Resident Evil: Deadly Silence

In the wake of Resident Evil 4's Game of the Year honors, it's nice to see where the series got its roots, but it also reminds us just how far the series has come.

It's hard to ignore all the little quirks in gameplay and presentation that were a bit easier to disregard in the earlier days of 3D adventuring, so if we look at it as a new title instead of a revival, well, it's not a whole lot better than a good but flawed game design.

New players will find a passe and not-scary survival horror relic, but old hands will enjoy the nostalgia of a fine old classic with a couple of new features. Take your pick.

Not essential, but worthwhile for anyone who hasn't played the original Evil in ages. [Apr 2006, p.104]

Normally, mining the license library to populate new hardware is a move that smacks of laziness and creative bankruptcy. In this case, Capcom seems to be on to something. [May 2006, p.91]

Back in 1996, Resident Evil was a groundbreaking game. Now, it pales to most other survival horrors, especially "RE4."

If Capcom's aim was to deliver the original Playstation experience with knobs on to the DS, then that aim has been met and exceeded. It looks the same, it sounds the same; not that is a bad thing - far from it, the DS probably isn't capable of improving things by that much.

The game’s innate charm and mixture of overbearing tension and fear still works as well today as it did back in 1996. [May 2006, p.117]

There are many good elements to Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, but it ultimately fails to excel on the two levels it attempts: it fails as nostalgia because the weaknesses of the original get in the way of the fun, and it fails as a new game because neither the environment nor story translate to a unique or very scary experience anymore.

If you haven't experienced the original Resident Evil, now is your chance to embrace a classic. Gamers who have played it before, however, won't find quite enough extra here to justify paying for the privilege of doing it all over again.

But the multiplayer modes suffer from severely limited interaction and only three maps for play. The most promising new feature becomes routine very quickly, so before you know it the latest experiment in Raccoon city is over.

If you've never played any of the games in the series then you may want to try this one out, if not there are plenty of better DS titles out there.

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.

But the game certainly hasn't aged well, and what worked ten years ago (ink ribbons, that zany control scheme) isn't so attractive these days.

While there is nothing new for veterans or anything to change the minds of the pessimists among you, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence is a good game that commemorates a classic series. Too bad that it’s pretty much redundant as a portable game.

There may be better ways to relive Resident Evil than Deadly Silence, but no version could demote it from its status as a creaky but compelling classic. [Apr 2006, p.94]

For those who have played the game to death on an older console, the 'Rebirth' mode and assorted other extras may offer enough incentive to drop the cash on it again, and for the ten people who are yet to play Resident Evil, it's certainly worth experiencing for the first time, despite its rather aged control scheme.

Great games never really die, they just get reanimated.

There's really no reason to go back and replay it. I have to admit a certain amount of nostalgia in the early going, especially as I remembered cool parts of the game, but that's not a compelling reason to fork over the bucks for this remake.

Is this trip down memory lane worth $35? The Rebirth Mode is the most justifiable reason, and even then, the case isn't that strong.