Both of you make great points, but being inside or in a dim area in a forest have a differant feel. Inside you expect things to pop out at you, outside the only scary surprise i guess would be random encounters or they come up from behind. But I still stand firm to the idea that lighting effects the tone of the game a lot more than people might think.

The lighting wouldn't affect the game (RE1). For one thing...it is almost exclusively inside. Secondly, the forest is so thick that it would block almost all light coming down anyway. Mix that with the windows in the mansion and the light becomes barely any different from day to night.

I agree with that, too. I mean, a lot of the moments in RE5 (which is almost entirely in daylight) are just as intense as the moments in any of the other games at night.

The idea that a giant star in the sky makes things less creepy is nonsense to me.

Honestly, there are a lot more important things to consder before the time of day, anyways. What about the location itself, the general ambience of that location, the people (type, number of, and so on), and the environment?

For instance, a large population of brutish zombies in the wilderness of northern europe is more terrifying than, say, a zombie town of 300 or so in the rural midwest US.

Even without considering the number, would you rather be trapped in a zombie outbreak in the Vatican, where all of them are moped riding religious nuts who eat more than they walk and are either really fat or unhealthily thin, or in Samoa or Tonga, where the smallest guy is 7' tall and built like a bus?

Day or night, I'd take Vatican City over Apia or Nukuʻalofa anyday.