Gamernode: Reviews - Lost Planet

Lost Planet

• Lost Planet
• Xbox 360
• Capcom
• Capcom
• January 12th, 2007

In an icy world called E.D.N. III a slick new game from Capcom is dwelling. Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions is a third person action game that brings to mind several sci-fi plots rolled into a snow-covered new shell, but the graphics aren't exactly uber-realistic looking. Assuming all this is true, tell me: why do I love this game? We'll delve deeper into what Lost Planet does right, decent and horribly wrong, and why the bad things don't matter that much.

As mentioned, LP is a third person shooter with a unique next-gen graphic style, some of the most impressive explosions ever seen in a video game and a great sense of action. Right away I was reminded of the first time I played MDK and fell in love with the third person shooter. The plot, which we'll knock out of the way first, isn't very engaging. At first it seems creative, with a force of humans on a super-frozen planet attempting to colonize it against all odds. Things only get worse with the discovery of giant freakishly hostile ice-bugs called the Akrid. When everyone is set to simply bail from what is obviously a losing battle, a new and surprising thermal energy is discovered living in these bugs that changes the rules yet again. It's hard for me to get behind this plot as it's not very well explained and has the ring of a translation in that the sense that why you're doing what you're doing and why it's important isn't conveyed very well. Toss in some amnesia and slightly aloof characters and you've got all the fixings to pretty much ignore the loosely threaded plotline.

Time to get into the guts of this game. What first stood out (and originally confounded me) was the odd control scheme; moving the target reticle separate from your body movements makes it feel a little odd. Due to this, when you're running forward you can really only strafe slightly or turn slowly. Thankfully, there are shoulder button "quick keys" that let you snap 90 degrees left or right at a time which make turning around easier. You get used to it pretty quickly, but you will become rather annoyed when you're backed into a corner getting shot to hell and you can either turn VERY slowly or snap 180 degrees and THEN turn very slowly to face the guy pummeling you with rockets. Top this with extremely slow and unresponsive vehicle transportation (read: mighty slow mechs), and you pretty much have all my gripes for this game.

Then what's good? For one thing, the graphics are a step in the right direction. A few people took in this game at first sight and said "blah" because it doesn't appear realistic and takes place largely in giant snow covered backdrops. Only when you realize that the developers were going for a stylized anime-ish angle that includes a huge level of detail in a polished CG kind of way will this game starts to shine. The snow is very convincing and permeates everything, throwing up powder, chunks, footsteps and snowflakes in every way imaginable. The explosions, are nothing short of cinematic, and are astonishing in their coolness. The weapons are well modeled and the enemies are all fairly uniqueand massively detailed. Once you realize that it doesn't look like real life -- and doesn't want to -- you'll see that this game is pretty damn good looking.

This next-gen goodness extends to the weapons. At first you have the standard machine gun and grenades. This escalates quickly into stronger boomsticks like the powerful shotgun and rocket launcher. Then you actually climb into a mech suit, and while they're a headache to control, they can use bigger and more gigantic firepower like missile launchers and gatling guns. In an awesome twist, you can actually find or detach and wield the mechs weapons by hand by lugging around the massive gun with both hands at of the cost of speed and mobility. Trust me when I say that jumping out of your mech, ripping off its huge gatling gun and strolling into a building with it, spraying death, is immensely satisfying.

The game as a whole is fairly short; it will take you 8 hours for the single player campaign on 'normal' difficulty. However, this time can extend slightly by some of the imbalances of this game. For instance, you have a thermal suit that constantly drains power to keep you alive, and the only way to gain more is by killing enemies and destroying objects, both of which drop thermal energy (defying the plot, by the way) to keep your suit powered up. In all but the rarest cases you will never be in danger of running out of this energy unless you literally try to avoid picking up the plentiful power-ups. However, in other parts of the game you're started off on a level with a very low amount of energy or bombarded early on by tough enemies that make certain battles and stages irritating and difficult. One mech battle in particular leaves you so imbalanced that you can only succeed by fighting back with incredible luck and skill. This battle alone took longer than the whole game up to that point for me to complete.

It's strange to say it, but this game is flawed as hell and I love it. The action is fast and furious, the enemies are successfully alien and strange, the cinematic cutscenes are well done and exciting and the grappling hook is top-notch fun that makes me feel like I'm playing the spiritual successor to the NES classic Bionic Commando. Once you get past the plot, used to the controls and into the swing of thing, this game moves at a breakneck pace and is filled with crazy action and nonstop frantic gameplay that will have you biting your tongue and sliding around in your chair killing the giant alien bosses.

There is a multiplayer facet as well, and while its nothing new and special it's at least just as fun as the single player campaign and is a solid addition to your multiplayer shooter collection for the 360. It easily holds its own in a market riddled with too many shooters and multiplayer deathmatch-ers.

As you've probably gathered, this game is nowhere near perfect, but still a great game that I can recommend to almost any action fan. I think it's the charm and pacing of this title that keeps you engaged, excited and almost constantly fighting. I can't help but give Lost Planet a good score; I think you will dislike the same things about it that I did, but find it a good buy and great experience overall. So pick it up yourself -- you won't be disappointed.

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