Horror design fetish hysteria - an LSD-dripped chainsaw to the side of the neck. Just endlessly filled with blood + guts, bonkers storytelling, one meticulously detailed aesthetic for the ages, effective jolts, and enough batshit horror setpieces to last multiple lifetimes. Calling this a genre masterpiece would obviously be an understatement imo, RE4 was okay I guess but this is vastly superior without question - much closer to Silent Hill levels of kino. I'll never forgive the way this game got shit on at release because people wanted more "We have to be less fun in order to be taken seriously!" games around this time (thanks, The Last of Us). Ripper. Literally nothing about this can be described as 'bland'. This series might be the best thing Bethesda ever put its fingerprints on.