Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
- February 07, 2006 10:24 AM PST
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The original Resident Evil experience is on the DS with new touch-screen mini-games and other enhanced features!
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A Tale Of Two Evils
After firing up the game for the first time, you'll have the choice of playing through a classic, non-touch screen-enable version of the classic game, as well as a special "Rebirth" version that throws in quite a bit of new content, namely mini-game and puzzle elements squarely focused on using the touch-screen. For all intents and purposes, the classic mode isn't really anything to get excited about, unless you're a gamer who's been craving for the ability to play Resident Evil on the go, sans touch-screen. The real meat of the game comes in the Rebirth mode, but like meat itself, such content can sometimes go rancid.
The Rebirthing Process
The biggest addition to the classic Resident Evil experience is the newly added touch-screen functionality, although functionality might be too strong of a word to really use. You'll primarily find yourself prodding and rubbing the touch-screen for special sequences that pop up every now and then. For example, after walking through certain doors, you'll be faced with a short mini-game where, in first person, you'll have to slash away at advancing zombies by rubbing the touch-screen. You have a few different attack types and as you progress through the game, more difficult enemies will appear. Randomly, beating the mini-game will net you a health restoration item, which is a nice bonus. The games, however, appear completely at random and last little more than 10 or so seconds. Another example of some of the touch-screen action that awaits you is in some pretty insipid puzzles that have you rubbing and touching various machines, switches, and other things in order to progress through the game. The puzzle are probably the most disappointing touch-screen element so far, since most are simply too basic to even qualify as puzzles. One puzzle has you in a room that is slowly filling up with water. To stem the rising water level, you use the stylus to turn an on-screen valve a certain number of times. Sounds simple, right? It is, and as such feels tacked on and cheap. Granted, there are some other puzzle types that have you pushing buttons and other puzzle-y actions, and you can even use the touch-screen to shake off zombies that may grab you, but as it stands the touch-screen elements are less than memorable.
Blow By Blow
Another new feature in Resident Evil DS is the ability to use the handheld's built-in microphone for some crazy mini-game interactivity. Actually, by crazy I mean troublesome and frustrating, since most of the games I played seemed to wildly vary in terms of microphone detection. During the knife-based first person slashathon mini-game, you can repel some zombie attacks by blowing in to the microphone, but such a feat is made difficulty considering that in order for the mic to pick up your actions, you need to literally hold it smack dab against your face. And wouldn't you know it, there's a mini-game where you need to use the mic to blow out a bunch of candles, which I'm still wondering whether or not is ingenious in its simplicity or embarrassingly uninspired.
The Problems of the Past
With all the new fangled touch-screen features, you think it would be easy to forget about the actual game-play itself. Unfortunately, this isn't the case considering that the game is essentially a lower-res port of the original game, complete with all the flaws that marred the game years ago. First off, the controls are still terrible and awkward, and are even made worse by the DS's tiny little d-pad. The voice acting is also pretty much ported from the original PSone version, which is either a blessing or a curse, depending on how much cheese you like with your whine. Lastly, the game has taken a significant hit in terms of visual detail, which results in a world that is muddy and sometimes hard to discern. The dark and gloomy environments in the game don't make for very easy exploration, and even items hidden around the game, what with their trademark "sparkle" to let you know they're there, are sometimes difficult to spot.
Evil, Indeed
Being a huge Resident Evil fan, I'm disappointed to say that the DS version isn't all that I was hoping it would be. While it's nice to see a classic survival-horror title on the sexy handheld, it's almost gut-wrenching to realize that with it has come all the problems that plagued it in the past. Add to this the newly implement touch-screen mini-games that feel like more of a distraction than an addition, and you're left with an experience that only the hardest of the hardcore fan could stomach.
