Lost in Nightmares///Mercenaries Reunion Review

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Lost In Nightmares is the second piece of DLC for the acclaimed action-horror title, Resident Evil 5.  
It adds around 40-60 minutes extra for the main story of Resident Evil 5 aswell a few new additions to the Mercenaries minigame. 
 
So its certaintly not one to focus on the amount of its content, more so its quality is where it manages to shine. 
 
Lost In Nightmares stars players as the original RE duo, Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, amidst their mission to apprehend Ozwell E. Spencer. Breif moments were given via flashbacks in the main game, but now you're given the chance to play through from the moment they enter the Mansion. 
 
Unlike RE5, Lost In Nightmares strays far from the usual high-tension action. Infact theres hardly much in the way of enemies to contend with. Lost In Nightmares focus' much more on setting a gloriously nostalgic atmosphere with plenty of throw-backs for old school RE fans to squeal with glee over. From the perspective of how Chris and Jill open doors, to even a certain classical piano tune that Jill will play to open up a secret section in the wall. 
 
Its an hour of throw backs all aimed to the days of old. 
 
The story on its own doesn't strike much of course, rather theres at least more backstory to be found from numerous files the player can view, one that I believe may hint at a new antagonist. 
The gameplay is, again, focused more on the exploration of Spencers latest Mansion, which also coincidently happens to resemble the Spencer Mansion from the original Resident Evil. There'll be a number of cranks to turn, emblems to find and a piano to play, all in good ole RE fashion. Admittedly some of the aspects seem to stand out a little too much, almost like CAPCOM really want to force the veteran RE players that warm sense of ''Ah the good old days'', sometimes its more like CAPCOM are blatantly shouting references down your ear instead of having them subtely kept in the background for the player to notice and possibily wet their pants over, which to me seemed kind of tacky.

Replay Value for Lost In Nightmares isn't particularly high, since with so few enemies there'll be little difference if you were to play through again. There at least exist multiple difficulties and even leaderboards now to boast your scores. The option to play as Jill, once completed once, in single player too might warranty a second play through, but overall I can imagine for most that once the hours over, thats it, Nightmare over. 
 
Regardless, Lost In Nightmares gives a decent enough single hour atmospheric ride into showing how Resident Evil could still play like. Theres the odd jump-scare, moody atmosphere alot of actual ''surviving'' this time around that its a must play for the veterans and maybe RE5 fans too for an easier way to digest some of the older traits of Resident Evil. Just a real shame it has to be so short since by the end of it, I was left wishing Resident Evil 5 had more chapters similair to this.

 
Along with Lost In Nightmares, there also featured a sort of remix of the Mercenaries minigame, now titled Mercenaries Reunion.
 
Its just as fun and addictive as its always been, the bad thing is that it acts as a separate mode to the original Mercenaries. It may give you the first time ever, to play as well loved Barry Burton and, strangly enough, the ability to wiggle around as Excella, there all thats available. You can buy two costumes, one for Chris one for Sheva, which will add two new characters, but even still, you'll only find yourself at the moment with just four characters to choose from. No new maps, weapons and the fact that I can't have STARS Wesker and STARS Barry teaming up is a very loud flaw thats hard to look past. 
Why they couldn't just have the new characters as additions to the already set up Mercenaries mode, I don't know.  

  
Mercenaries Reunion will look to pick up once the Desperate Escape chapter arrives with two more characters and costumes, but until then its just far too thin.  
Whats more, the new characters and costumes don't even cross over to the Versus' mode either. 
 
As a whole, for its price range, Lost In Nightmares is a fair deal. The Lost In Nightmares chapter is memorable though alot shorter than most might of expected, especially with the amount of its promotion it got. Its a quality hour fortunatly, and the fact that I'm wishing more speaks for how great it is. 
Mercenaries Reunion is strange in why they didn't pack it together but....playable Barry Burton?!? I can learn to forgive. 
 
For another opinion, there is also EpicSteve's review.