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You have to give Capcom credit. Lately they’ve become very good at making charming games with a lot of things to like about them, but alternately rife with flaws that sully the experience and ultimately hold the player back from getting fully immersed in the experience. If they’re sticking with this formula then they must be developing my next ex-girlfriend right about now. But Lost Planet does a better job of making its high points rise above its low points than their other recent offering Dead Rising.

If you don’t know by now, Lost Planet is Capcom’s Xbox 360-only third person shooter that features futuristic mech suits, swarms of insectoid enemies and and lots and lots of snow. You play Wayne, a snow pirate on the alien world of EDN III – a hostile and inhospitable planet that humans in the future attempt to colonize to escape the overcrowded and polluted Earth. The game begins with you witnessing the death of your father at the tendrils of a giant akrid (the native alien species) called Green Eye. A long and boring cut scene follows, the first of far too many in this game, telling a completely impenetrable story about evil corporations, weird scientific experiments and terraforming. None of it makes any sense, and it’s best dispensed with. After all, we’re here for the action.

A real snowball

As Wayne, you play the game mostly on foot (some snow shoes sure would come in handy) with a host of cool handheld weapons at your disposal. Since wars between the akrid, snow pirates and evil Nevec corporation have dragged on for years, there is plenty of ordinance lying around at your disposal. The most fun of this are the VS (vital suits) which are medium sized mech suits you can jump in and out of. You can also take the large weapons off the arms and wield those if you’re feeling particularly brawny. The variety of weapons makes for good shooter variety, giving you multiple ways to complete levels. You’ll never just depend on one gun, since each of them do something specifically advantageous in any situation.

A lot of the reviews so far have complained about the speed of the game and the way Wayne controls. Sure, his aiming system, which moves the cursor around the screen without turning his body, can be a little tough to get used to, but you can adjust the sensitivity of this in the settings. More troublesome is the button layout, especially the mapping of the B button. In the VS it controls picking up weapons as well as getting in and out of the mech, resulting in frequent occurances of exiting your vehicle when you least want to. Also annoying is the mapping of the zoom to the d-pad. Move your finger off the movement stick in firefights can be ruinous. Many people have also complained about the stumbling animation when you get hit hindering their ability to stay alive in fiefights, but there is a difficult to master roll move that can negate this. Still, over all the controls seem untuned.

Missions are laid out in a fairly linear manner, with end bosses for each level that are gorgeous to look at but frustrating to battle. All of them have classic weak-point patterns for defeat, and are fairly easy to beat once you pick up on the pattern. But occaisionally it feels like they get cheap shots in. Once again though, if you master the controls you can usually prevent this.

Snowblind

From top to bottom the game is a visual treat. Don’t worry, it’s not all snow and whiteout conditions, but we don’t want to say anything about the later levels for fear of ruining anything. But the mech design, and the aesthetic looks of the aliens is absolutely top notch. Even the cutscenes, annoying as they are, are watchable because they’re so beautifully done.

The single player may have its faults, but any doubts you might have will be erased as soon as you jump into a multiplayer map. Featuring some weapons and mechs that aren’t in the single player campaign, multiplayer is a fast and furious treat that rewards strategy and cool nerves as much as fast twitch responses. We would have liked more than the four modes offered, but when the weapons and devices are this cool (oh how I love you dummy grenade), even team deathmatch is a total treat.

Just Do It.

Maybe Lost Planet isn’t for everyone. It’s definitely a flawed game. But the experience overall looks so good, and blowing stuff up feel so good, that we just can’t help but recommend it. Bring your mukluks, try not to get too pissed at the wasp boss and remember to have fun. There’s plenty to be found.

Article by: Tom Price
Video produced by: Mark Fahey