Go and watch Yahtzee's review of Silent Hill 2. Atmosphere is key, and he is right to note its importance.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/878-Silent-Hill-2
This new Silent Hill has atmosphere in spades and thats enough to win back all those horror game fans who miss actual horror in their games.
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.
