
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Action Publisher Capcom Developer Capcom ESRB T (Teen) Released January 2007

- Awesome sound and level design - Very good graphics - Usual assortment of action game weaponry - VS mechs are great - Muliplayer with one proviso...

- ... getting dropped to the lobby after every online match - Pretty short single-player campaign unless you're an "Achievement whore" - Final boss is a bit of a letdown after facing off against some truly epic monsters

Review: Dead Rising (360) Review: Gears of War (360) Review: Ninety-Nine Nights (360)
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Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Score: 8.0 / 10

In many ways Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is absolutely ridiculous, so much so that it’s hard to take it seriously.

The main character, Wayne , wears a furry parka, helmet and goggles while both well-endowed females characters often trek across Lost Planet’s ice world setting without a coat, a toque or something to cover their cleavage. Okay, that’s video game “logic” – gamers should always be able to see boobs – but it’s hard to overlook the threadbare and complicated story and cutscenes that could have been storyboarded by me.

“Wayne , you need to get to the Secret Base!”

“The Secret Base?” Wayne asks.

“Yeah, dumbass, the one we’ve been heading to for the last couple of levels!”

The developers can hide behind the fact Wayne suffers from amnesia, but some time tweaking the localization – that is, changing the dialogue from Japanese to English – would have been worth it. From what I can tell, the story revolves

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around some abandoned colonists, their corporate overseers, and a plan to warm the planet to make E.D.N. III a more hospitable place.

Plot problems and localization aside, Lost Planet is great fun! It’s got action, giant bugs, solid multiplayer, awesome sound design, and powerful mechs. Do away with the story elements and Lost Planet is all about

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getting from point A to point B – blowing up everything with a variety of weapons – then fighting a massive boss or an onslaught of enemies, and hoping Wayne has enough thermal energy (T-ENG) – basically a hot liquid he collects from fallen foes and exploded storage tanks – to make it through to the next checkpoint.

(The T-ENG allows Wayne to recover health over time if he takes damage, like Master Chief’s automatic shield restore, but run out of T-ENG, which is always depleting, and your health rapidly drops to zero.)

Though Wayne spends a lot of time tromping through the snow on-foot, he spends a great deal of time traversing the frozen wastelands in the confines of various mechs (some transformable), known as Vital Suits. They’re strewn around place like lost toys, which is a good thing because E.D.N. III is populated by the bug-like Akrid (pronounced A-krid), some of which are huge! Seriously, a few of these guys wouldn’t be out of place going claw-to-claw with Godzilla and even when riding atop a VS you feel vulnerable. There’s also a fair sized population of so-called Snow Pirates and other human opponents (both in an out of VS’s) to take out.

Lost Planet’s collection of weapons doesn’t stray far from the tried and true action game fodder – shotguns, frag grenades, machine guns, rocket and grenade launchers, etc. Wayne also has a grappling hook which is key to reaching ledges and escaping (particularly during multiplayer). It also comes in very handy when you take a step off a cliff – it automatically grips the edge and Wayne can either descend or leap back up.

Some of the VS’s have some interesting armaments, like the homing beam. The cool thing here is that Wayne can take the heavy weapons off a VS and wield it while on-foot. Slows him down quite a bit though, which is not so much of a concern during the single-player game, but during multiplayer…

The multiplayer matches offered by Lost Planet can be quite fun but it has the same problem as Gears of War when it comes to clan support and re-matches. The problem is, there isn’t any clan support. When a multiplayer game ends, you’re treated to a summary of the battle and then you have to head back to the lobby to find another match. The multiplayer game types consist of Team Elimination, Elimination, Post Grab and Fugitive. The last one is lots of fun, which is kind of like Reverse It. As the fugitive you have to keep away from the other players, while everyone else hunts you down. Kill the fugitive and the title of Fugitive falls to you. Post Grab is probably the most difficult – activating all the Data Posts on a map is extremely tough when everyone else is doing the same. Both Elimination modes are very similar to standard deathmatches and as fun as they are, the fate is always the same. The match ends, and you’re back in the lobby instead of getting revenge in the next round. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat does it? Why the hell can’t Lost Planet and Gears of War pull it off?

As an action game, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition delivers in spades – even if it can be finished in under 8 hours total playtime. Besides revisiting some really cool-looking environments, the only thing pushing you to replay the quick single-player game – I finished my first run through in under eight hours – are the various Achievements. Multiplayer is practically a separate game – I came across people at Level 60+ that hadn’t completed the third mission – but it affords many hours of action.

- Omni

(February 13, 2007)