Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares, DLC Review

Feb 21, 2010

If you keep up to date with the Playstation Store Updates then you know Capcom released Downloadable content for Resident Evil 5 recently. It’s priced at a seriously generous £3.99 considering what you actually get with the DLC. The entire thing consists of the “Lost in Nightmares” storyline in which you see what really happened in the mansion with Wesker – in case the flashback in Resi 5’s story confused you like it did me. You also get figurines of some characters like Rebecca from the first game, it’s a nice touch for a Resident Evil fan. A refined, refurbished version of Mercenaries mode has been included too where you gain new moves and get two new characters to play as, one of which is Excella – In human form obviously *shifty eyes*.

So the story itself takes place some time before the events of telling Sheva to get out of the way of your shot, in a mansion that is eerily familiar. No it’s not supposed to be the mansion from Resident Evil 1 / Remake I don’t think, but it sure looks like it. It’s a lot smaller but I noticed a lot of similarities like the initial huge staircase, the route round the back of the stairs, the dining hall on the left, the note left by the poor guy who ends up eating dog food and talking about poker, (you know what I mean right?) and the piano for Jill to show off her “Moonlight Sonata” skills again. Basically everything about the first section of this DLC screams Resi 1 and it is great to have a bit of nostalgia – even though I played Resident evil Remake for the first time this year, sorry to disappoint.

The characters you play as are; the buff and sharp haired Chris Redfield and his partner at the time, the action heroine extreme, Jill Valentine – with brown hair luckily so she doesn’t look as weird as in the full game. The best thing about this DLC is the fact that it has brought the horror element back that’s been missing from the Resident Evil games since number four disappointed the Die Hard fans back in the day. It is so tense, the music cues have you on the edge of your seat at all times and if you notice the similarities of the mansion’s layout you are constantly assuming that you will get a dog to the face or a slow zombie to the neck…No… It’s so much worse than that, you’ll see. Even within the first area of the story I was frightened to death by a dead body – doesn’t sound scary but again… you will see.

When leaving the mansion, the further areas of the story include a terrible, frightening as anything Dungeon where music strikes up loudly when you least expect it, followed by ominous, terrifying shadows cast by the hideous thing or things (depending on your difficulty setting) that will pursue you through your travels. Also a closed in, Castle-esque environment, similar to Resident Evil 4, that leads to Wesker’s library of window related doom. It’s funny how all these places look so different, yet they flow seamlessly without you realising you’ve passed into a completely different area.

This little game is more difficult than anything from the actual Resi 5 story; your Ammo is very limited – which is a problem if you’re a bad shot like me, or insist on shooting every Score Emblem. The enemy that you encounter is relentless, hard to drop and if he gets hold of you, your partner better have their speedy shoes on because it’s one hit kill time. Might I add that there are minor puzzles for ridding yourself of the enemies in a more ammo conserving fashion and it can be very tricky at first unless you know what you’re doing – I died twice and ran around for 15 minutes yelling at myself…

Bring a trustworthy friend if you are going to play online because this DLC calls on teamwork. Luring an enemy into a trap that your partner controls is nerve-racking to say the least, if you play with the AI, you tell them what to do. If you play with a Human, chances are they might find it funny to deploy the trap on you for a giggle – if they do this more than once it’s time to find a new partner! Actually I will say that this new 2.0 update has really improved the Artificial Intelligence, maybe Capcom realised that during a gunfight your partner would be more use if she shot the enemy, rather than just spinning around and getting in the way. Well done and thank you is all I can say there.

All in all I really enjoyed this little story (I say little because it’s about an hour or less of play) and I think it’s definitely worth the small price tag. Fun, scary, challenging, nostalgic, well made and clears up any confusion about why Chris thought Jill was a goner. I’m going to play it again right now as a matter of fact, 7th time and it still manages to be different from every other time. This is a great DLC I highly recommend it – Yep, it was different again… and now I’m dead. *sad face*