Well managed to play through the New DLC, and i have to say im quite impressed, almost as much so as LIN, which if you know me is odd because overall i was quite disappointed with the regular game. If Resident Evil 5 had structured itself more like Desperate Escape more often ( Alternate routes, intensity, true survival aspects, less linear) I feel Resident Evil 5 overall might have been a much better product.

Story wise, there isn't much praise to speak of. That's not necessarily a bad thing nor unexpected, as this chapter wasn't meant to add much into the time line, its a game play scenario and accepting that makes the lack of story understandable. However, Dialogue and interactions between Jill and Josh are just as awkward and forced as the entirety of the regular game and Lin as well. Its true that haven played games like Uncharted 2, there is a deep contrast in ease of dialogue and natural feel that Resident Evil 5 lacks entirely. The saving grace is actually Doug, whose lines are delivered much easier and feel more natural. The cut scenes are again top notch, but who expected otherwise. But this time around they managed to make the majini feel like terrifying enemies instead of lame walking ones, the bit on the roof where an axe is tossed was prettily done.

Gameplay wise, I feel this scenario was done much better then any in the regular game. Resident Evil 5's action bits ( 95% of the game) pale in comparison to these, so if you're going to do action, do it well. Pleasant surprises came in the form of alternating paths, it felt a lot like the military base ending in Resident Evil 4 for that, but still after playing this i have a deeper respect for Resident Evil 4's level design and enemy pacing. As Dvader commented, Resident Evil 4 had a way of channeling and pacing the action into a terrific set pieces, where as this product does feel a little disorganized and off at times. The other aspect I enjoyed was the movement, there was always rockets so survival was a prominent part of the game, playing on veteran was a pain, but that is welcome as often times I was afraid of being separated, which the main game entirely lacked. I still 100% prefer Separate Ways to this though, which i believe was designed and told much better, but this product was not bad at all. Where Resident Evil 5 almost always walked into being a linear shoot em up ( aside form assembly place) this product tried something not necessarily new, but more interesting.

I would score both LIN and DE an 8.5/10, but I would say over the two LIN was the finer product and the more interesting in its attempts, although changes to that could have made it an even more terrific product.

I just tried Veteran mode alone. I nearly threw my controller at the TV screen, it was brutal. I got by with the AI in RE5 rather well but this mode is just not working right. What a pain with the AI.

Yeah i'm leaving veteran and pro well alone for now haha

To be fair, i'm having more than enough fun with it in normal and amateur.

CVX's appraisal that Desperate Escape is a nod to RE4 is absolutely spot on.

I did veteran my first run. Seemed to take so much more damage then I remember taking when I did veteran in the main game....

Also, Josh>Jill. Jill's AI is so stupid, especially when you have her jump up somewhere. There was one time even when I threw her up to a place and she jumped right back down, absolutely refusing to do what she needed to. Made it a real hassle.

Yeah I see some similarities but I feel it is more of a perfect case study as to why RE4 is better.

Yup, I had to quit the game and play as Jill again cause Jill's AI was so stupid it was almost impossible.

How? I don't see it. And not just cause I hate that game.

Laying the marker down early to show we're not going to go get anything sensible here!

Environments that are too big, they lose focus. Enemies that sort of just swarm from everywhere with no real rhythm or pacing which makes it feel like a Mercenaries level rather than a well designed set piece. AI that doesn't fit especially in this area cause of the increase in enemies and all the paths where you separate.

Play the boat section in RE4 Separate Ways, it is huge setpiece as well but it is beautifully paced. It gives you one section at a time, it is very focused so you always know where to go and what to do. It ramps up beautifully as you move from one section to the next. Or take the Mike section in RE4, the again it is a much smaller area which slowly moves you from section to section. It still has guys in turrets, tons of enemies to kill but it is designed very specifically. When you enter that section with the three turret guns you need to be very careful in how you move about and plan the attack. In RE5 everything is so spaced out you just kind of kill your way to each next section with no real design to it other than "you need to use this rocket turret to blow up that wall". DE just sprinkles enemies all over the place, enemies of all types with no real set placement, so it feels likes Mercs. The randomness of it all helps with replayablity and makes co-op fun but I feel it hurts the single player experience.

My impressions of DE?

I'm not too impressed really, it's always nice to have a little bit more content but it feels more like 3 Mercenaries levels strunge together then anything else. I don't believe it channels the spirit of RE4 at all aside from similar gameplay like the rest of the game, it feels more like RE5 than ever but throwing even more enemies at you and really showing how flawed the stop-aim-shoot mechanics can get. Also the weapon sets could be better balanced seeing as one playthrough you might only one or two weapons werein others you can find 5 or 6 with duplicates of each for both players; LIN also had this but due to having such a small amount of enemies it wasn't a problem at all.

Overall I would say it's the worse of the two DLCs and that I'm glad it was only 400MS points.