I’ve had the pleasure of playing through the Lost in Nightmares DLC for RE5 thrice since its initial launch; once on the normal difficulty in single player, a second time whilst playing co-operatively through on the veteran difficulty and the third time on the recruit difficulty whilst tracking down all of the Score Stars.
Word of warning: Some minor spoilers ahead!
The Lost in Nightmares DLC begins with a cutscene showing Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine approaching a mysterious mansion. Chris and Jill, who haven’t paired up since the original Resident Evil, are once again re-united and tasked with infiltrating the Spencer mansion in order to… well, I’ll just let you play and find out for yourself. Jill begins lockpicking the entrance door whilst Chris prepares to storm in. The pair charge into the house and you will gain control of Chris almost immediately after you enter the main lobby area.
Initial thoughts: Wow. Upon exploring the first few rooms and hallways or the mansion, I couldn’t help but think that Capcom really nailed the creepy old mansion vibe; I really felt as though Capcom were really paying homage to the original Resident Evil game by, not only having you assume the roles of Chris and Jill again, but by even laying out the Spencer mansion in a similar vein as the mansion first seen in RE1. Absolutely superb and utterly eerie at the same time. The attention to detail in some of rooms – most notably the bedroom, dining room and hallways – is nothing short of stunning. The mansion has a very “living in” look and feels very authentic; the rain and periodic thunder and lightning flashes through the windows only helps to further make you feel so much more immersed and frighteningly claustrophobic.
I’ll be honest: The mansion has more bark than bite; by this I mean that if you’re interested in purchasing the Lost in Nightmares DLC for non-stop action, you might be a shade disappointed. The DLC mostly consists of “fetch” and “retrieve” puzzles – none of which will tax your brain at all. Lost in Nightmares is more about the exploration and brief but genuinely tense encounters with some very unpleasant monsters. However, ramping up the difficulty will increase the number of encounters by a small amount. There isn’t a massive amount of variety in regards to monster design; you will come across two difference kinds of enemy – only one of which poses any real threat.
Lost in Nightmares is also incredibly linear. Aside from being able to visit the odd one or two rooms in a different order, you are generally being led along a very narrow path with ultimately the same conclusion each and every time you play. Don’t get me wrong, the Resident Evil series has never been known for its variety, but it would have been nice to have included alternate, non-canonical endings to the DLC. The linearity behind the DLC means that replay value is vary wildly between fans; many fans will become bored or re-doing the same “fetch” and “retrieve” puzzles over and over again, while others – such as myself – who will be able to consistently enjoy Lost in Nightmares for the atmosphere. Achievement and trophy hunters will also find reason to re-play the game an extra two or three times in order to order to unlock and complete the game on Professional difficulty, find and destroy all available Score Stars, earn a “S Rank” for completing the DLC and also to “correctly” defeat the end boss.
Personally, I had a blast playing through the Lost in Nightmares DLC during each of the three playthroughs and I’m very eager to play it through an additional time to conquer it on the Professional difficulty with my wife and unlock the final achievement. Lost in Nightmares is short but sweet; most gamers will likely complete the main campaign in 45-60 minutes. During my first playthrough on the normal difficulty, I took my time, explored every area and generally tried to soak up every small detail of the Spencer mansion – I ended up completing it in just under 55 minutes with a “S Rank” according to the endgame score/results tracker.
I will say this: Despite the tagline of the DLC, “Learn what happened all those years ago at the Spencer Mansion”, you don’t actually learn anything new. If you’ve already played through Resident Evil 5 and actually paid attention to the cutscenes, you won’t learn anything especially relevant about the events that occurred the three years prior to the events of RE5. If you decide to skip on this DLC then all you would have missed is a few enemy encounters and a few mind-numbingly simple puzzles.
In closing: I would be happy to recommend the Lost in Nightmares DLC to all Resident Evil fans. I had an excellent time playing through the DLC but experiencing the game with my wife in split-screen co-op mode as opposed to an AI partner just made the campaign so much better. There are some very enjoyable and tense moments to be had when playing with a friend; there are times when their life with depend on you and, believe me, they will yell at you. Oh yes. Having said that, I haven’t had so much fun playing co-operatively since playing Gears of War 2.
Pros
- Genuinely creepy and thrilling atmosphere – very reminiscent of the original Resident Evil
- A few brilliant co-op sequences
- Some very cool action-packed cutscenes, most notably after defeating the end boss
- Quite nostalgic to see three fan favourite Resident Evil characters re-unite
Cons
- Items and weapons that are collected during the DLC will not carry over to the original Resident Evil 5 campaign. Whatever you collect you will lose a the end of the game
- Item, weapon and enemy spawn locations never change and will inevitably become very predictable after several playthroughs
- Chris cannot wear any alternate costumes that you may have unlocked or purchased, only the default S.T.A.R.S. outfit is available
- Most enemy encounters are surprisingly easy to bypass and skip altogether
The Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares DLC is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Point and on the Playstation Network for $4.99.