Current mood:

awake

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence

Now I'm going from a children's game to a game intended for the mature audience. A survival horror game to be exact (which is a rarity for the portable systems). Resident Evil: Deadly Silence is a remake of the original Resident Evil for the original PlayStation 1. I really shouldn't say remake, it's really more of a port with some DS exclusive features. You, either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield, a member of S.T.A.R.S. were sent to investigate a mysterious phenomenon on the way to a mountain trail. You investigate a mansion to found out the truth behind these reported attacks on victims who were eaten.

First and foremost, let me say that I've never seen live action cut scenes acted out so bad, that the coloring of the actual video has dropped in quality. Even though I'm insinuating that terrible acting has made the video quality drop from the original PS1 version but I must say, the video quality over from the cut scenes have dramatically dropped. Sure, I know the DS has the video quality as a YouTube video, but that's just ridiculous. I feel as if they added more pixels because they're ashamed of the original live acting. That's not the only problem I have with the graphics. The backgrounds of the actual game were discolored. I've never seen walls that attempt to look as if it's trying to hide something. Apart from that, the character models of both people and creatures alike are fine. The blood is pixel filled, but that's to be expected. There is a rare moment of slow down when you enter a certain room in the game but other than that, the gameplay is smooth. The transition from area to area is also smoothed out compared to the PS1 version, but the camera is still a hassle to deal with. The lighting is also out of character. The rooms are way too bright to give it a foreboding feeling. Then again, with the DS hardware in question, it'd make the game incredibly difficult to see. The top screen consists of the map along with your status color. The top screen will flash if you've taken damage and will not go away until you've healed yourself. That kind of distraction can make the map harder to look at. The bottom screen is where the gameplay takes place.

The sound is both a hit and miss. The atmospheric background music or silence with each particular room is spot on. It'll give you a sense of emotion correspondent to the music. The guns don't sound like toys. The enemies do sound convincing (yes, even the zombies). I cannot say the same, however, to the voice acting. The voice acting is just plain horrible. For this remake/port, they did not even bother to re-voice the characters or retranslate the dialogue. So if you're going to ask, yes, they still have, “It might be handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you.” The dialogue for the most part is laughable. If you do your own little retranslation, the story isn't too bad. Otherwise, it's outright ridiculous. Although, it is still impressive that the DS can handle this much dialogue, even if it is terrible.

The gameplay is still classic Resident Evil. You have to hold down a button to run. You have to hold down a button to aim. You have to aim to shoot. The controls are clunky as you'd expect from a classic Resident Evil game. The camera doesn't help with that either. More often than not, you'll find yourself running head on into an enemy. Aiming is shotty at best. Running feels strange. It's almost impossible to run into a straight line especially with the constantly changing camera angles which can also make it difficult to fight enemies. The Ink Ribbon system is the dumbest save system I've ever encountered for any type of game. If you didn't know, the Ink Ribbon system is what the Resident Evil series used for saving up until Resident Evil 4. I don't like the idea of have a limited amount of Ink Ribbons when I really need to save. That's the biggest complaint I have for this game. I'm glad that Resident Evil 4 has gotten rid of it. For the Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, they've added a bit of DS exclusives. They have Classic Mode and Rebirth Mode. Classic Mode is the original Resident Evil as if from the PS1 itself with the only touch screen capability is the inventory menu screen and looking at files. Rebirth Mode is pretty much the same thing but with more touch screen capabilities. The only time you have to use the touch screen is when you get into sudden knife fights or solve puzzles. The knife fight sequence is when you walk through a door and suddenly you're now in first person perspective. The knife fights consist of stroking or tapping the screen with your stylus to slash or stab enemies. It's not perfect. Slashing feel like a delayed reaction so timing can be a pain but for the most part, it's manageable. Also, the puzzles in Rebirth Mode are on the touch screen as well. They're either slide to move or draw lines. Overall, Rebirth Mode was a better experience. An unlockable mini-game called Master of Knifing (I see what they did there) is available after completing the game. Master of Knifing consists of the knife fights that were described earlier where the objective is to survive and get the highest score. There's also multi-card play where you and a friend who both have the game can play competitively or cooperatively. This, I haven't played because I've yet to find a friend who owns a copy of this game. Actually, I did have a friend who owned this game but he sold it (along with his DS (due to financial issues). Replayability is limited to those who want to get different ending and those want to better their score in Master of Knifing.

How did the survival-horror game managed on the DS? Fairly average. The scares were cheap, the gameplay feels dated, and the overall experience was mediocre. I wasn't impressed but I wasn't disappointed either. I'm not sure how other people would manage because not many things scare me anymore (save for the Silent Hill series). I'd recommend picking up this game if: A) you're a die hard fan of the Resident Evil series and you need it in your collection, B) you've never experienced the first game of the franchise (which I fell under because when the game first came out on the PS1, I was way too afraid to play it), C) looking for a decent survival-horror game on the go, D)you want a dosage of portable violence and gore, E) you have absolutely nothing else to play. It's a nice departure to relive a classic, but if you truly want to relive it with more satisfying results, either get the remake (not port) of Resident Evil on the GameCube or get Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles on the Wii. They're not portable but they're worth a look. I'm also saying I'd welcome the idea of porting Resident Evil 2 and 3 to the DS as well. Just don't price it over 30 bucks.

Grades
Graphics: C
Sound: C
Controls: D
Gameplay: C
Overall: C