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Capcom's bleak and snowy 3rd-person shooter seems to have arrived at a perfect time. As winter finally starts to get cold, Lost Planet is dropped as a reminder that it can get much, much worse. Set in a future far removed from the comfort of our own planet, the story finds humanity attempting life on E.D.N. III, a world that, despite its freezing temperatures, offers some form of hope. Unfortunately, we're not the only inhabitants. An alien lifeform called the Akrid dwells beneath the surface of this planet, standing in the way of the thermal energy we need to survive. Flash forward a bit: humans have created Vital Suits to combat the enemy, and you slide into play as young amnesiac Wayne; destined to find the Akrid that killed his father, and ending up with more than he bargained for.
Wow, when you look at the story of Lost Planet in a nutshell, it seems pretty corny. Actually, it's still corny when played out during the cutscenes, but it's easy to forget all of this once thrust into the action. And what a thrust that is. Lost Planet, in its best moments, is absolutely wild as hell. We all know Capcom has a knack for over-the-top action, but this is in a league of its own. Massive fights through miles of powder have a crazy Land of the Lost vibe to them, in that you'll find yourself surrounded by otherworldly creatures that add an air of the fantastic to the proceedings. Fighting the bugs is hectic and just plain fun; their claws and tails thrashing around the environment in an untamed effort to knock the life out of you as quickly as possible.
Lost Planet is yet another reason why it's oh so sweet to own a 360.
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Controlling Wayne in this mayhem is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the way that he trudges through the snow adds a lot of weight and reality to the game. They've done an admirable job of making it feel like you're controlling a human being– one that, while mighty dextrous, still stumbles after big jumps and gets knocked down by nearby blasts. On the other hand, Wayne stumbles a lot. Jumping away from attacks is almost pointless, because doing so will make Wayne reel and tumble like a drunk ape. This doesn't really help the many situations in which you'll be surrounded by enemy mechs that are perfectly happy to constantly barrage you with rockets and lasers while you're down. Even though you can quick-turn in opposite directions, the game could really use a dodge or roll feature.
Lost Planet is at its least interesting and most repetitive when pitting you against scattered Snow Pirates and, a bit later on, the incredibly similar NEVEC foot soldiers. There's almost no strategy here whatsoever. The Pirates are just plain dumb, with almost no AI backing up their actions, which range from "standing while you shoot them" to "shooting you." It's nice that the targeting in the game is so lenient– allowing for some off-the-mark aim by fixing your fire on an enemy without fully locking on– because no one's going to care enough to fight these peons with deadeye accuracy.
These generic army men shootouts are made up for by the epic boss battles. I could say epic a thousand times in regards to these fights and it wouldn't be enough. These are the hearty filling of the game and, though some are definitely arduous, are worth the effort. A few are more memorable than others, such as taking down the monstrous Akrid that killed your father (cue cliché groans), and occasionally they will truly frustrate. The fruits of your labor are rewarding, indeed, as there's an old school feeling of hard-earned satisfaction to completing the game's 11 levels. Short but sweet.
Kudos also go to Capcom for crafting a game in which raising the difficulty actually does something aside from simply lowering the amount of hits you can take before you die. Playing Lost Planet on Extreme is a real task. For example: some of those mechs you depended on jumping in during boss fights are gone, and your constantly draining heat energy will deplete more quickly. Whether or not the hefty achievement points are worth the toil is up to the individual, but that's a nice badge of honor to throw in there.
Online matches are a blast, and a lot of gamers are going to derive most of their enjoyment of the game from the confines of these snowy skirmishes. There's a lot of fun to be had on the freezing plains; running from base to base in a variety of modes ranging from straight up team battles with up to 16 players to sign post hoarding matches in maze-like constructs. Though no one seems to want to take the initiative and use a matchmaking mold similar to Bungie's in Halo 2, playing ranked matches with your buddies is a more successful and painless endeavor here than in, say, Gears of War.
What makes these battles exciting is the sheer scale of it all. Matches quickly become hectic, as each player races to the powerful Vital Suits, or runs around shooting their grappling hook in hopes of hijacking one from another player. It fast becomes a white-washed war, and at times the view of flying rockets and transforming mechs while running over a hill can be pretty overwhelming and intense. This mode isn't just a nice addition to the single-player, it will be the reason to own this game for quite a few people. Sure, there are a few issues, like the fact that you usually have to return to the menu after ranked battles, but they're pretty minor in the light of what's there. You can even level up your character through continued online play, which is a great touch. If only they had thought to include campaign mode co-op. That should really be standard in every game from now on.
All of this rolls up into a really solid package with only a few glaring flaws, most of which lie in the controls. Some might be initially turned off by certain aspects of the game, such as the idea of constantly depleting energy, but most of it works really well with the style of gameplay Capcom has crafted. The story may be pretty forgettable, but it's also kind of nice to see cutscenes that don't feel the need to drop f-bombs tirelessly, as if that automatically makes a video game "mature." What we have here, folks, is yet another reason why it's oh so sweet to own a 360.
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