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Resident Evil 5’s fantastic co-op gameplay, great bosses, intriguingenvironments, and addicting upgrade system made it one of the bestgames of 2009. Now Capcom has bundled the original game in with a longlist of extra content similar to “Game of the Year” editions seen withother hit titles. While some add-ons are better than others, theoverall value here impresses.
DLC AlternativeIf you already own Resident Evil 5,it’s smart to download the content separately or get it all in the Untold Stories DLC bundle. The bundle comes to approximately $12 instead of $50 for the packaged GoldEdition. The Mercenaries Reunion characters come included with the fourDLC packs so you won’t have to pay extra for that mode. If you want allof the content on one disc, the PS3 edition is your only option. The360 version comes with a download token for the Gold features, since itwon’t all fit on a DVD. Most importantly, downloading means you canplay everything before Gold Edition hits retail on March 9.
February 17 (360)/ 18 (PS3)
Lost in Nightmares - 400 MSP ($5)
Costume Pack 1 - 160 MSP ($2)
March 3 (360)/ 4 (PS3)
Desperate Escape - 400 points ($5)
Costume Pack 2 - 160 points ($2)
March 10 (360)/ 11 (PS3)
Untold Stories Bundle - 960 points ($12)
Trophies/Achievements
Lost in Nightmares
Beat Lost in Nightmares
Earn an S rank on LiN
Beat LiN on Professional difficulty
Do a set amount of damage to Wesker
Shoot all 18 hidden score stars in LiN
Desperate Escape
Beat Desperate Escape
Earn an S rank on DE
Beat DE on Professional difficulty
Kill 150 enemies
Kill 3 Agitator Majini
Two new stages are the biggestdraw. Lost in Nightmares, a flashback to Chris Redfield and JillValentine’s raid of the Spencer manor, is the better of the two.Nostalgia is the focus here. You start out creeping around a dark andseemingly empty mansion, finding crank handles and passwords to unlocknew areas. Camera swoops through doorways as you transition to a newroom cleverly evoke those classic load screens without making you waitaround. Once you get underground, however, combat ramps up. A newnon-Majini enemy type provides a nice challenge, especially in tightcorridors. If you’re playing alone, however, your AI partner canannoyingly block your only escape route in these halls, resulting in acheap death at the hands of these creatures. The final two sectionsinvolve a clever environmental kill puzzle room and a challengingbattle with Wesker (as seen in the flashback cutscenes in RE 5).
DesperateEscape, the second new stage, follows Jill and Josh Stone during themain RE 5 timeline as they make their way to the endgame helicopter.Since this is set in the same world as the core game, a full set ofstandard Majini, chainsaw guys, and chain gunners are available for theshooting. A brief rocket turret set piece provides something new, butmost of the stage is about surviving waves of enemies while stickingaround in one location. Keeping your AI partner alive on the lastrooftop can be a complete pain in the ass. Unless you take out the mostdangerous enemies ASAP, you’ll constantly be reviving him or watchingthe dreaded “Your partner died” screen.
Each of these stagestakes around an hour to complete, and a variety of achievements andtrophies provide some nice replay incentive (see sidebar).Unfortunately, you can’t bring any of your upgrades from the maincareer into these levels, which sucks because the progression system isone of my favorite things about RE 5. Who cares if I want to rocket thehell out of everything? At least give me the option on a secondplaythrough.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the original Mercenariesmode, where you chain together Majini kills for a high score within acertain time limit, but the new Mercenaries Reunion spices up the oldformula. Utilizing new crazy costumes for Chris and Sheva along withcorresponding alternate weapon loadouts, Reunion allows players to useoverpowered weapons like Chris’ chain gun in a Mercs context. Plus,this is the only way to play as Excella Gionne and classic charactersBarry Burton and Rebecca Chambers. Reunion won’t necessarily convertMercenaries haters, but it’s amusing to check out if only to seeBarry’s interpretation of “Miranda Rights.”
The last piece ofGold content is the online versus mode that’s been available as DLCsince shortly after the original game’s release. This mode isn’tamazing, but it’s nice to have for completeness’ sake.
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