A game changer, not only for Resident Evil and Capcom but for games in general, it really changed games. The fixed camera over the shoulder, which gives the sense of tackling monsters head-on without losing the third-person experience, was adopted by most games of the action/adventure/horror genres: Dead Space, The Evil Within, the Batman: Arkham games, The Evil Within, The Last of Us and so on.
And the gameplay - combat, movement and item managed - has thus never been more deeply satisfying. It also allows for moments such as a bag-headed villager running at you with a chainsaw to be pants-shittingly scary.
The schlock of the previous games - hokey plot and silly voice acting - is made a virtue of here, with self-aware delivery and humorous characters (can we ever take Salazar seriously?). It's B-movie tongue-in-cheekness married with top-tier gameplay.
However, the best bits truly are in the 'European' village in the first half of the game; as much as I love the big silly castle and creepy monks, the second half doesn't have that atmosphere. Perhaps it's harsh to compare it to something like Silent Hill, as it Resident Evil has never been the place for subtlety.