Despite its faults, Resident Evil 5 is one of my favorite games in recent history. It’s essentially Resident Evil 4 with better graphics and co-op, and a lot of people were bothered by that. However, that’s exactly what I was looking for, so Resident Evil 5 ended up being the catalyst in my purchasing an Xbox 360.
I’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t a perfect game, but between replaying the campaign with my roommate and grinding it out in Mercenaries mode, it’s definitely among the most played of my games. Because of this, the announcement of new missions and costume packs was very exciting.
With Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition coming out tomorrow, the question is this: If you haven’t already purchased Resident Evil 5, should you bother getting the Gold Edition. The answer of course is, “Yes.” Resident Evil 5 was already pretty damn good, and the Gold Edition is the same game, $10 cheaper, and has all the bonus content included.
But what is all this bonus content about anyway?
Lost in Nightmares
The first of the new missions to be released, Lost in Nightmares is fanservice for the old-school Resident Evil crowd. Set in the ever-familiar mansion, you play as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine as they search for Albert Wesker.
Relying mostly on puzzles and Resident Evil in-jokes (“itchy tasty”), fans of the last two action packed installments may be letdown. However, as someone who never really played the older games, I found this to be the more enjoyable of the two new missions.
Many fans have been disappointed that Resident Evil has been leaning more towards action than survival horror lately. While this one hour mission isn’t going change their minds, it was pretty damn scary nonetheless. Without my overpowered shotgun from Resident Evil 5, I found myself hesitant to turn corners in the dark hallways of the mansion, praying that my partner and I were alone. Spoilers: We weren’t.
The only negative thing I have to say about Lost in Nightmares is that it was over too soon. Even though I prefer the newer games, I really enjoyed the change of pace. It would be great to see Capcom reboot the first game with the Resident Evil 5 engine, but considering that rabid Final Fantasy VII fans still haven’t gotten their PS3 remake, I’m not going to get my hopes up.
Desperate Escape
Lost in Nightmares may have upset some with its lack of action, but Desperate Escape makes up for that with its overabundance of action (Wait…what?). It takes place immediately after Chris and Sheva liberate Jill from Wesker’s control in Resident Evil 5. If that was confusing, don’t worry about it. I’m going to be honest; I really don’t care about the story in Resident Evil. I played both of the bonus missions while listening to podcasts. All you need to know is that you play through this mission as Jill and Josh Stone, a character that appeared in the Resident Evil 5 cutscenes.
I was initially excited to hear that this mission would be more action oriented, but as I’ve already implied, it was a bit much. For whatever reason Desperate Escape was jammed packed with everything that made Resident Evil 5 annoying. Sure, it had enough zombies to curb my appetite for destruction–made evident by the “kill 150 enemies” achievement–but it also had zombies with rocket launchers, which is totally bogus. This resulted in my yelling at the video game, which is a rarity.
The finale was especially frustrating. For five minutes you’re pitted against a vicious onslaught of grunts and mini bosses. The main zombies really aren’t that bad; it’s the mini bosses that were the issue, namely the chainsaw guy. I had to fight at least three of these fuckers, and if they cut off your head (and you know they will) you have to start the whole bit over again. This happened to me a handful of time, nearly causing me to give up.
Costume Packs/Mercenaries Reunion/Versus
Confession: I was more excited about the new costumes than the missions. I’ve never cared about costume packs before, but maybe that’s because I’ve never been given the option to dress Chris Redfield up like a Mad Max character with a TRIPLE BARREL SHOTGUN! The other costumes are alright (Heavy Metal Chris, Business Sheva, and Fairytale Sheva), but they pale in comparison to Warrior Chris.
Besides being cosmetically different, these new costumes also determine what equipment you character is carrying. In some cases, it’s just a different pistol or machine gun, but in others it’s an enormous Gatling gun with unlimited ammo. There are also slight changes in the mannerisms of the characters. For example: Warrior Chris shoots his shotgun with one hand instead of two, and Heavy Metal Chris is noticeably slowler due to the extra weight he’s carrying.
All of these costumes are playable in both the story mode and Mercenaries Reunion. Aside from some new characters and minor modifications in difficulty, Reunion is the same as the original Mercenaries. Each of the above mentioned missions came with two playable characters for Reunion. Since my main focus was Warrior Chris, I didn’t play all of these characters.
If you’ve been paying attention to Resident Evil 5 news, you know that there was a minor stink regarding Versus mode. Shortly after the game came out, Capcom released it for $5, claiming that it was a whole new mode and not just an key to unlock the feature. Regardless of whether it was or wasn’t, it’s worth noting that its on the Gold Edition along with all the rest of the bonus content.
Also, when you purchase the DLC/Gold Edition, you get more virtual action figures to play with. Yay!
