- Alien Encounters- Face off with an array of Akrid, from massive rolling behemoths and long-legged ground-dwellers to fast-flying swarms overhead!
- Xbox Live Enabled- Download additional maps, compete in 16 player cooperative and versus battles!
- On-Foot and In-Vehicle Modes- Command heavily armed bipedal vehicles or switch to more stealthy exploration on-foot.
- Vast and Vivid Environments- Snowstorms, arctic winds, towering buildings, and mountains of ice create cinematic, stunning visuals and breathtaking landscapes!
- Next-Gen Realism- Immerse yourself in the brutal chilling world of Lost Planet as you labor through waist-deep snow, hear the crunch of ice with each step, and fly backward from explosive force during battle!
Product Description
In Lost Planet, human snow pirates navigate VS (Vital Suits) through hostile ice-covered environments, fighting against the indigenous Akrid creatures for the precious thermal energy they need to survive. For one such pilot named Wayne, death almost seemed imminent until he was fortunately rescued. However, he can only remember a few fragments of his past including the slaying of his father by the monstrous beings. Yet under the veil of ice, a devious plan has bee… More >>
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
You know, it’s amazing that in this day and age, you can have a game with spectacular graphics and unbelievable surround sound and the game is just…. blah.
I mean, graphically Lost Planet is pretty nice. Beautiful, actually. There are some boss battles that are pretty astounding in how they are presented. There’s one moment at the very beginning where a creature named Green Eye appears and the size of this thing is enough to make your jaw drop. There’s also another moment when you’re running across an open field getting chased by this monstrous worm thing that is an experience on its own. This is definitely a game that benefits from being played on an HDTV setup with surround sound.
But then the story kicks in and you can’t deny that it makes very little sense, not to mention the fact that the hero of the story is really not an interesting character to begin with. The gameplay itself is a bit repetitive and really, the game just amounts to little more than eye and ear candy. Even when you’re not on foot and riding around in the mechs, it just doesn’t add up to any memorable experience.
The online portion of the game isn’t enough to make you want to play it a lot, especially with games like Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas out there. It’s kind of stale and just not that interesting.
I’m really down the middle on this game. I’d say that it’s worth a rental and then if you like it, get it. I wouldn’t call this an outright purchase as it just didn’t grab me the way I would’ve expected it to.
Rating: 3 / 5
Lost Planet – Extreme Condition is a classic run-and-gun game set on a frozen planet. This isn’t a game of stealth or strategy. You see, you shoot, you move on.
There is a plot here – but it’s really best to ignore it. You, a young teen guy, are battling either ice monsters or other clans of pirates. Sometimes you fight both simultaneously. Missions in essence tell you – “go here, kill everything”.
Part of the fun is that you get to fight both on foot and inside a mech, hopping in and out whenever the whim takes you. This gives you a nice variety of weapons to choose from. Now, I have to comment that for a space-age distant planet colony, these weapons seem pretty modern times. You would think they would have progressed to laser cannons and plasma rifles as their sole weapons by now. I do like the grapple hook, though. It gave a fun, Zelda-like aspect to many of the levels.
To add to the arcadey feel, your health naturally depletes over time and the only way to stay alive is to collect replenishing energy. Silly? Perhaps. But no more silly than most other arcade games and the reasons they give for you to collect objects.
What’s really impressive here is the way that large enemies seem “massive”. You really get the sense that these are giant, ponderous beasts with weight and heft. The designers did a good job with enemy design and boss battles. From the small, intricate flying beasties to the larger main enemies, each creature is enjoyable to fight. Speaking of Zelda, you even get Goron-like rolling rock monsters.
But, to diverge into the storyline for a brief moment, isn’t it a bit troubling that man-kind has decided to land on a super-snowy (i.e. not ideal) planet – and when it found indigenous life there – decided that the appropriate action was therefore to wipe it all out? Surely if we’re going to be on a hostile-environment planet anyway, we could find one without current inhabitants …
I also wish they had in-home multiplayer. Playing online on XBox Live is all fine and good, but with the relatively short built in missions, I’d really like to play co-op with a friend against them, and crank it up to super hard. That would be a ton of fun. I love playing this type of game multiplayer co-op, and for them to not even have that as an option seems a great shame.
So a nice start – but I’d like to see a Lost Planet 2 with a better plotline, better weapons, and co-op play.
