I don't see how ew1 deserves respect though. It's way too long, clunky and bloated. For atmosphere? Sure. But gameplay sucked
There are some clunky moments but for the most part I thought the game was great, when it was trying to be a survival horror game, when it veers into action territory is when it would get clunky because the game was obviously not designed for action.
If you're an old school survival horror veteran like me though you're used to dealing with some clunky, it's the game I feel comes the closest to recapturing the spirit of those old survival horror games (fitting because it was brought to us by the man who basically created the genre in the first place), down to including a full color, well done manual, which it was probably one of, if the not the, very last game to do so.
I can admit the game has some flaws and I wish that it was better, but I'm willing to forgive it's flaws and love what's great about it.
On a side note, I love how the whole thing is basically a cross between Resident Evil and Silent Hill.