Resident Evil 5: Lost In Nightmares Review

It’s probably been a while since you’ve played Resident Evil 5. After beating the game on Professional, acquiring all of the figurines and maxing out all of your favorite weapons, it’s finally time to open that game case up and pop in the disk… for old time’s sake. Lost In Nightmares is the most recent addition to Resident Evil 5; this downloadable content is the first of a few releases slated for the next two months. Lost In Nightmares takes you back to the mission within Umbrella founder Ozwell E. Spencer’s creepy mansion where you lost Jill Valentine, your former partner.

With gameplay reminiscent of Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, this content is a sure bet for the Resident Evil fanatic, but is it worth downloading for someone who has long since moved on from this classic? Let’s examine the HOTs and NOTs for our answer.

HOTs

Classic Gameplay
Fans of the Resident Evil franchise will be in familiar territory here; Lost In Nightmares is pretty much a throwback to the game’s predecessors. With more puzzles than gunplay and more exploration than shootouts, you’ll think you’re exploring the Raccoon City Police Department at the beginning of Resident Evil 2. There are several main areas to venture through, each presenting its own set of challenges that require lots of poking around in nooks and crannies.

New Ideas + New Stuff
Lost In Nightmares also introduces a cool new concept: there are score markers hidden throughout the game; some you shoot, some you discover after killing enemies or breaking open boxes. These score markers tally until completing the mission and add to your total score at the end, thus affecting your rating. This process leads the player to uncover every last inch of every area, a clever way to trick the player into getting the most out of this otherwise short download. There’s also a few extra figurines that are added to your collection, and a special Mercenaries Reunion mode, complete with two new characters (Barry Burton and Excella Gionne).

NOTs

That’s It?!
Lost In Nightmares is short. Extremely short, to be exact. Taking a more or less than an hour to complete, depending on the skill level chosen, this downloadable content is almost too short to justify its 400 MS Points price. After a short shootout with Wesker at the end (you basically just avoid him until he gives up and triggers the end cut scene), Lost In Nightmares is over, and I felt robbed. Sure, it was fun to see first-hand the mission that made Chris part with his beloved partner Jill, but somehow, the ends don’t justify the means. There’s simply not enough new, fresh content to attract anyone but a die-hard Resident Evil fan, especially not to the gamer who is used to action packed, combat heavy moments that the past two Resident Evil games have provided.

VERDICT

Unfortunately, I can’t recommend Lost In Nightmares to anyone other than those few humble servants of the Resident Evil franchise that own and have played every installment in the series. Though the content offered is engaging and interesting, there simply isn’t enough to justify a download. Gamers who haven’t already purchased Resident Evil 5 will be able to purchase a Gold Edition in March that will offer Lost In Nightmares, along with the other downloads scheduled for the game. If you haven’t picked this one up, March would be a good time to do so… otherwise, don’t waste your time with this one.

[Editor’s Note: Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares was reviewed on a Xbox 360 platform. The DLC was provided to us by the publisher]