I am not really as much of a fan of the series as I thought I was, but the original trilogy had kind of a hopelessness to it, the Silent Hill games were praised for similarly gimping your character, though in those games it was on purpose.
I remember reading an article on Gamasutra that discussed how games like Alan Wake are too well designed to be scary as games like the original Resident Evil trilogy were. Your character is far too competent to ever feel too hopeless and you can always find a safe haven with the light.
It was an interesting read for sure, and made me realize how games like Ecco the Dolphin, which has bizarre mechanics and a very high learning curve had honestly continued to scare me almost every time I played it years later.
The only one in the original trilogy I have beaten, and rather recently was Resident Evil 2. I actually would find myself somewhat scared by how it could feel hopeless sometimes, how ammo would run dry and how limited I could actually save the game, fearing anything around the corner could kill me and make me start over to where I was 2-4 hours ago. It was very frustrating, but it was a mechanic I was really impressed by and also one I think you would have to be stupid to include in a game now if you wanted it to do well with most people.
