Last year, Capcom released two of the most critically acclaimed and lauded games, Dead Rising and Okami (through its now defunct Clover Studios) and reminded us why we love to play their games.
Is this trip to Capcom's frozen planet worth it? Find out for yourself!
And while Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is no Dead Rising, it has enough sparkle, inventive gameplay and game mode variety to please any shooter fan.
The Basics
Looking for your next shooter fix? There's plenty of bugs to empty your clip into on E.D.N. III.
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is a third person shooter that takes places on a frozen planet called E.D.N III, and should be a lesson to everyone who tries to terraform an inhospitable planet only to find it rife with bug-like aliens called the Akrid that come in every shape and size (think Starship Troopers) – pack up and find another planet! But then there’d be no game, right?
So, the story follows what happens after the humans decide to fight back against the bugs – the rich people leave, the poor are left behind to fight the bugs and survive with the help of newly developed weapon called Vital Suits, which are your basic mech.
You’ll be playing as Wayne, a VS operator who is found near dead with no memory, a bionic (well, sort of) right arm and a bloodlust to kill Green Eyes, the giant bug who murdered his father. Riveted yet?
Well, thankfully, the game is more about the action then the plot, though the plot isn’t terrible (at least not as bad as some reviewers are making it out to be.)
What works
First and foremost, the game is graphically stunning. Lost Planet is to snow and barren tundra what Gears of War is to gothic Roman cityscapes – the environments are desolate, the wind howls and the feel of the game is bleak and frigid, all in the best HD sort of way.
Lost Planet is one of the prettiest shooter's this side of Gears of War, just ask Mothra's brother here, Chuck. But don't be fooled, the boss fights are grueling, this one in particular may get you cussing up a storm, especially on the harder difficulty.
If you fire this baby up on a nice HDTV (and notice the back of the box, it will run in full 1080p… will we be seeing a Xbox 360 v2.0 with 1080 output and HDMI soon?) and see what I mean. Then there’s the sound – the wind with churn through your living room in gusty 5.1 and the explosions will wake your neighbors.
There are some unique gameplay mechanics that set Lost Planet apart from your average shooter. While not nearly as innovative or pleasing as Gears of War’s cover system, you’ll have a rocket powered grappling hook, giving you access to higher terrain, which is cool. It adds a slight platforming element to the game and generally works well, although we would’ve loved to be able to have more access to steep ledges (invisible walls will keep you and be able to fire the hook into whatever we want. But we’re picky like that.
Then there’s the combat itself. You’ll be fighting every garden variety of Akrid – little spindly walker bugs that shake like feet are cold, flying flagella-toting bacteria-like bugs, big armadillo tank-like bugs, huge praying mantis like bugs, ginormous worm-like bugs (think the worms from Dune)… and the list goes on and on.
You’ll also be fighting space pirates, who are poor people who remained after the Akrid were discovered. Apparently the poor on E.D.N III all carry rocket launchers and sniping rifles, and are incredibly dense when it comes to being shot at. The enemy A.I. is among the worst out there, not flinching when one of their cronies is gunned down 2 feet from them. But we’re talking about what worked.
They're Vital Suits, not Mechs!
The combat is mixed up with on-foot shooting and mech brawling. Here's an example of what you probably don't want to do - face off with a mech on foot, that is unless you can pick off the driver with a well-aimed head shot, or even better, tear the guns of the side of the mech and use them against it.
The space pirate shoot-outs are on foot and in V.S.’s, and the boss fights are a mix of big bug and big mech brawls. Because of the grappling hook and the V.S.’s, there’s a lot of ways to play battles out. You can snipe a V.S. driver out of his seat and hijack it, you grapple onto it to deliver some close combat damage, you can even take the powerful gatling guns and rocket launchers off of V.S.’s (which is especially fun, and frustrating for your opponent, in the multiplayer mode,) all of which creates a very open-ended atmosphere.
The game itself is totally linear and follows objective based missions that you can blow through pretty fast. If you want, you run past a lot of the action to waypoints and work your way quickly through to the boss fights.
The multiplayer is pretty standard, although the aforementioned diversity in combat makes for some interesting and out-of-the-box situations – try playing a game to see which team can steal and hold onto all the V.S. weapons and you’re in for some good times.
What doesn’t work
As we touched on above, the term A.I. is inaccurately rendered – it should be Awkward Imbeciles. They’re bad, let’s just leave it at that.
While Lost Planet gets high marks in the graphics category, the A.I. is pretty sucky.
The game can at times feel a little slow, especially in multiplayer, but hey, you are running through knee-deep snow and stuff, and I suspect the Capcom peeps were going for realism. Also, everyone knows Capcom has a penchant for making tough games. Look no further then Dead Rising's save system or the ramped up Dante Must Die difficulty on Devil May Cry 3.
Lost Planet is no different. While you can breeze through most of each mission, the boss fights will give you a serious run for your money and may incite rabid cussing along the way, especially on harder difficulties. The bosses seem to have x-ray vision, guided missles and attacks that never miss. That, coupled with some excrutiatingly long "fall down, roll, get up, shake off" animations when you get hit, make the boss fights frustrating at times. I don't mind a "challenging" game, but when I'm constantly being thrown into unescapable animations, the vehicles are slower then a 2 year-old in a bouncy chair and the weapons take forever to reload, it can feel a tad on the punishing side.
Speaking, of Dead Rising, Wayne’s animations also look suspiciously similar to Frank West’s from everyone's favorite Xbox 360 zombie fest– I wouldn’t be surprised if someone at Capcom recycled the same capture sessions and wrapped them with the Lost Planet character models. Jump around and melee attack (just imagine you’re holding a giant stuffed animal or mannequin) and you’ll see what I mean.
What it all means
In the end, Lost Planet delivers plenty of stunning-looking, innovative gameplay to outshine its weaknesses. It was probably smart for Capcom to hold Lost Planet until January to keep from going head-to-head with that one game from Cliffy B, and given the fact that everyone has beaten GoW and grown a tad (just a tad) bored with the multiplayer, Lost Planet is the perfect game to hole up with and play through the chilly post-holiday months.
Pros
- Stunning graphics
Cons
- Totally lame A.I.
Your Talkback on this Story