Decided to play this on a whim today after finishing the original DS version, since it's been sitting in my library for years (funny story behind that, I got it through a steam trade with some person who was very insistent about wanting to trade for my duplicate cards but then acted all uppity when I wanted to trade for this game even though it had been put on offer; after the trade was complete I have yet to trade with anyone again). I'm giving it the same score as that one even though the general perception for this particular version seems pretty unfavorable; I attribute that to the fact that bringing this game away from its DS-exclusive roots and onto PC— a platform where gamers have a very high standard of polish when it comes to shooters— means that the novelty of playing it on a handheld with a touch screen is altogether gone.

I want to focus on differences between this version and the original, however. To start with, this version largely feels even easier than the already quite easy original owing to the fact that the limited inventory space was done away with, at least on the normal difficulty; you can now haul about as many piles of ammo and heal pills as you can find, without restriction. There's also a new antidote item which I never used, though I'm guessing it's meant to make battles against the acid spitting enemies easier. It's still entirely possible to melee your way through 99% of the game, though offsetting this somewhat and encouraging you to switch up your weapon use, there's the addition of a set of achievements related to taking down certain amounts or types of enemies with different weapons— achievements which a very small percentage of players appear to have bothered with as of this writing. Some weapons work a bit differently compared to the original, such as the new ability to wind up swings when using the sledgehammer, which adds a little more strategy, but the most notable example is the buzzsaw making its return from the first Dementium— in the DS version, it was a bit of a game breaker for chopping your way through the rather brief portion of the game you have left after you find it, but while this version made the overheating bar fill up more slowly, it also increased the cooldown on its hit registering and messed up the hitboxes big time, so it feels a lot less useful against any other foes than the basic zombies.

Speaking of the enemies, there's a few more changes there too. A couple rooms in the snow areas have some ghost type things that follow you around but don't do much of anything other than obscure the screen slightly if they touch you; if those were in the original, I don't remember them at all. If you played the original, you'll quickly notice that the flashlight has been rendered redundant in this version, as you can see quite well even in dark areas, compared to the DS version's draw-distance based darkness which actually fully obscured distant objects. Yet, they still managed to find a way to redesign the Wendigo Witch boss fight, where this effect was integral, in a way that mostly makes sense and retains the original's feel. The Colossus boss is also noticeably different, though in a way that I would say is detrimental; there are a few new hazards in its boss arena, but the distance you need to keep from it to stay alive here is considerably greater compared to the original and its "dodongo-eating-the-bomb" animations are gone, making this version of the fight feel way more forgettable. The dynamite pickups you can find in its arena are also less per unit, but considering that the upper limit for how many you can carry has basically been deleted, you can walk away with copious amounts by purposely prolonging the encounter.

Everything else isn't really worth dwelling on too much. The graphics and the quality of the music are nicer than on the DS, sure enough, but not really up to par for what you'd expect from a PC game in 2013. I vaguely recall having some major technical issues with the game freezing or just not working properly when I first tried to run it years ago, but happily I didn't run into any of those this time around. Overall, if this is you only way of experiencing this game and you are aware that it is a unique curiosity at best, well, it looks like you can pick it up on sale for dirt-cheap, and you can easily complete it in just a few hours. If the soul is willing, nothing ventured...