This old-school save system can come across as extremely punishing to new players. It forces you to replay tens of minutes or more when you die and encourages making long treks out of your way in order to get another save in. But for as many expletives as it led to, this design choice is also key to the special brand of terror Resident Evil produces. If everything else was the same — same zombies, same low threshold for dying, same lack of ammo — but the game just reloaded you in the last room when you died, it would not be nearly as scary of an experience.