Resident Evil 5: Desperate Escape Review

Posted March 8, 2010 by Jallen (106)

Some feathers were ruffled with last month’s DLC for Resident Evil 5, Lost in Nightmares. It focused on atmosphere, rather weak puzzles and simple nostalgic memories to make all the fans of the original Resident Evil gameplay weak at the knees, as they saw what could have been. Naturally then with old fans being catered for; many people who rather enjoyed the Resident Evil 4 style gameplay felt disappointed and ripped off. Well my gun heavy friends be at ease, as Desperate Escape is definitely big on action and on big guns.

The DLC starts halfway through the main game and follows the story of Jill Valentine, who as you may remember had just been released from Wesker’s control. She collapses just after Chris and Sheva get in the lift but is woken up by Josh Stone, another BSAA agent helping out Chris and Sheva. Now Jill and Josh must make their way to the EVAC area.

As mentioned this DLC is very action packed, from the very start you’ll have hordes of enemies breathing down your throat and plenty of weapons to back you up. Jill gets a machine-gun while Josh an upgraded pistol but you’ll be finding all manners of weapons hidden around to help even out the destruction ratio. The area itself feels like a mix between the industrial area and that section on the boat in the main game; with large rusty vats, ring-net fences, cramped metal rooms and perilous walkways. Further ramming home the dock area likeness there are numerous gun emplacements which Jill and Josh must dodge and then make use of them to clear the way forward.

Your standard Majini won’t be the only enemies to appear, no, you’ll also see that chainsaw guy, the chain-gun guy, that guy with chains wrapped around his axe otherwise known as the executioner and a couple other creatures not related to chains. These seem to appear randomly at set points, if that makes sense. Play through it once and at one section you’ll get two chainsaw guys but play it through another time and chain-gun guy will appear instead. Also the standard Majini seem to change too, when I first played it I had village Majini but on the second playthough they were army Majini complete with armour and stun-batons. If you’re after new enemies however you won’t find any here.

This DLC feels more like an extended version of Mercenaries, especially the last part where you must fight off waves and waves of enemies waiting for a helicopter to turn up. Throw in the same old enemies but mix them up in a different area, with different combinations and you’ve got a brand new chapter. It feels a bit lazy but it still remains fun and very challenging for the complete hour long experience you’ll have.

As with Lost in Nightmares you also unlock two new characters to play in Mercenaries Reunion, Josh Stone (duh) and Rebecca Chambers of Resident Evil 0 fame. That’s it.

Overall then if you really liked Resident Evil 5 and felt like it could do with another hour of gameplay then you should probably pick this up. If however you’ve had your fill of the game or liked the different direction of Lost in Nightmares then you probably shouldn’t. Thankfully at 400MS points or $3.99 it won’t cost you too much to try it out. One more thing Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition is out on the 9th of March and will include both Lost in Nightmares, Desperate Escape and all the other extras as standard so if you’re thinking of picking that up don’t download anything.

Desperate Escape, DLC, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 5

About the Author

Jallen

Spends his days reporting on games, talking about games, thinking about games, watching videos about games and reading about games. So much so has little time to actually play any of them.