I don’t know if I agree with you saying that the RE series is supposed to be scary. I always felt like they were trying to give you a good amount of tension, but never actually scare you. As far as tension goes there is plenty of it in this game. As far as survival horror games go, RE has always been heavy on the survival and light on the horror. That hasn’t changed in this one. If anything, every time I know I’m about to get to a boss, I’m dreading it. I’ve never gone into any of the boss fights feeling prepared. I’ll look at my ammo and say “damn, I wish I had some more.” Yet I always seem to make it out by the skin of my teeth. That’s probably the best part about the game.
I never felt like there were too many zombies in the game, but we should be used to that, since RE is an action heavy game.
My only complaint is that RE5 didn’t have more segments where you and your partner we split up. The parts where you would be in the same area, but too far away to save each other if you needed it were great moments of building tension, especially towards the end.