Dementium Remastered | 3DS

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Ah the 1990s; The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Fruitella and survival horror, what a grand old time. Taking cues from one of those (guess which one...), this remastered edition of DS game Dementium serves up some Resident Evil/Silent Hill-esque fun for folks on the go.

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​By
Rob Holt

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@acousticmagic

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Platform: 3DS
Developer: Renegade Kid
Publisher: Renegade Kid
​Players: 1

Originally released on the Nintendo DS back in 2007, Dementium was originally pitched to Konami as a portable edition of Silent Hill, and you can certainly feel that here. While the game has a lot to admire, we couldn’t help but shake the feeling that this was a tech demo for another series.

The story is simple, and classic survival horror: you awake in a mental hospital, with seemingly no idea who you are, and are tasked with figuring out what the heck is going on. Blood soaks the walls, and there are no other humans in sight. You will come face to face with an array of heinous beasts, mind, from standard zombies to Licker-like creatures, to mutant worms and mad bosses (the wheelchair boss with the chaingun was our favourite).

The adventure has you trawling through the many wards of the hospital complex, slowly uncovering pieces of what might be happening, whilst solving puzzles and collecting items. Finding three pieces of a torn up photograph, which in turn contained a keycode, showcases the game's origins. Other puzzles present you with information such as: “chairs, monitor, bins” etc, leaving you to count each to solve a door combination. Playing the notes D, E, A and D on a toy piano to obtain a key was a lovely touch too, a puzzle that really gave us a chuckle. These are all classic staples of the genre, and something fans will enjoy without doubt.

​Dementium is presented in a first person view, something that really aids the immersion, especially compared to the usual third person viewpoints of this genre. The new visuals are fantastic too, especially when compared to the original. New textures, lighting and cinematics really add tension, creating fear and dread as you walk the dank halls and corridors, with only your torch for a friend.

The combat itself is satisfying, from bashing zombies with the nightstick early on, to blasting bosses with shotguns and revolvers, to chopping up the irritating flying enemies with the buzzsaw. We felt the influence of the original Doom here (especially in the first boss fight), which in our opinion is a huge compliment to any FPS game.

The sound design is also brilliant here, with spare piano melodies playing over sinister keyboard tones, with the occasional twinkling of a glockenspiel. Combined that with the constant beating of your heart (which gets faster as you take damage) and you have a delicious recipe for the macabre. The screams and groans from foes as you enter new wards also amp up the terror.

The game controls well, Renegade Kid giving multiple options for both right and left handed players, as well as providing options for players with circle pad pro, or stylus controls. Offering this many control schemes is admirable, and something Nintendo itself needs to think about (hello Kid Icarus Uprising). We opted to use the stylus controls (we don’t have a CPP), and despite early worries, found it to be great for precision aiming, with L firing weapons whilst we moved and aimed with circle pad and stylus respectively. The touch screen also provides maps, access to your notepad and fast switching between weapons - much handier than using the D Pad. This is as close to mouse and keyboard controls as you can get when playing on a console.

The sound design is also brilliant here, with spare piano melodies playing over sinister keyboard tones, with the occasional twinkling of a glockenspiel.

For all the good stuff though, there is also bad. The story and setting (complete with constant rain) are a massive cliché, something that will probably put a few people off. The boss fights can be annoying too, as they often feel a tad unbalanced, resulting in a good few deaths, even on normal mode. These bosses are also repeated later on - we would've much preferred new hell beasts to slay. The £13.49 price point will be hard to take for most too, as the game has a short run time (5-10 hours depending on the difficulty and your speed) and no other gameplay options, save trying a harder difficulty.

And as we previously mentioned, it does bear the ever so slightly gangrenous scars of its Silent Hill origins, in places feeling more like a demo than a game in its own right. Walking past the same halls and closets etc over and over can get a bit fatiguing, something that I'm sure Renegade Kid will be looking to improve upon in future works. ​

For those that love survival horror, this is a must buy, especially on a platform so lacking in this kind of game. Dementium Remastered isn't going to be the game that converts those indifferent to the genre, and that unfortunately, explains the price point.

Pros

• Not a genre widely available on this platform
• Soundtrack is crackingly creepy
• Decent visual upgrade from the original
• Solid gameplay
• Huge choice of control schemes

Cons

• Feels like a prototype for a bigger game
• Story and setting clichéd
• Boss fights can be frustrating
• Bosses are repeated - new ones would've been more interesting
• Price point

Score 6/10