks.
Left 4 Dead 2 was filled to the brim with cheap gimmicks. Like, Dead Center. Get the guy the Coke so he blows up the tanker. Break through the glass to shut off the alarm. Collect 15 gas cans to start up the car.
Lets compare that to, say, No Mercy. It was based off of navigating your surroundings, and defending a few key points while you wait for a door to open, or the elevator to arive. Part of L4D1's appeal was that it was simple.
You had 5 main weapons (SMG, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, Auto Shotty, Sniper) and the option of having a side arm, or two side arms. Other then that, you had Pills, Health Packs, Pipe Bombs, and Molitovs. Thats it. There were 5 special infected, all of which compliment each other nicely and worked together perfectly. You had the Hunter, a damage dealer. The Smoker, which did "ranged" damage, and offered decoys to pull groups apart. The Boomer was a distraction tool; spit on people to blind them, and get the horde on them. The Tank was a damage dealer, whos main role was to seperate the survivors, or straight out murder them. Then you had the Witch, whose point was to slow down the survivors, dish out damage, and just be an addition hazard to navigate (giving the Horde an point of attack).
Adding those three new infected really miffed with the balance. The Jockey is a great way of peeling packs of people apart, which sounds good in theory. In practice, their small, annoying, and do their job TOO well. The Charger packs too heavy of a punch, and has the ability to knock down whole rows of survivors. Combine that with the Spitters EXTREMELY powerful acid, and you have a combination that punishes players who stick together and are team oriented. The conflict between the original infected, who punish players who try and Rambo the game, and the new ones, which punish team-playing, really mess with the balance.
The additional weapons were meant to add a bit of variety, which they do. But not enough to warrant them. You have new shotguns, new Assault Rifles, and a new Sniper, ontop of our existing ones. Lets not forget the Silenced SMG (which I notice no difference in), the new pistol, and the Melee Weapons. Not to mention Puke, Defibs, Special damage to bullets... The simplicity and balance of the first game were great. The new additions just tipped the scale over board.
The games feel was changed. It went from Gritty, Survival Horror FPS with a straight cut formula to a bright, novelty filled campaign. The AI was also tampered with; try playing L4D1 and L4D2 in single player. The bots in the first one were just right; not too smart, not too dumb. In L4D2, the bots are just bad. 100% bad. To the point where it turns a nice, relaxing single player run through from nice and relaxing to anger filled and... angry...
The point is, the feel is different. Balance was different. What made L4D1 epic was changed, the subtle and non-subtle things. In some cases, thats good. For a simple, almost arcade like game like L4D, something was really lost in the making of the sequel. Hence why, in my opinion, 1 is far superior
