Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (Nintendo DS) Review

By Athanasios 29.01.2017

Review for Resident Evil: Deadly Silence on Nintendo DS

While fun, the first Resident Evil is certainly not the best in the series, yet the strong nostalgic feelings that many gamers have for it ensure that it will sell each time it puts on some new clothes, evident by the success of the GameCube remake, as well as its HD upgrade. In the realm of handhelds, it had a notable appearance in the form of Deadly Silence that, apart from an untouched version of the original, infused a couple of new things that took advantage of the NDS' capabilities… with mixed results.

Spoiled by much better audio-visuals, those coming straight from Resident Evil's remakes and HD versions will probably find Resident Evil: Deadly Silence to be somewhere between badly aged and simply ugly. Admittedly, it's hard going back to the pixelated pre-rendered backgrounds and rough-around-the-edges 3D models of the original, because even its equally old sequel looks ten times better. Furthermore, while a small amount of polishing has definitely happened here, the small NDS monitor doesn't really let it show.

Luckily, when it comes to the moving and the shooting, this is definitely an improvement, since our two heroes can now turn around like in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, reload without silly inventory activation as in Resident Evil 4, or use the knife with the simple push of the button. Even better, cut-scenes can now be skipped (excellent for speedrunning), and the same can be done with the loading intermissions between rooms. The censorship is kind of weird, though (Nintendo… *sigh*), with blood being green, although the initially removed decapitation scene is back again.

Screenshot for Resident Evil: Deadly Silence on Nintendo DS

Minus the untouched audio-visuals, this is one of the best versions of Resident Evil. Of course, this isn't just a port, but a whole new version with an additional mode called 'Rebirth' that, besides adding more enemies, also takes advantage of the system's gimmicky (let's be honest) bells and whistles. The most notable example are the altered puzzles, which now require a slightly better use of grey matter, with many amongst them resembling those found in the classic, "pure" adventure games… apart from those few occasions where the puzzle requires blowing out candles via the microphone, of course.

Another addition are the knife battles, which are basically first-person mini-games that have the chance to begin when going from room to room, and which require nothing more than slaying a bunch of enemies with the use of the stylus. This has a practical value as coming alive from such a battle provides additional supplies, but, in terms of fan factor alone, it's something that's way too easy and simplistic (and goofy) to be enjoyable. All in all, however, and although this doesn't substantially improve upon the survival horror classic, it remains one of its best - vanilla-esque - versions yet.

Screenshot for Resident Evil: Deadly Silence on Nintendo DS

Cubed3 Rating

7/10
Rated 7 out of 10

Very Good - Bronze Award

Rated 7 out of 10

Resident Evil is not the best in the series, and Deadly Silence doesn't alter it as much to really improve it or make a difference, but those who'd like to experience the famous original that started it all in handheld form will surely appreciate the existence of this instalment, as it's generally a pretty well-crafted one.

Developer

Capcom

Publisher

Capcom

Genre

Horror

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  7/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10 (9 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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