Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (Nintendo DS)

[Mozgus]

We already had a thread that got little attention 3 years ago over here, but since I'm going into more detail, let's start fresh.

I cruised through rebirth mode as Jill yesterday and today. Wanted to write a little about it and the game itself. If you're looking for a real review of RE1, go elsewhere. I'm not going to cover the things that any fan already knows about the prior versions of the game.

I know some of you guys have seen me detail the PS1 and Saturn versions, so it's kind of my thing to get super nerdy on Resident Evil 1. Well, I had a pretty good time with this edition, especially since it's been a long time since I played RE1, so a lot of these elements were quite fresh to me again.

The positive: There's been a lot of control and presentation enhancements here. To start with, the upper screen constantly shows your exact standing point in the maps. The map is always up there, which saves a lot of time for unfamiliar and lost players. It also shows your health, weapon, and ammo. This is very handy, while at the same time it does not affect the cinematic presentation of the bottom screen.

The knife is no longer a space-taking item, but a permanent feature of the L button. It functions exactly like in RE4. Hold L to equip, press A to swing. This finally makes the knife a valuable asset, especially for crows and bees.

When grabbed by a zombie, you can strike on the touch screen to make the character fight back. So far it always seems to kill the zombie, much like the counter weapons (grenades, tazer) in REmake did. This is kind of a negative as well, because I think it makes the game much too easy.

You can perform the 180 quick-turn by pressing down and run. This was not in any other editions of RE1 that I know of, besides REmake.

You can manually reload without accessing the menu by pressing aim and run.

It does still have auto aiming, but since the Director's Cut on PS1 also had this, it's not a new feature.

Rebirth mode is absolutely littered with fun, but somewhat gimmicky playable events. The most well known is the knife fight sequences, where you slash your knife at oncoming enemies from the first person view. It's alright, once you get the rhythm down. If you tackle these encounters well, you get a small reward. Worth noting is the new 3rd snake battle on top of the corpse of plant 42. It's a first person knife fight, and kind of challenging. You do this to get the eagle medal for the fountain.

There are many other sequences and changes to the core game which make use of the stylus or mic on the DS.

For example, you try to give Richard CPR who was dying from the massive snake bite. You blow in the mic to do this. If you blow too hard, blood shoots from his bite holes and he gets closer to death. Also, when zombies try to puke on you in first person mode, you can blow it back in their faces. Hilarious.

And then you have the puzzles which make use of the DS. Each safe room has a chest with a puzzle lock to solve. Also a lot of other puzzles in the game have been modified to use the stylus, like drawing circuits in the steam room, or throwing darts to get 3 bullseyes to open a drawer. Yes, you can finally type JOHN, ADA, and MOLE on the umbrella computer with the touch pad.

There are even more modifications in rebirth mode that I don't think were in the original versions. When in the mansion library, you come across your first chimera right after seeing it's silhouette. I don't believe you ever came across the chimeras in the original except in the steam rooms near the end. They were quite rare. In rebirth, they're much more common. They take the place of quite a few hunters in the caves, where on Saturn you'd have found the brown, furry hunters (ticks).

Edit: YOU CAN SKIP THE FUCKING DOOR SEQUENCES!!!

The negative:The graphics were said to be enhanced, but I'm just not seeing it. Not even in the models.

The backgrounds are much worse. They are quite brutally resized for the DS resolution, and they appear to be using an even lower color count.

The FMVs are absolutely horrible looking. They look like 160x120 cinepak compressed videos from the days of 22kbps modems. It's real bad.

The audio quality overall is a bit worse, and not just due to the DS speakers. It's obvious how compressed everything is.

The V-Jolt mixing procedure seemed like an obvious puzzle to remake on DS, but they did nothing to it. It would have been fun to mix the chemicals by hand. Hell, they had you placing gems on a fucking scale in an earlier puzzle (where a gas trap used to be, in the room with the knight armors). This could have been much better. Unfortunately, it remains a pain in the ass.

I wish the game would have used the Director's Cut alternative background camera angles. They were much better than the originals. They didn't leave you as vulnerable, while at the same time they were more cinematic.

I could be completely wrong, but is this game missing some music? I finished it, and I felt like it was a very quiet experience. It does seem to use the original soundtrack, and not the Director's Cut Dual Shock soundtrack though. Most people agree that this is the better score. However I didn't recognize the generic soft music playing in the end credits. I can't remember if Still Dawn only plays when you get the best ending. I failed to save Barry because I forgot to wait for him to bring rope.

