Great review and analysis! It can be a real challenge separating your knee-jerk reaction to something unfamiliar and challenging from your impression of its quality but it feels nice when you finally "get it."

I think tank controls have a couple other big gameplay impacts (no idea if they apply to Croc or not):

- You can't turn while moving. In RE, I think this contributes to the tension and forces you to be more deliberate with your movements.
- You can backstep. In RE this is great because it means you can slowly back away from a baddie while still shooting it. It didn't even occur to me to use this strategically until I saw someone else's playthrough because I'm so brainwashed by modern controls haha.