Resident Evil 5 — Lost in a Nightmare, I Must Desperately Escape

The most intriguing aspect of Lost in Nightmares is that its tone is a gigantic departure from the main game. Resident Evil 4 marked a massive turn for the franchise in becoming more action-focused, and Resident Evil 5 continued down that path with exacerbation. But there was an audience that hoped RE5 would be a return to the franchise’s survival/horror roots, and they were left in the cold. This is the audience for LiN, a short-though-rewarding DLC quest that takes place in a mansion that’s eerily similar to the abandoned one in the Arklay Mountains — the setting of the original Resident Evil. And this quest just happens to star the main characters of that game.

LiN presents the full story of an event that’s intermittently referenced throughout RE5. It happens in 2005 at one of the estates of Oswell E. Spencer, previously president of Bio Organic Weapons-developer Umbrella. Chris and Jill are following a lead they received prior to their arrival in the hopes of ending their long search for Spencer. Though the mansion was already creepy aesthetically prior to their arrival, the two of them find the unwelcome sight of Spencer’s slaughtered security operatives. But it’s not like both of them haven’t been through a mansion like this before, so they should be able to handle themselves fine. But will you!?

Whereas RE5 was a frenetically-paced action fest, here we have a quest that’s far more methodical in its approach. The focus is on exploring the mansion and solving some puzzles. The mansion is being explored within the cover of night, one where a fierce storm is raging outside — something you’ll frequently be reminded of. Presenting a harrowing atmosphere was one of the itineraries of LiN, and the development team handled this well — a dev team fans thought were incapable of it after playing RE5, and after Shinji Mikami’s departure.

Any player that had no choice but to play the game alone would handle this quest fine, as your partner isn’t constantly being hit by attacks a human player could have easily dodged. This happens because there are nowhere near as many enemy encounters. In fact, aside from the final boss, there’s only one type of traditional enemy, and it’s not the kind that’s easy to deal with. “Traditional” meaning that Chris and Jill constantly have to contend with the numerous traps and pitfalls the clearly unhinged Spencer has assembled in his mansion. Sometimes you’ll have to fight both simultaneously.

LiS is a perfectly paced and entertaining adventure, but it unfortunately only lasts for an hour. It feels like a preliminary experiment whose ideas were begging to be used in a fully featured RE game, whose entirety is an homage to the franchise’s survival/horror roots. No one knew if that was an accurate assessment initially, but Capcom did capitalize on this with Resident Evil: Revelations for 3DS. If you want another experience like this, you know where to look.

The second DLC episode, Desperate Escape, is a big departure from the style of LiN in that, well, it has more in common with the main game. Anyone playing as player one here was given some variety, since this episode doesn’t involve Chris. You’ll be taking control as Jill, while Josh Stone, a BSAA West Africa operative who assisted the characters in the main story, serves as her partner. This material would have been considered as big story spoilers before, but Capcom decided to spoil everything when they revealed the DLC and Gold Edition. This is what they call a “Late Arrival Spoiler.

The events of DE occur parallel to the last few hours of the game, to show what happened with Jill and Josh while Chris and Sheva pursued Wesker. Jill was initially a little woozy after being freed from mind control, but she doesn’t have a choice but to pick up a gun and fight if she wants to help.

Everything posted in the RE5 review applies here, because it’s mainly more of the same. It starts off easy enough, but becomes much more difficult as you play through a little further. The differences come in Jill having different melee techniques as opposed to Chris. She’s far more athletic than he is, though she isn’t capable of dodging bullets or running up walls Matrix-style like her brainwashed iteration. Like LiN, it also only lasts for about an hour.

Though it’s not substantial, RE5’s DLC episodes are some of the best this generation. They’re one of the better examples of companies taking advantage of downloadable services for the benefit of the consumer, in a time where we’ve become accustomed to the opposite happening far too often. Both episodes are short and enjoyable enough that it should be easy find time to replay them — perhaps immediately after finishing them the first time. They can also be found for an affordable price these days, so check them out if you haven’t.

Well, unless you’re on PC. You have my condolences.