Title Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Date 02.19.2006 Genre Action Platform Xbox 360 Developer Capcom Publisher Capcom

Lost Planet is a game that had a fair amount of hype. After the sweet releases of Rainbow Six: Vegas, Call of Duty 3, Gears of War and other great titles leading up to the new year, many 360 owners were fearing that due to getting so much at one time that the beginning of the new year would be marked as a time of inevitable drought. Luckily enough there was a shining pearl available in the media for a game that could alleviate the numbing pain of patience.

That game was Lost Planet, a game showing great potential with its gorgeous graphics and its mech suits. A demo was released and the general consensus was that it was a good game and with some time in the oven it could be truly great. A lot of people thought that the issues that plagued the demo would be fixed because the actual demo came out about a year before the games actual release. Sadly enough I have to report that I really have no idea what might have went into the development process after this demo, but there are only a few options. The first being that they took way to much time on demos (the more likely reason seeing as they released both a multiplayer demo and a singleplayer demo), and secondly that much of what was done in its last year of development was simply polishing.

STORY
This game takes place in the winter tundra. It’s a lost planet that is in constant battle over values and survival. There are typically three opposing forces in this game: a superior corporation, a rogue group of survivalists, and the alien akrid. The Akrid are a group of aliens who seem to be very insect-like in nature. At any rate they are a constant thorn in the side to both human forces and to our main character Wayne in particular when the Green Eyes (a major Akrid) does something to incite hopes of revenge.

The conditions on the planet are extremely cold and the only heat source strong enough to combat it is T-ENG. This heat source can only be gotten from the Akrid and thus there is constant battle. At any rate the story is probably pretty underrated in general. I found myself enjoying the cut scenes and the story and it
isn't one that is hard to understand at all. It isn't anything amazing but I think you'll find it interesting enough to keep playing and not skip through them.

GRAPHICS
The graphics in this game are among some of the most brilliant graphics for the Xbox 360. It uses a mixture of gorgeous lighting and the motion blur is remarkably well done. The cut scene graphics appear to be made of the in game models for sure, and it’s just a shame that more close ups and other things weren't implemented to really show off the beauty of the engine. The Lighting is really well done especially in cave environments. Typical enemies and Versus suits while looking pretty damn good, obviously didn't get the treatment that some of the beautiful Akrid did. The game has some wonderful animation even though it is somewhat limited, and there is a physics engine though it is really hard to notice.

What really makes this game stand out is the scale in some of its levels as well as the boss fights. The Akrid bosses are all typically extremely large and the graphics for these fights actually look BETTER than Gears of War in my opinion. While Gears of War has all around better graphics than this game, these akrid boss fight battles just look a little too good to be true at times. This game has BEAUTIFUL explosions and brilliant particle effects that really stand out.
 
MUSIC
The music in this game is pretty generic. While at times the music is pretty good its never really even something I remember while actually playing. Overall it isn't that great and aside from a beautiful title theme the music in this game is pretty average at best. There were moments where I wish they would have gone balls out on the music at times like when you are doing some pretty epic things like climbing a mountain and looking at giant enemy flying moth or in a pretty epic VS battle but oh well.

CONTROLS
The controls in this game are below average. Personally I didn't see any reason at all to force options for 90 degree turns in the button setup. These turns take a lot out of your options because the buttons they use could have been better spent. There are differing control configurations but no matter what you'll be wishing you could have used certain buttons for differing things but they are likely taken up by either 90 degree turns or the grapple hook. There is one option that allowed 90 degree turns to be handled by snapping the right analog in whatever direction, and I was almost sure that this would have been the superior option, but I found myself accidentally dragging the camera left and right while attempting to aim.

So basically by default your going to be reloading with pressing in your right analog, zooming with the d-pad, etc. They have a steep learning curve but once you get used to it its pretty easy and quick. Personally I would suggest just turning up your sensitivity via the options menu.

GAMEPLAY
This game really hasn't changed since the demo. It’s got some very good premises. First of all you can get through each map a multitude of ways so I complement great map design. The auto-aim system is this game is just embarrassing. I immediately turned it off because of how n00b intense it was. I mean turn this thing off IMMEDIATELY. Not only are you going to be shooting at enemies that you didn't want to, but you feel you've accomplished very little in a game that already has relatively easy to hit targets. The thing that makes this game different is a huge life bar that is supplied by T-ENG. You get T-ENG by defeating enemies and summoning heat from enemy or neutral 'units' (kind of like raising a flag). Early on in the game it is simply easy to just rush through some areas without use of it because its so easy, but later on the difficult picks up and they do a better job of pacing heat units and enemies and such to make a lot of thought go into what way your going to go and what to do. Later the game requires a lot of thought process because some of the stronger weapons along with VS suits require constant use of your T-ENG.

This creates an extremely unique system later where you are constantly asking yourself if you should take it on foot to keep your T-ENG high, but you also wonder if you require powerful weaponry and the help of VS suits to get through certain areas and defeat difficult enemies. When you combine a lack of heat and very difficult areas and you have no idea where the exit is, the gameplay gets very fun.

Overall the on foot areas of the game are pretty fun but nothing great. One thing that was frustrating about the demo was the enemy A.I. The aliens aren't that smart which was forgiving because they are insect-like. But I would argue that the Akrid are smarter than the humans at times. They will constantly just stand there and die one at a time and never seek to retreat or do anything. The A.I is simply putrid and holds the game back a lot.

Its obvious later in the game that they seek to make up for the terrible A.I by laying extreme situations on the player. They will start to give the enemies stronger more accurate weaponry and litter Akrid and Versus suit enemies in your path, giving them rockets and homing lasers and other such weapons in order to correct piss poor aim. The grapple hook makes things fun and interesting and allows freedom to the map making process so you'll see a range of various settings. Its a breath of fresh air but nothing amazing and I felt it was underused. I thought it would have been interesting to be able to use it as a weapon and maybe pull enemies and items towards you ala Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.

The VS suits are pretty terrible except for a few. There is some great gameplay to be had with some of the suits that makes the game feel entirely different, but it’s obvious they give you terrible suits for a majority of the game in order to make certain suits seem incredibly advanced for the sake of story. I feel that this hurt the gameplay and if only they made these advanced suits more apart of the gameplay then it would have been more fun. The boss battles are all tremendous fun. The boss battles are definitely among the most satisfying thing from the campaign mode. There are varying strategies but it’s mostly summed up in two categories. For the Akrid: Aim for the weak spot and then crush it when it’s vulnerable, and for the VS suits, just pound them with everything you've got while dodging.

Sadly due to lack of A.I the game takes a huge hit in gameplay and it never turns out to be anything amazing, but its damn good fun. Dedicated Magazines like to say that its cheap not to be able to look completely up or down and that tripping up and such when explosives land near by or enemies quake out of the ground slow you up so much that you can't win your battles. That isn't the case and it just makes the game look better. Eventually you begin to understand that the only thing that matters is getting to the boss battle...and so you'll begin to just rush as quickly as you can from point A to B. This is hard when dealing with VS suits, but otherwise it’s pretty simple and makes you get through the game really fast.

REPLAYABILITY
There is a pretty fun multiplayer system to be had here. Its nothing ground breaking but it’s a great break from the norm. VS suits are available and everything is fairly balanced. There are differing guns and the grapple system lets you get up to varying snipe points and such. There is some customization and some ranked options that prove to be a lot of fun. The singleplayer is probably around 8 to 10 hours.
Overall its fun but I don't think its something that can take you away from Halo 2, Gears of War, or Rainbow Six.

Game Score

B-

Reviewed By: Contributed