The dirt on the new RE5 episodes.

By jimbo_n March 25, 2010 1 Comments

Alright "new" might be overstationg it since they've been out for a while but I didn't get around to proper co-op sessions of them until a few nights ago. 
Looking back at how many times we played through the main game it's kinda wierd it took us so long to get to these but hey, now it's done.   

First off its the "Lost in Nightmares" DLC wich takes Jill and Chris back to Weskers mansion and the notalgia trip that his mansion induces. Its heavy on building atmosphere and solving puzzles and then it finishes with some frantic Co-oping to kill some new big baddies and a very dissappointing fight against Wesker that only served as a reminder to why I really hated Wesker in the full game. 
It was over after an hour and change and we were taking it really really slow and got stuck a few times. All in all it was a nice addition to RE5 and it served as a great reminder as to what I want to see in RE6. Give me a whole game in old mansions, spooky forests and Silent Hill-like dungeons but with graphics worthy of the PS3. But in that game I want to see some spooky drapes in the classic mansion hallways and some really heavy rain to go with the thunder outside.  
I guess they could have gone even more over the top with the nostalgia factor while they were at it tho. Give me a puzzle related to paintings in the mansion and throw some dogs through the windows as I walk by them. 
On a sidenote I feel like something went very wrong with the compression of the cutscenes. The last few cutscenes looked really wierd. Also, playing the piano as Jill with a wierd mash up of a rythm game and a QTE. what?!
 

Then we have the 2nd episode called "Desperate Escape" and man does it make good on it's name. This is a constant desperate escape for 1 hour playing as Jill and Josh.  
What feels like endless enemies will come at you and force you to keep moving or run out of ammo really fast. Then they throw turrets and fat enemies at you and when you think it cannot get any more hectic it seals you an an "arena" and let you defend yourselves for 6 or 7 minutes waiting for a helicopter to arrive. Its a contant battle versus enemies from all angles. Covering each others backs and staying on the move is key and its much harder than one might think when you've been away from the game for so long. 
This one is pretty much everything I liked least with RE5. An generic industrial enviroment, endless enemies that eventually harms the co-op experience, ridiculous turret emplacements that blow you the eff up if you stand still and a timed "survival until the evac arrives" thing to go with it.  
The first episode felt like a good addition and a good break from the RE5 formula while the 2nd one just felt like something they threw together to "challenge" experienced players but in the wrong way. 
 
Jumping back into RE5 after so long was easier than I thought tho and the co-op experience is still an awesome one.

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