I dunno what the big deal is, I think this looks great. When a franchise gets as old as Resident Evil, I think it's good for it to try to reinvent itself every now and then. We saw them successfully do this with Resident Evil 4, but then it started tumbled downhill with the sequels. Given the fan backlash, they've realized (finally) to listen to their fans and try to reach more towards the horror side of things. No, it's not exactly like the original games, and I think that's good, because games have evolved since then. Plus, given the story they're trying to tell in this one, it looks like they're trying to show us the Resident Evil universe from the perspective of someone who isn't in the military/police, which I think is relieving and a good change for the franchise. No, it doesn't appear to be tied to the previous entries' mythology, and I also think that's good, because HOLY SHIT did that get convoluted!
I say give them a chance and lets just see how this turns out before we say they've done the franchise a disservice. At least they ARE trying to listen to our complaining about wanting the games to be rooted more in horror.