I'm having nearly as much fun playing The Evil Within as when I played Resident Evil 4 for the first time almost 10 years ago. I had no expectations and the release snuck up on me so I'm very pleasantly surprised.
The only reason I'm not enjoying it as much is because it has a different tone and pacing than something like Resident Evil 4 or, actually, even the original.
In the Resident Evil games you move from one place to another in an orderly way, while feeling like what you do now will matter later on. You can see the progress you've made and have a broad understanding of where you might go next or what you might need to do. The games are "scary" in theme but you still feel in control of the situation.
By Chapter 6 I feel groundless playing The Evil Within. The pacing of the game fits the thematic idea of losing one's mind and this makes everything feel transient. The story is enjoyably cryptic and lets my imagination work a bit while I play, but skipping from one place to another trivializes the feeling of discovery and progress. This just isn't the type of game where you feel in control at any point the first time through. Any victories you feel are short-term. It's directed to be unsettling not only in theme but also in how it plays-- that's what makes it different compared to other survival-horror action games I've played.
The Evil Within could have easily fallen in line with similar looking survival-horror action games, but so far it's subverted my expectations. My instinct was to blast through everything, but you actually just run around in circles hiding in closets and under beds, waiting for that enemy to pass a corpse so you can burn it since you ran out of bullets. This is an entire aspect missing from Resident Evil-style games-- whether that's good or bad is up to you. The game could have taken place in the mental hospital having you find clues and backtrack through a Resident Evil-style mansion, but instead you're thrust from one place to the next in an unnerving way. I don't mind being jerked around every once and a while, but I can see how some people would want something to cling to.
I think The Evil Within treads a fine line between feeling frustrating and fun. When making a game that's chaotically paced and puts you in situations where you feel helpless, things could easily go wrong. That the game looks like something you've played before but feels different doesn't do itself any favors either, unless you're ready to have your expectations subverted.
I don't think there's any correlation between people who loved RE4 and people who like this game despite the two sharing the same director, but I'm glad I didn't pass it up, at least. When I first played RE4 I was so blown away I immediately played it again on "professional" difficulty, ready to dominate. I think I'll end up doing the same with The Evil Within, but more because I want to redeem myself and play pretending I have a handle on things.