Review: Resident Evil 5 "Lost In Nightmares" DLC
Written by Steven McKay   
Thursday, 15 April 2010 18:00


The release of Capcom's “Lost In Nightmares” DLC for Resident Evil 5 sees players controlling Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine as they return to the Spencer mansion under the employ of the BSAA, in order to track down Umbrella Corporation founder, Ozwell E. Spencer.

If you played Resident Evil 5, you may remember this chapter being alluded to in one of the game's cutscenes, and it explains how Chris and Jill became separated prior to the beginning of Resident Evil 5. As such, “Lost In Nightmares” functions as somewhat of a prologue to the main game, (as well as a throwback to the earlier games in the series), and is split up into four distinct sections – the first of which is set in the Spencer mansion as we know it.

Being back in the Spencer mansion after such a long time away is initially quite exhilarating, and with the new coat of HD paint, the mansion is every bit as gorgeous, and eerie, as you'd expect it to be. There are also lots of tongue-in-cheek references to the original game, and most of the memorable locations from the original are well represented here. There's even some classic puzzle-solving to be done, as well as the ability to switch the camera back to the originals fixed-camera-angle style by examining the front door three times.

However, what ultimately brings this section down, is the complete lack of enemies. If you hang around long enough, you may get to fight one, solitary enemy, but if you move at a reasonable pace, you can expect to finish this section without seeing a single enemy. And with this, the atmosphere the game does such a great job of creating, starts to break down, making the whole section feel a little soulless.

The remaining sequences are when the game starts trying to forge new ground, and it's here that you're taken to new, previously unseen, parts of the mansion grounds. The game's pace starts to pick up a little at this point, and you find yourself faced with some fairly neat puzzle-solving to complete during the later sections. Despite it all though, you can't help but shake the feeling that you're not really doing anything you haven't already done before in previous Resident Evil games.

From start to finish, you should be able to beat “Lost In Nightmares” in roughly one to two hours. As in Resident Evil 5 though, you are only able to play as Chris on your first playthrough, and beating it once lets you play through it again as Jill. As well as this, there are score stars to collect, (collecting all of which will gain you an achievement/trophy), and you also get two new characters to play as in Mercenaries mode; Resident Evil's Barry Burton, and Resident Evil 5's Excella Gionne. Whilst it's not a huge amount of content, the 400MSP/$5 US price tag will hardly break the bank.

With “Lost In Nightmares” Capcom have tried taking the series back a step, concentrating less on action, and more on the horror and puzzle elements that made the series so popular to begin with. It's definitely a commendable idea, but as inspired as returning to Spencer mansion initially seems, the end result – essentially a zombie-free whistle-stop tour of Spencer mansion – is a little too workmanlike to be a complete success.

Ultimately though, whether you should buy this DLC comes down to how you felt about Resident Evil 5; if you loved it, and are just looking for a way to expand the experience, then you'll probably enjoy “Lost In Nightmares”. If you're looking for more than that, then you'll probably be disappointed.

As a small bonus, I've added some pictures of some familiar sites from Spencer mansion, below. Enjoy!

Where it all began...


That hallway


Dinner anyone?


Does this make you hungry, or turned on?
Comments (2)
onionsaregross
...
written by Russ Crandall, April 16, 2010
I already traded this game in for some GameStop bucks, but the idea of returning to the mansion sounds pretty awesome.
Steve McKay
...
written by Steve McKay, April 17, 2010
It's less awesome than it sounds, but it was good to reminisce.

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