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One of the best action games of the year arrives with Lost Planet. Like Dead Rising before it, Lost Planet is an action game at its purest. The game doesn’t have lofty goals but it does manage to entertain you throughout its (brief) adventure.
Lost Planet takes place on E.D.N. III, a frozen planet colonized by humans who have left Earth. Although everything was going well for some time, the humans eventually met resistance from Akrid, insect-like inhabitants of the planet. They discovered that the Akrid contain goo that provides heat and energy and so the humans decided to combat them on E.D.N. III in order to collect this goo. You play as Wayne, a man whose father was killed by one such Akrid. As if fighting these insect-like creatures wasn’t enough, some outlaws have decided to capitalize on this goo themselves so you’ll have to take care of them as well. The story in Lost Planet is okay and not totally coherent but the action is so good that you won’t care.
In Lost Planet, you’ll have to shoot as many aliens as possible. The game is a typical third-person shooter with some crouching and dodging thrown in for good cause. The game doesn’t hesitate at throwing lots of enemies at you. These enemies present themselves in a variety of interactive and highly destructive environments (not all of which are snow-covered since there are some indoor environments in the game) and usually come before some sort of massive boss that you have to take care of. Although the individual enemies are fun to waste, the boss fights are the real star of the game. Even if you’re a pacifist, the game encourages you to kill as many enemies as possible because you need to collect the goo that enemies drop in order to keep your thermal energy supply up even though it constantly decreases. Let it drain completely and your health will deteriorate until you die.
Lost Planet equips you with a number of weapons. You get the standard shotgun and rifle, as well as things like grenades, rocket launchers, and plasma rifles. The game also lets you pick up enormous mech weapons although your mobility is drastically reduced while holding one. The game also gives you a grappling hook that lets you move about more freely.
Lost Planet’s 11-mission singleplayer game will only last eight or so hours, but the game does have a full-fledged multiplayer component through Xbox Live. The online mode supports 16 players, and sports four gameplay modes and eight maps. You’ll find deathmatch, team deathmatch, fugitive mode (all against one) and post grab (team-based capture the flag). The game rewards you with points as you play online which gives you character skins. Playing online is a lot of fun and fits the engine perfectly. We found online gameplay to be smooth and lag-free.
Visually, the game’s graphics are fantastic. The character models are incredibly detailed and animate very well. The snow-covered landscapes are a sight to be seen. Lost Planet sports some of the best snow and smoke effects ever seen on a videogame. There are some framerate issues laying around but nothing that detracts from the game.
The game’s audio is good but not amazing. The game’s sound effects—especially the weapon sound effects—sound fantastic and pack the necessary oomph. The mechs that populate the game also sound great, especially as they trek through the snow. The voice acting is one of the weaker points since it doesn’t sound particularly convincing and it doesn’t have strong dialogue backing it up.
Lost Planet is a great action game—one that Xbox 360 gamers would do well to pick up. The action is fast and furious and the multiplayer mode expands the game’s longevity. The Xbox 360 isn’t exactly lacking in the shooters department, but Lost Planet is nonetheless one of the console’s best. -- , PGNx Media
---- Jan 30, 2007
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