Your character is more of a sponge too, as the bullet damage was relatively lethal in the original.
As a result the number of enemies will also probably multiply, since adding waves and waves of enemies is how they try and make that kind of combat remotely challenging. 2 was already ridiculous in this regard, for example making you gun down an entire state's worth of cops in one of the first missions without anyone caring at all.
Other than the recoil being dumbed down, those all sound like improvements as far as I'm concerned. I loved the original, but the combat just doesn't hold up unfortunately.
Somehow the original looks better, less cluttered screen and it kinda fit to the 1920s aesthetics, theme (everys poor, depression). The new remaster looks more like a game set in the 40 to 50s?
That barn shout out looked bad, overly dramatic and too colorful. It looks too modern to me.
This does not look like 1920s to me. They missed the mark. Replace the vehicles with modern ones or muscle cars and this could look like a cheap knock off of GTA VC.