Can you believe that Resident Evil 5 is a year old? I'm having trouble coming to terms with this, and I realize it may very well have to do with the fact that we have been buried in a deluge of similarly outstanding titles over the past twelve months. Capcom recently released a bit of downloadable content in the form of Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares. It gives interested gamers a more detailed (but not by much) look at a pivotal event that took place shortly before Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar had their not-so-romantic adventure in Kijuju, Africa.

That's not all this DLC offers, however. Fans of Mercenaries mode will be happy to know that this download includes Mercenaries Reunion, which brings two new characters to the table. More on that later.

Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares retains the cooperative nature of the original game, casting the host as He-Who-Punches-Boulders and the guest as recurring star (pun intended... my apologies) Jill Valentine. It's Chris and Jill's job to investigate the estate of Ozwell E. Spencer. If you've played through Resident Evil 5 in its entirety, you can probably guess that this bit of DLC chronicles the fateful mission that haunts Chris for much of the game.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, Lost in Nightmares allows you to take two new playable characters into Mercenaries mode. Series newcomer Excella Gionne and camp classic Barry "Jill Sandwich" Burton are yours to control. Excella's got some sweet guns and a number of tricks -- the fifty-megaton bitch-slap is a winner in my book. Barry's got nostalgic value, but let's face it: he's a dork. Of course, the cheese factor is kind of a staple of the Resident Evil series, so I've got no problem with that.

The experience you have with Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares depends entirely on what you expect out of it. If it's the shooting action you're paying for, I can't wholeheartedly recommend it. If you loved the deliberate pacing of the first three Resident Evil games, this will be five dollars well-spent. Most of this DLC involves solving simple environmental puzzles. The entire experience is not difficult by any means, and it can be finished in an hour.

The environmental puzzles bear no explanation, but the action sequences towards the end do. The final set-piece battle of Lost in Nightmares features a rather claustrophobic environment and forces you to employ tactics not unlike the ones used in a lesser-known Capcom survival-horror game, Haunting Ground. It's a true blue survival-horror experience, but it's easy to kick the bucket when you've got almost no room to maneuver around the axe-wielding mutants.

This download costs 400 Microsoft Points ($5). If you're a huge Resident Evil fan, or think that an hour of new content is worth five dollars, by all means, you should check out Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares. It's difficult to recommend this to everyone, because it's really not for everyone. It's not going to please the average action fan, and the old-school survival-horror vibe doesn't last long enough to satisfy hardcore Resident Evil fans. If you want to unlock some new characters and get a bit of enrichment out of your Resident Evil 5 experience, Lost in Nightmares is a worthwhile investment. It might not last very long, but hey, what else were you going to do with that five dollars?