What can I say about Lost Planet? It is different. Before I even started
playing it, I knew it was going to be a breath of fresh air for the third-
person shooter genre. While Lost Planet is a fairly conventional shooter, it
has many small elements added in that, when all mixed together, make it much
better than the average shooter.
To begin with, the first thing you notice about almost any game is the
graphics. Lost Planet definitely succeeds in this area. Its graphics are
beautiful and full of lush environments. The game supports HD up to 1080p if
your TV supports that. The cut scenes are particularly nice, with highly
detailed characters and great voice acting. Particularly impressive are the
explosion effects in the game. I find myself shooting every barrel in the game
just to see them explode. It is incredibly satisfying to blow up a barrel right
beside an enemy and see them be engulfed in a beautiful ball of flame. The
graphics sometimes take a small hit when they are many enemies on the screen
all attacking at once, but overall the frame-rate stays pretty solid throughout.
The story in lost planet is incredibly confusing. I found myself skipping most
of the cut scenes because I couldn’t follow anything, but basically, I think
it’s about a really cold planet infested with aliens known as Akrid. You play
as Wayne, a guy enhanced with a robotic device that caused him to lose his
memory, out for revenge against the people who killed his father. It’s
basically just an excuse to shoot a bunch of aliens and snow pirates. The
characters in the game all have distinct personalities and develop well
throughout the game. Unfortunately, the game’s story mode is pretty short. At
only 11 missions, you’ll breeze through it in about 10-20 hours. Thankfully,
the game has enjoyable multiplayer that I will discuss more later.
The combat in the game is non-stop and intense. You have the usual assortment
of machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers, but you also
get a couple of energy weapons and plenty of grenades. This game takes a hint
from Halo by having incredibly powerful grenades. You can easily turn the tide
of a fight with a couple of well-placed grenades. Or course, if you run out of
ammo (which is very unlikely), you can smack a guy with your gun, with does a
considerable amount of damage.
What really sets this game apart is VS’s. A VS is a vital suit, which is a
mech. I know what you’re thinking. Woohoo another Gundam rip-off (dripping with
sarcasm). But you’re wrong mechs are great in this game. Plus, it isn’t one of
those things where you are forced into a stupid mech sequence. You almost
always have the choice of getting in a mech or not. Sometimes it is a better
choice not to get into a VS. But usually it just comes down to personal
preference. In the two or three sequences when you have to be in a VS, you’ll
be glad you have to. There are also many assortments of VS. In the end sequence
of Lost Planet you get an awesome VS for the final battle, but I want spoil the
surprise for you. You also have stationary turret-ish things that are pretty
fun to use. Thankfully, VS’s don’t overpower the game. If you hit a VS with a
couple of rockets or a few headshots from a plasma gun it will go down in a
beautiful explosion. This makes staying on foot just as viable a choice as
getting into a VS. Unfortunately, your VS’s sometimes feel a bit underpowered
against some enemies.
The multiplayer in Lost Planet is fun and offers many different games modes,
but just isn’t as fun as many games out there. It also only supports online
play, but no split-screen, which is a huge hit. But if you have Live it is
still pretty fun.
Overall, Lost Planet is a great shooter with many unique elements. Hopefully
I'll become faster in Multiplayer... Let’s just hope they don’t rush into a
sequel.
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