Genre: Survival Horror, 3rd Person Action
Release Date: March 9, 2010
Rating: M
System: XBOX 360, Playstation 3, PC
For Capcom's first year anniversary with their blockbuster hit Resident Evil 5 they decided to release the "Gold Edition" Resident Evil 5 with added scenarios, mercenary mode, and versus mode. All of these modes will be made available as a download before the Gold Edition comes out, so this is where I come in. I'm gonna let you know if these added features will actually be worth the fifty dollar price tag that's on the gold edition. So far three out of four of these downloadable content has been released and I have some mixed feelings about everyone of them.
Versus mode was released shortly after the release of Resident Evil 5 and delivers with simple gameplay with Survivors (Who can kill the most Majini), Team Survivors (Team up with a partner to see which team can kill the most Majini), Slayers (Who can rack up the most points by killing each other and the Majini),and of course Team Slayers (Which team of two can rack up the most points killing the opposing team and once again the Majini). A simple formula that keeps you returning the RE5 with this competitive mode. To unlock more characters you must keep playing either the story, mercenaries, or versus to build up your points to ingame purchase them.
The Mercenaries Reunion comes with the DLC "Lost in Nightmares" or by purchasing the Costume Pack 1 for two dollars. For those who don't know Mercenaries Mode is a timed survival match against a nonstop horde of enemies. What differs in Reunion is just a few added characters/costumes. The characters you unlock will be Warrior Chris, Metal Chris, Fairy Tale Sheva, Business Sheva, Excella (Tricells President), and Josh Stone. But the highly most anticipated characters are the original Resident Evil's Rebbecca Chambers and Barry Burton. So the thing is if you like the original mercenary mode then you'll just love the reunion. Even though you can't use the older characters from the regular reunion which does make sense for the fact that the regular one comes on the disc and reunion is strictly DLC (for the 360 only, PS3 owners get the satisfaction of having all content on their BluRay disc and being able to play with the new Gem controller). But the one thing that bugs me is how come Capcom didn't take the time to let your new characters and costumes in Versus mode. You are paying for them and versus needs new content added to it anyway since its been out for the past 10 months.
Now for the better DLC we will look at the added scenario "Lost in Nightmares" which players who already beat RE5 would know that this scenario is the flashback Chris has when he explains to Sheva how he and Jill Valentine broke in to the mansion of Oswald Spencer (Head of Umbrella). To not give any spoilers away I wont go into full storyline details for those who haven't played RE5 yet and is looking forward to the Gold Edition. The Lost in Nightmare scenario take around 45 minutes to beat in on your first try. So the question is "Is Lost in Nightmare worth the five dollar price?". The answer is a definite yes. The first twenty minutes playing this chapter will be nothing but puzzles and ammo hoarding. The puzzles are very simple and the last one will have you scrambling around panicking trying to figure out what to do before time runs out which does get your blood pumping and starting to get you excited. Then when you thought you were safe you run into the one of the two enemies known as the guardians (Who eat up most of your bullets and have you running around trying not to get caught in their grasp since if you get caught by one its instant death unless your team comes to your rescue before the deed is done. Then before you know it you lose all your weapons and your completing one more puzzle before you reach your final encounter. So the thrill that capcom has given you with this franchise is still there and since this is a flashback your weapons and infinite ammo do not carry over, which gives RE5 that survival horror feeling that it lacks in this game but surely has in its older games.
And last but not least the final hidden chapter in Resident Evil 5 is the chapter "Desperate Escape" where you play as Jill Valentine and Josh Stone off to picked up by a helicopter to retrieve Chris and Sheva. When way better than Lost in Nightmares,Desperate Escape sticks with the classic RE5 gameplay with taking on the Majini.Since your no longer Chris and Sheva once again infinite ammo does not carry over giving you that classic horror feeling once again taking on endless hordes whole trying to conserve ammo. There's not much to talk about this chapter since it offers any new challenges but gives it more of the mercenaries mode gameplay.
So now the big question is "Is the gold edition worth purchasing?" and the answer is yes and no. If your a playstation 3 owner then purchasing the gold edition will be the best choice for you considering all the added features come built into the disc saving some memory. But for the Xbox 360 all these added features come as a downloadable token, so your better off buying a preowned copy of Resident Evil 5 and downloading all the extra content separately saving you around eight bucks in your pocket.
Resident Evil 5 itself gets a 4/5 since its one of the best co-op games out there, but with the added content giving you around two more hours of storyline the score stays the same with a 4/5 since the content wasn't anything short of spectacular.
Video courtesy of VisoGames
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