Game: "Resident Evil: Deadly Silence"

Console: Nintendo DS

Developer/publisher: ADX/Sodec/Capcom

Genre: Survival horror

Number of players: 1; or 2 to 4 via wireless multicard play

Rated: M (17 and older), for blood and gore and intense violence

Premise: Strange and bizarre murders are happening in the mountains of Raccoon City. Bravo team of the police STARS (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad) division is sent to investigate. Unfortunately, Bravo team is lost. The STARS Alpha team is sent to follow up, only to be stranded and forced to flee to a spooky mansion filled with danger.

Gameplay: You play as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield. The game has two modes. The first is classic, which is an almost exact duplicate of "Resident Evil" from PlayStation 1, complete with bad camera angles and poor voice acting ("Here, Jill, take this, you being the master of unlocking and all"). And then there's rebirth mode, which is like "Resident Evil Director's Cut," with new puzzles in which you use the stylus, more enemies, and first-person knife battles that have you slashing and poking the touch screen as enemies rush you.

The good/bad: The knife battles can get really irritating when you are trying to conserve your health. (There are only so many restorative items to go around, after all). No matter how hard you try, you seem to take damage from these encounters. After the battles, there's a chance you will get some health or ammo, but after a disastrous encounter with the enemy, sometimes a single health herb is not enough.

The graphics are really amazing, coming from a system that has mostly cartoon-looking games. The creators added auto-aiming, which is always helpful. Plus there's the chance of headshot/instant kills on the zombies. This is very helpful, considering the multitudes of zombies in the game.

Tips: Be sure to save often — you never know when you might die. Be sure to use your knife on fallen foes to conserve ammo, but be aware that sometimes knifing an enemy causes them to get back up. When using the shotgun on a zombie, move it up close, then aim upward for an instant headshot kill. When performing CPR on Richard, you need to remember not to put too much air into his damaged lungs. This just finishes him off quicker and with more blood spurts.

My take: It's gratifying to see a company redo a classic game; it's even better if the game is greatly improved. But the new puzzles and first-person battles seem to lack that extra effort.

The Gamecube version fixed the voice-acting problem. Couldn't the creators have sampled the voices from the Gamecube version or fixed the script a bit for this one? "Master of unlocking" — who comes up with this?

But if you are a fan of the "Resident Evil" series or if your PlayStation 1 is on the fritz, try it out. It was nice to be challenged and see some new puzzles and modes on an already great game.

Jeffrey Davis of Maui is a video-game enthusiast.