"BUT THE ATMOSPHERE"
I said after diying in the same spot four times in a row because I can't properly control a game in 2018
It feels good to be back
Like others have said, if you actually stopped and tried to shoot instead of just running from the obviously overwhelming threat then you are responsible for those deaths. I have to reiterate everything I've said above... these games are about good decision making, resource conservation, and avoidance of combat. If you chose to stop and blow all your ammo in the middle of a swarm of hard to hit enemies, you made a bad decision, wasted resources, and willfully engaged in unnecessary combat. That's why you died four times.
It was always clear to me in moments like that that the game was saying
"Get the fuck out of here." That room has been compromised and you need to avoid it from now on or take a huge risk by re-entering. That was part of the challenge; your routes would be altered or cut off by unexpected threats. The crimson heads in REmake were a great example of escalating this same basic idea. If you had the ability to dodge, roll and precisely shoot down every crow with ease, would that make the game be better than having to run in panic and adjust your entire approach to navigating?
Im just giving an example. How about the dogs that can jump from offscreen and attack you? Or hunters? Or chimera? Or the bunch of others that do it. I mean, you can defend fixed camera angles and clunky controls all you want, but it doesn't mean it's scary or it's survival horror. Look at Dead Space. Or The Evil Within that a lot of people praise for some reason.
Are you... referencing The Evil Within as a good example of horror, while simultaneously saying it's not good? What were you saying with that?
I also have to ask if this was a real problem for you in the old games. Were you constantly getting attacked by offscreen enemies? Because while it happens to me in a few very rare instances, 99% of the time you have enough awareness of enemies to know when to be cautious and take it slow. If you hear a licker breathing, you should know not to just run blindly into the next camera angle. Likewise, dogs always make a clicking sound and zombies will make shuffling sounds when they move; if they're not moving and not making a sound, then they're probably not going to be at a camera angle change waiting to bite you- Capcom never places them there. As long as you're paying attention to all of the sounds, you can assume where enemies might be pretty reliably and have the appropriate weapon ready.
This almost reminds me of complaints about head bonking when zora swimming in Majora's Mask. It happens, sure, but it's almost always down to player error.