Anyway, that's my thoughts.

[Ack]

I haven't gotten to try this version yet, but overall would you say it was a much easier experience than the previous incarnations? Some of what you mention, such as autoreloading, the inclusion of the quick dodge, and the ease of pulling out the knife and counterattacks, make it sound pretty easy, but the inclusion of new boss battles, puzzles, more chimeras, etc....what would you consider it? And, compared to all the others, where do you think this version ranks?

[Mozgus]

I haven't gotten to try this version yet, but overall would you say it was a much easier experience than the previous incarnations? Some of what you mention, such as autoreloading, the inclusion of the quick dodge, and the ease of pulling out the knife and counterattacks, make it sound pretty easy, but the inclusion of new boss battles, puzzles, more chimeras, etc....what would you consider it? And, compared to all the others, where do you think this version ranks?

Ok, it's manual reloading. Meaning you can reload the weapon without having to go to the menu and recombine the ammo with the weapon. Auto reloading would be what it always did, where it reloads when the clip is emptied and you try to fire again.

Quick dodge? I said quickturn, as in turn around 180 degrees quickly, which was introduced with the re-print of RE2 I believe, and onward. I know it was in RE3 for sure. Quickdodge would be what RE3 also introduced, where jill could roll around / sidestep an enemy's attack. I don't think you can do that here, unless the animation for drawing of the knife counts. You do seem to take a good step backwards when you do the knife stance. Not sure if that counts.

Anyway man, I don't know if this game has a hard mode, but the normal difficulty was still too easy. I never even got to touch my magnum and I had 40 something rounds for it. I had tons of ammo at the end. All these additional sequences basically just mean more rewards for the player, making it easier.

I think overall, the gameplay takes a step forward while the audio and graphics take a step backward. I'm not going to say its better or worse than the others.

[Mozgus]

By the way, I just found something interesting. One of the "unused tracks" in this RE PS1 PSF set is actually the sega saturn version's battle mode music, which I previously recorded and have at the bottom of my page. Maybe that means the battle mode was originally planned for PS1.

[Ack]

Ok, it's manual reloading. Meaning you can reload the weapon without having to go to the menu and recombine the ammo with the weapon. Auto reloading would be what it always did, where it reloads when the clip is emptied and you try to fire again.

Quick dodge? I said quickturn, as in turn around 180 degrees quickly, which was introduced with the re-print of RE2 I believe, and onward. I know it was in RE3 for sure. Quickdodge would be what RE3 also introduced, where jill could roll around / sidestep an enemy's attack. I don't think you can do that here, unless the animation for drawing of the knife counts. You do seem to take a good step backwards when you do the knife stance. Not sure if that counts.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I've got a really bad headache that's lasted a couple of days, so my mind doesn't exactly feel...coherent right now. Thanks for the input though. That's a shame about no Hard mode. Any word on unlockables, or should I just look it up on GameFAQs?

[Mozgus]

Yeah, that's what I meant. I've got a really bad headache that's lasted a couple of days, so my mind doesn't exactly feel...coherent right now. Thanks for the input though. That's a shame about no Hard mode. Any word on unlockables, or should I just look it up on GameFAQs?

Well I got the MASTERS OF KNIFING mode, which is just a battle mode type deal for the first person segments. You also can unlock more characters for the wireless multiplayer coop/competitive deal, a feature I cant talk about since I dont know anyone else with a DS. Otherwise, you just got the costumes and rocket launcher unlockables like always. Gamefaqs says that rebirth has different secret outfits than classic mode. I'm not sure what they look like. Maybe they're just ganna use the Director's Cut arranged mode outfits, as well as the original secret outfits. Would be nice if the Saturn secret outfits made an appearance though.

Edit: Oh well maybe they're all new outfits. Here's one:





And here's Chris's two. The one on the right was his original secret outfit. The one on the left...wow...ninja...ok.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

It is missing some music.

[jackspicer]

Hey have you used any of the different multiplayer game modes? I've been curious about those. How do they work? can you see the other player? Is the whole game co-opp?

[Mozgus]

Oh and technically "hard mode" is playing as Chris. Originally, the game never labeled his ID card as hard mode like it does in the DS version. It would just mention it in the manual if I remember correctly. It's harder because he holds 6 instead of 8 slots, and I think he tends to face more enemies or gets less ammo.

Hey have you used any of the different multiplayer game modes? I've been curious about those. How do they work? can you see the other player? Is the whole game co-opp?

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 19#p101719

[Mozgus]

*poke*