Review by: Brian Rowe

I wasn’t even close to being thrilled by Resident Evil 5’s first downloadable adventure, Lost in Nightmares. Despite subtle glimmers of hope, it was largely a monotonous trek through vacant sets and mindless, anachronistic puzzles. In other words, everything that Desperate Escape is not. If Lost in Nightmares paid homage to the origins of Resident Evil, Desperate Escape is a celebration of the series’ new, action-packed direction.

Jumping into the middle of Resident Evil 5, Desperate Escape is the tangential escapade of Jill Valentine and Josh Stone as they race through a compound while Chris and Sheva proceed toward Wesker. You can forget about collecting antiques, placing medallions, and plodding through atmospherically empty hallways. Desperate Escape is a full-on assault from start to finish. Think back to the Public Assembly sequence in the main campaign. Now, imagine enduring that level of intense panic for a solid hour, with a hefty dose of Executioners, chainsaws, and Gatling guns to bolster the already thick ranks of machete-wielding hordes.

The waves of majini are relentless and moments to recuperate and manage your inventory are scarce. Even then, you can feel your post-game ranking plummeting with every second spent healing and swapping supplies. In Lost in Nightmares, cooperative multiplayer was a means of enhancing a mundane experience. Co-op is almost a necessity in Desperate Escape. The compound is a maze of branching platforms and passages. Your opponents utilize every vantage point to lob Molotov cocktails, flaming arrows, and rockets at the most inopportune times – which is pretty much always.

As if the onslaught of raging majini and the downpour of explosives aren’t dangerous enough, the landscape is littered with flammable barrels. It’s a volcano waiting to erupt, and the puzzle is getting from point-A to point-B without getting blown up, mauled, or smashed by an Executioner in the process. When you frantically call out to your partner, it’s because a dozen majini are closing in, you’re down to your last clip, and you need the *bleeping* gate opened!

Like Lost in Nightmares, Desperate Escape adds two members to the cast of Mercenaries Reunion – completing the lineup if you bought the recent Costume Pack. Enlisting for duty are Josh Stone of Resident Evil 5, and Rebecca Chambers from Zero and The Umbrella Chronicles. Josh is a typical soldier, with a pistol, shotgun, and a RPG for flair. By comparison, I found Rebecca’s MP5 and Jailbreaker shotgun (always a fun time) far more entertaining. Otherwise, Mercenaries Reunion is the same old game.

I always felt that Resident Evil 5 was a tug-of-war between progress and tradition. It wanted to be fresh and energetic, but couldn’t sever the ties to the old-school traditions of survival-horror. Desperate Escape shows what can happen when the reigns are loosed. It’s quite short and the plot is almost nonexistent, but in terms of pure action, Desperate Escape often outshines its own parent. If this is the future of Resident Evil, sign me up for more.