Rating: 4 / 5
This game has amazing graphics and is really a lot of fun to play. So this is not a negative review, plus I have yet to use the Xbox live component, which I have heard is impressive. However, as far as the single player mode is concerned, the game is weak on a few fronts and you might want to rent it before buying
1.) The story is really crappy – lame dialogue – pointless missions – and undeveloped characters. The developers were going for Sci-Fi action, but the storyline comes out as Anime. The characters are completely forgettable and in most cases annoying.
2.) The missions, and there are not too many of them, are simple and Boss-oriented. They all seem to follow the same formula – ascend corridor -> fight boss, climb ridge -> fight boss
3.) The game is not strategic or tactical like Gears of War or COD. This is a “run-and-gun” shooter — that is there is not much “taking cover” or flanking and a lot of running around and circle strafing bosses.
So while this game is fun, you might want to rent for the 3 reasons above. Plus you could probably play through this game in a couple of nights. If you don’t intend to use the multiplayer options (online only – no split screen) you might want to rent or pick it up used.
Rating: 4 / 5
The bottom line is this: this game is worth renting, but not buying.
Graphics
The graphics are good and live up to the “next gen.” hype. Despite being set on an ice planet, the game manages to throw in different enviroments so you’re not constantly walking around in white snow and ice.
Gameplay
Overall, this is very solid. The game is played from an over-the-shoulder perspective, similar to Gears of War (albeit from a zoomed out perspective). The weapons and reloading are fairly intuitive; and like most new games, you can only carry two weapons at a time. Now, it wouldn’t be a Japanese sci-fi game if it didn’t have mechs; and this game has plenty of those. They’re integrated fairly well, and there is plenty of varity in mech types. The last mech, however, is a ridiculous flying machine that attacks with lazer swords – great for japanime fans; not so much for everyone else. The singleplayer campaign is pretty linear. You move from point A to point B with little variety; but that doesn’t make it dull. The bosses in this game are a great throw-back to games of the 80′s when bosses were big, hard to beat, and usually involve some hidden weakness.
Story
This is where the game loses a lot of points. The story is poorly told, and just plain stupid. The cutscenes are generally pretty silly, and you’ll enjoy the game more if you skip through them. I won’t spoil anything, but I’ve seen this is a common complaint – the story is worse than something you see on weekday afternoon cartoons.
Online play
Online supports up to 16 players at a time and has 4 game modes: Elimination (every man for himself), Team Elimination, Post grab (control different areas); and Fugitive which is the only unique game, pitting the host against everyone else. The online play is fun, and there are enough achivements to keep people playing for a while. But after a while, it feels repetitive and a little frustrating. It also fails to separate out language zones, so you may be stuck on a team with French and Japanese – try to coordinate anything then!
This game was a fun renter, and the campaign mode is long enough that it should keep you occupied over the weekend. The online play is fun, but after a few hours, the novelty wears off. Avoid the story in this game at all costs.
Rating: 3 / 5
At the time of its release, Lost Planet was arguably the most hyped game from CAPCOM since Dead Rising blew the minds of many, myself included. While it boasts a load of potential it is ruined by a horribly fiddly control system.
Thrown into a cliched revenge story on a desolate ice-covered planet, we quickly learn the importance of a well thought-out control system. Sadly, this is what makes the game so painful; if it wasn’t for the controls this game would have a lot going for it. The main problem is that the right analog stick controls your direction, but if you tap it quickly you spin quickly in that direction. So if you’re facing one direction and tap down, you’ll turn 180 degrees. What this means though, is if you’re trying to aim at something and just want to adjust your site very slightly and you just tap the right stick, you’re suddenly facing a completely different direction, which makes for VERY frustrating boss fights. And the control settings aren’t modifiable! At least not the problematic ones anyway.
Most of the game involves action on foot or controlling mech warrior style machines called Vital Suits which are actually pretty cool. There are different types of machines to keep things interesting. Your character also possesses a Batman style grappling hook which is pretty cool but overall the gameplay really suffers due to the controls.
The graphics are very nice, with large, explorable environments with finely detailed snow and fog. The enemies vary in their quality but typically the bosses are very detailed. There are some very nice fire and lighting effects as well so overall the graphics are really very good.
But when it really comes down to it, the controls RUIN this game. It’s probably even more disappointing because you can see the games potential as well. It’s like when you meet a really hot girl and you start getting along with her great and then she says she has a boyfriend.
Rating: 2 / 5