Resident Evil 5: Desperate Escape Review!
Resident Evil 5 placed the player in many situations where they were given the task of trying to survive a swarm of enemies while trying to get to a goal. Desperate Escape takes this to the extreme, giving you little rest in between seemingly endless swarms of bad guys that want nothing more than to prevent your escape.
Story:
Josh Stone and Jill Valentine provided Chris and Sheva with valuable assistance in the main story, but whatever happened to them before showing up in the helicopter at the end of the game? This chunk of downloadable content covers their frantic fight for survival as they attempt to reach an extraction point. While it doesn’t offer much in terms of new details, it does provide a look into a missing piece of the main story line.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is similar to the main game, throwing the same enemies at you and giving you the same weapons available in Resident Evil 5 to fight off the hordes. What has changed is a sharp increase in the feeling of desperation, making the title of this DLC very appropriate. Still having to manage limited ammunition, you must survive large areas filled with various types of enemies while deciding on the fly when you can afford the ammunition to kill a large enemy and when you should try to evade them. The new levels are similar in nature to the areas in Resident Evil 5, but it is nice to be able to fight through a different part of the zone.
Graphics:
Nothing has changed graphically, but the superb visuals of Resident Evil 5 are still displayed in all their glory. Explosions, huge areas, large amounts of enemies, Jill’s skin-tight outfit; nothing bogs down the smooth graphical experience.
Sound:
A pounding, tension-filled soundtrack accompanies your constant struggle through the waves of infected opponents. Other than Jill and Josh having different voices than our main heroes, nothing is changed in the sound department.
Verdict:
Desperate Escape offers a worthwhile experience and a great challenge on top of an already great game. While the new content is very limited, it does provide missing details to the story. This seems like something that should have been included as a side-mission in the main game, but in this age of DLC I suppose I can’t complain since this extra content is well worth some spare change.
