We are about a fourth of the way through 2024, and so far this port of Resident Evil might be the only game I have played to completetion this year. I'm at the final stretch of getting my Bachelor's degree, so in the rare times I can actually sit down and play a game, it's typically something I can turn my brain off to while talking with friends. I have played the original Resident Evil games enough to be able run through them in my sleep, so I occasionally pop one in when I have a couple of hours to spare. However this particular version of RE1 has alluded me for a while, so I decided to give it a spin AND MAN, did I love this!

Beyond some of the more DS-specific additions, the minor tweaks Deadly Silence makes to the gameplay of Resident Evil probably makes it the best playing of any of the classic tank controlled entries.

You can do a 180° turn, the knife is bound to the left bumper and no longer takes up an inventory slot, you can reload mid-clip without having to go to the menu, you can switch auto-aim targets, and can SKIP DOOR ANIMATIONS AMD CUTSCENES! In terms of base gameplay, the is without a doubt the best classic RE games has ever played. It's so good that I'm legit angry that CAPCOM never did similar ports for RE2 or RE3.

The new Rebirth mode has a bunch of curveballs for returning fans like me. This includes stuff like new puzzles and remixed enemy encounters that now include multiple enemy variants in the same room, which never happened before! The only thing that isn't a straight upgrade (outside of the lower resolution and more compressed FMVs and backgrounds) is the music, which just sounds a bit to tinny to me.

It has always baffled me that CAPCOM hasn't attempted to make their classic entries more available. As cool as the remakes are, I don't believe they actually replace the originals (even if I think REmake is better than RE1), and people should be able to play them without having to resort to becoming a fucking nerd and setting up an emulator.

I know gamers think that just cause it's easy to set up that everyone could just emulate stuff, but I'm not gonna lie, if it wasn't for things like the PS1 Classics on the PS3, there would be no way my 12 year old ass would have gone through the effort of setting up EPSXE just to play RE1 back in 2010. Having a more convenient way for people to play older stuff is how new folks typically find classic games like these, and it's a real shame that older games are just left to languish on older hardware, which only really benefits folks selling this stuff on the second hand market to dorks with too much money to spend.

Rant aside, Deadly Silence is so good that it elevated a game that I only sorta liked enough to revisit occasionally, to one that I am itching to jump back into again! IT'S SO GOOD, DUDE!