$20 Game of the Week: Lost Planet – Extreme Conditions (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Lost Planet, along with Dead Rising, was part of Capcom’s strategy to make an impact on the Xbox 360 market, and it did, gaining critical acclaim for its fast-paced single player campaign and solid online multiplayer. Later on, the game was ported to PC (allowing cross-platform multiplayer with the Xbox 360 via the Windows live service) and PS3, although they received a somewhat lukewarm reaction compared to the Xbox game. A sequel to the game was recently announced, along with a movie (with a screenplay written by writer/voice actor David Hayter), so there is no better time than the present to explore the Lost Planet.

Lost Planet takes place in the distant future. The Earth is uninhabitable, and humanity seeks out a new home. Discovering the snow covered planet E.D.N. III, a group known as Neo-Venus construction attempts to make it suitable for living, but the planet is overrun by giant alien creatures known as the Akrid. Neo-Venus fights a war against them, employing giant mecha known as Vital Suits. Eventually Neo-Venus takes control of the planet, only to be opposed by several factions of snow pirates. You play as Wayne, who is one of these pirates. You served with Neo-Venus in the past, but you lose your memory shortly after witnessing your father’s apparent death. Now you assist a group of snow pirates as they attempt to thaw out the planet, making it suitable for human life.

In Lost Planet, the environment is extremely cold. Thus to survive, your character needs to stay warm, and to stay warm, you need to gather thermal energy, and to gather thermal energy, you need to kill the akrid enemies. So as you can imagine, the game keeps players on their toes. You have a regenerating health bar like in Halo, but you need thermal energy to use it. Wayne also has a grappling hook he can use to reach higher place, similar to Bionic Commando. Players can also use the Vital Suits found in the game to battle enemies, and can even take the guns off of them. While you’ll battle various human enemies, the real stars of the game are the akrids, whose sizes range from tiny to huge. Regardless of the size, most of them can be destroyed easily by shooting their huge orange weak points. While this makes the battles a bit simplistic, battling huge akrids gives an awesome David vs Goliath feel.

The game has a number of decent multiplayer modes, although they won’t make players toss out their copies of Gears of War 2. A greatest hits ‘Colonies’ edition contains new multplayer and single player modes, as well as new maps and multiplayer characters, so this is the version to go with. One small issue I have with the game is that when I move the cross hair, the character doesn’t turn fast enough to keep up with it, although I can still shoot in that direction regardless, so it is just a small issue that takes getting used to. Even with this issue, Lost Planet is an excellent sci-fi shooter from Capcom, which is a company you usually don’t see traditional third person shooters from. If the sequel is half as enjoyable as this game, and Capcom can follow up after that, then Lost Planet can easily stand aside Mega Man, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter as one of Capcom’s great franchises.