Review – Lost Planet

After fleeing the over polluted earth, humans now live on a desolate planet, blanketed in snow and crawling with aliens. When things turn nasty it’s your best bet to throw on a warm jacket, grab a high powered rifle and hold down the trigger until your fingers turn blue.

In Capcom’s Xbox 360 third person action game, that is exactly what you do. You play as a Wayne, an amnesic chappy trying to piece together his memory while he fights for the people that saved his life. That’s about as much of the story as you’re going to get from me, the rest of it has been lost in translation or so it seems, making very little sense. The plot is full of misconnections leaving it as merely something interesting to look at between missions instead of anything memorable; if you’re struggling to enjoy the gameplay, you won’t stay to finish the narrative.

The game’s core (and only) gameplay is a frantic shooting battle between the alien Akrid and enemy soldiers, the Snow Pirates. There is a lot of depth to the fighting engine, no cover like recent titles Gears and Rainbow Six, but still enough to avoid comparisons with arcade-style shooters. Your arsenal ranges from different types of grenades to sniper rifles, shotguns, machine guns, rocket launchers and more; there is a constant supply of ammo to keep the action high.
Wayne moves well; there are the usual 3rd person camera issues but the animations are fluid and the controls are excellent. To add agility, Wayne can fire a hook-shot rip off with X that allows you to cross sizable gaps and adds a cool platforming element to the game.

Combat and adventuring is not entirely on foot; the game has a strong focus on mechanised vehicles called Vital Suits, be they walkers, snowmobiles or spiders. Each can be equipped with one or two weapons, similar to the ones available to your on-foot adventurer. The key audience in Lost Planet is still the action/shooter fans so the Mechs handle easily and are quick to manoeuvre unlike other clunky portrayals of the technology in Chromehounds or Armoured Core titles. The Mechs are thankfully a dream to pilot and can be easily entered and exited as well as the ability to pick up ammo on the fly. They definitely give the game a unique spin, if the snowy theme and hook-shot couldn’t, and manage to keep the pace fast and the action even more high octane.

Because of the freezing temperature, the inhabitants of the planet use a container that collects thermal energy from slain enemies and explosions. This energy is constantly depleting; it not only keeps your body at a suitable level in sub-zero temperatures but will regenerate health after an attack. When the counter hits zero, your energy will drop until you die. It might sound like a hindrance, but there is little adventuring to be done (besides collecting achievement based tokens) and there is always enough energy to collect along the way. It’s not an issue; it merely keeps you on the course of the game and can add to the tension if it should drop to a critical level.

The enemies are well designed from futuristic suit wearing soldiers to flying skeletal aliens. The designs perfectly complement the stunning visuals and amazing graphical power; this is one of the best looking games on the system to date, and the smoke and flame effects are the best used in a video game; absolutely jaw-dropping.
Still, the snowy landscapes can become very dull. There are remnants of a non-snowed in life around; streets of buildings, submerged vehicles and destroyed freeways, as well as rocky areas and bases, but there isn’t a lot of diversity. You’re not looking at destroyed gothic buildings or slot machines either, just snow.

Lost Planet is devoid of frustrating difficulty spikes on any setting; bosses will ramp up the pressure as expected and you’ll find yourself narrowly avoiding death at the end of these gigantic battles be it versus a gigantic alien or a super-powered mech. There are some annoyances like getting repeatedly knocked off your feet, but no boss or section will hold you back for long.
The enemy AI differs from the two types you fight; the Akrids attack in swarms but are easy to defeat (until later in the game, of course). The snow pirates on the other hand are very stupid and even oblivious to the person right next to them getting killed. Capcom has obviously spent too much time coding Zombie AI, because this sure isn’t impressive.

The core gameplay of Lost Planet pretty much comes down to ‘leave your brain at the dashboard and shoot stuff’; there are bosses with specific weak points and some areas that are tricky to traverse, but for the most part you just shoot everything that moves and follow the neatly laid out path. Still, the developers did well to shake up the action along the way and make you feel like you’re doing lots of cool things, when all you’re really doing is shooting stuff… a lot… in the snow.
The main story mode is good fun and a must if you’re a fan of shooters; it’s quite short (approximately 5 to 10 hours) and the plot is pretty much garbage but combat is always exhilarating on foot or in a VS.
It’s got all the makings of a Hollywood movie, bar the comprehendible plot anyway. The game starts with an all-out battle against the biggest monster in the game; all of which is really an interactive intro to the real story. Towering bosses, amazing effects and continually moving gameplay adds to the action-flick theme.

The online component is solid, and a lot of fun; nothing to blow you away but there will be plenty who find this fun. It’s quite sluggish, but it incorporates everything from the single player; Mechs, the grappling hook and outstanding visuals.
The game is strictly online (and contains no co-operative mode) with 16 player matches in a variety of game modes; Elimination (standard fare death match) and it’s team based alter ego, Post Grab (a struggle to take control of all data towers on the map) and fugitive which pits all players against one escapee.
The game gives lots of rewards to skilled or persistent players in the form of ranks, achievements, unlockables and badges. While it’s a cliché, this will “keep you entertained until the next big multiplayer release”, but I’m also sure that there will be a massive following that will play this game religiously; I personally plan to drop plenty more hours into the online mode.

Lost Planet isn’t the most impressive shooter on the 360, but with Gears of War and Rainbow Six out, that’s slightly unfair. It’s certainly worthy of your time; a single play through at least, just because of how exciting the whole thing is; cinematic boss fights, one man vs. a whole army of pirates, giant mechanical walkers taking on alien monsters; there is certainly a lot to drool over as well as a very memorable experience. This isn’t the first game you should rush out to buy with your Xbox 360, but a strong addition to any shooter fan’s collection.