Retro Review – Resident Evil: Deadly Silence

<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m going through some <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> mania right now&comma; and combined with the impending release of a remastered <em>Resident Evil 0&comma;<&sol;em> and the recently announced remake of <em>Resident Evil 2<&sol;em>&comma; I am about as happy as a bull in a china shop&excl; Since my mania cannot be contained&comma; I decided to dust off some of my collection and play a few games that I haven&&num;8217&semi;t touched in years&period; The first game I happened to pop in was <em>Resident Evil&colon; Deadly Silence<&sol;em> for the Nintendo DS&comma; released on February 7th&comma; 2006 by Capcom&period; It took Capcom a decade to port the original <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> onto a handheld system&&num;8211&semi;in my opinion they should have waited a few more years and then ported the GameCube remake to the 3DS instead&comma; but that&&num;8217&semi;s none of my business&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Capcom was nice enough to include two versions of the game to choose from on the tiny DS cartridge&period; You can choose &&num;8220&semi;Classic Mode&comma;&&num;8221&semi; which is the original story with some tiny changes added to it and which uses the dual screens&comma; or &&num;8220&semi;Rebirth Mode&comma;&&num;8221&semi; which grants you more ammo and ink ribbon saves&period; Seeing as I had already beaten &&num;8220&semi;Classic Mode&&num;8221&semi; on the PlayStation&comma; I decided to go with &&num;8220&semi;Rebirth Mode&&num;8221&semi; because sometimes you just want to run and gun it&period; When I first played &&num;8220&semi;Classic Mode&comma;&&num;8221&semi; I had to sneak past zombies and conserve ammo for bosses and the like&period; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t have to do that in &&num;8220&semi;Rebirth Mode&comma;&&num;8221&semi; which in my opinion made the game a bit more fun and more satisfying to play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;93607" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-93607" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;04123314&sol;resident-evil-deadly-silence-ds-gameplay-screenshots&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-93607 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;04123314&sol;resident-evil-deadly-silence-ds-gameplay-screenshots&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Resident Evil" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"426" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-93607" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Resident Evil&colon; Deadly Silence&comma; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The story hasn&&num;8217&semi;t changed&colon; Capcom kept the canon of the original game intact for this release&comma; so if anyone has been living in a cave for the past twenty years they can still catch up on the story that started it all&period; In <em>Deadly Silence<&sol;em>&comma; you take control of Jill or Chris as you try to survive the horrors of the Spencer Mansion&period; You have to fight your way through zombies&comma; spiders&comma; dogs&comma; and more terrors as you try to figure out the mystery that the mansion contains&period; Along the way&comma; you meet more S&period;T&period;A&period;R&period;S&period; members&comma; and must save your partner from impending doom&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s nice to come back to this story every now and then to see where the series came from&comma; and even though the story is a bit tough to follow&comma; it isn&&num;8217&semi;t as difficult as the soap operas Capcom is pumping out now&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Capcom did opt to use the touch screen on the DS for <em>Deadly Silence<&sol;em>&period; They added a few puzzles for you to solve on the touch screen&comma; and implemented a forced first person mode&period; This forced mode occurs when the player is attacked by zombies&comma; birds&comma; or dogs&comma; and during these sequences you are thrown into first person view and must use your finger or the stylus to defend from their attacks&period; Keep in mind that there is no warning for these attacks&comma; so keep your stylus in hand just in case you have to go on the defensive&period; Unfortunately&comma; these encounters feel forced as the developers didn&&num;8217&semi;t fully meld them into the game&period; Once you&&num;8217&semi;ve fought off a hoard using your finger or your stylus&comma; you must still fight them once you return to third person mode&period; Thankfully&comma; while you&&num;8217&semi;re still in first person mode&comma; the felled zombies and such drop healing herbs and ammo&comma; which are always useful&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;93776" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-93776" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;04122622&sol;9&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-93776 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;04122622&sol;9&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Resident Evil" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-93776" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Resident Evil&colon; Deadly Silence&comma; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It is nice to be able to play <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> on the run&comma; but there are some better options to do so with at this point&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d rather experience the story held in this game with the recently released HD version on the PS3 and Xbox 360&period; If I really wanted to play <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> on the go&comma; I would stick with <em>Resident Evil&colon; Revelations<&sol;em> on the 3DS&period; <em>Revelations<&sol;em> looks and controls better&comma; and had Capcom put a little more effort into <em>Deadly Silence<&sol;em> graphically and control-wise&comma; it would have been a stellar edition to the series&period; For those who have never experienced the first <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em>&comma; the HD version is probably your best bet&period; However&comma; if you are a purist and cannot find a PS1&comma; then <em>Resident Evil&colon; Deadly Silence<&sol;em> is the way to go&period; The scares won&&num;8217&semi;t be as amazing&comma; but they may make you drop your DS nonetheless&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;