Lost Planet: Extreme Condition couldn’t have been more aptly named. In
many ways, Capcom’s latest epic takes some big steps forward in design,
plot, and presentation. But in other ways, the game pulls a 180, and
dredges up some artifacts of gaming that were thought to be long dead.
Thankfully, the things that Lost Planet does right are far more
numerous than the things the game does wrong, which in the end leaves
us with a game that’s certainly not perfect, but still manages to be
plenty of fun.
The
game takes place on a cold wasteland of a planet, EDN III, which was
colonized by humans over a century ago after the Earth became
uninhabitable. After arriving, the colonists soon came under attack from the Akrid, a hostile alien life form which seems hell-bent on
eradicating all human life on the planet. Ironically, it’s from these
enemies that the humans find a plentiful source of the most precious
energy on the frozen planet- thermal energy.
The main plot
focuses around Wayne, a young VS suit (or giant mech) pilot, who
combats the Akrid alongside his father- also a VS pilot. One day,
Wayne’s team is ambushed by a giant Akrid called the green eye, who
kills Wayne’s father and almost wipes out him as well. Fortunately,
Wayne survives and is taken in by a group of new-age exterminators
determined to rid the world of the Akrid, one nest at a time. From then
on, the plot dulls somewhat. Wayne spends the game seeking out the
Akrid’s hives, trying to hunt down the green eyed monster that killed
his father, and unravel the sinister plot hidden deep underneath the
frozen tundra. Oh, and he’s got amnesia. This is where Wayne’s
recessive Matrix-Shenmue gene kicks in, and he transforms into a
teenage surfer on a quest to avenge his father’s death. Needless to
say, we’ve all seen more original main characters before.
Between
the cheesy cut-scenes and dialogue lies the gameplay- and this is one
of the aspects of Lost Planet that is truly unique. In lieu of managing
a traditional health bar, Wayne’s stamina is managed through a
constantly ticking timer of thermal energy, which is what keeps Wayne
warm enough to survive the frozen bitterness. If the energy reading
reaches zero, you’ll flat line, and it’s game over. Thermal energy can
be replenished by downing enemies, as well as by destroying any of the
game’s impressive variety of destructible objects. For such a bland and
expansive wasteland, there sure seems to be plenty of things to smash-
especially once you take control of a VS suit. Some items are even
buried underground, and can be dug out for Wayne to use. There’s plenty
of weaponry at your disposal, whether on foot or
in a VS. Machine guns,
shotguns, grenades and rocket launchers- all the standard fare is
present and accounted for, and what’s more are scattered plentifully
throughout each level. On top of that is your gatling gun, which works
how you’d expect Batman’s Batarang to- you launch the line toward any
solid object, it latches and pulls you in, and you take a leap up for
good measure. It functions well on almost any surface, and adds some
nice flexibility to Wayne’s otherwise sluggish movements (where’s a
dash button when you really need one?). It also helps prevent cheap
deaths from falling off of cliffs, which is easy since the outdoor
terrain is basically one color.
You can also attach and remove
weapons from the VS suits, which adds a nice little custom touch to the
gunplay. I just wish I could paint the suits a different color; the
entire palette of colors in Lost Planet runs the gamut from white, to
black, to reddish orange when things blow up… and that seems to be
about it. While the levels are expansive and the graphics are crisp and
detailed, the monotonous layout of each stage- snow, warehouse, snow,
cave, snow- gets a bit tedious after a while. The audio is equally
crisp and a bit more impressive at times, especially during cut-scenes
and the massive boss battles. In-game music is a bit hard to come by,
however, which only adds to the tedium of the navigating the arctic
terrain.
Another issue that needs addressing is the game’s
camera and control problems. Once considerable obstacles for designers
during the dawn of 3D gaming, they have at this point been boiled down
to a pure science. Even mediocre games don’t seem to have a problem in
this area- so long as they stick to the tried-and-true
Halo/GoldenEye/Half-Life formula (depending on which game you think
invented the modern shooter first). And yet Lost Planet’s control
scheme seems to have been pulled right out of a first generation Dual
Shock title, replete with 90-degree turn shoulder buttons.
Capcom
still kept the traditional dual analog stick layout for movement and
aiming- but instead of having the right thumbstick controlling the
camera directly, it controls a reticule in the center of the screen.
The reticule can drag Wayne’s view around in any direction, but there’s
a dead zone in the center, which means unless the object you’re aiming
at is in that gray area in the center of the screen, you’d better have
fast thumbs. It feels like an unholy union between System Shock and
Space Harrier at first, but it certainly doesn’t break
the controls. In
fact, it accommodates the heavy feel of the mech combat quiet nicely,
but it certainly does hamper them when on foot. I wonder why Capcom
decided to make human combat as slow and unwieldy as mech combat. Does
Wayne have a lazy eye? Are those goggles the wrong prescription? I
guess we’ll never know- but in the inevitable sequel (Found Planet?), I
really hope Capcom smoothes out this wrinkle in an otherwise smooth
control scheme.
Although Lost Planet takes some steps back in
the gameplay department, it takes several more forward as well. The
checkpoint system is actually very ingenious, with large tripods set up
throughout each level which, once activated, provide you with a map as
well as a light pointing toward the next goalpost. In a game whose
levels are so monotonous, these posts come in mighty handy. Another
interesting decision by Capcom was to map the pause buttons and
inventory/map buttons separately- this means that when you check your
map or your status, you thermal meter continues to decrease, just as it
normally would. It’s a bit unusual, but it really does make sense,
considering that time doesn’t freeze in real life when you ask Tom-Tom
where the nearest KFC is (at least, not with the one I have). The menu
system, loading screens, and interface are also well polished and
smartly designed, and it’s the little touches like these that show a
lot of thought has been put into polishing the game’s dynamics- which
makes the 32-bit
control scheme all the more befuddling.
Speaking
of the PS1 era, I couldn’t help but wince nostalgically at some of Lost
Planet’s cut-scenes. This is also another area in which the game just
can’t pick a side. The opening cinematic is actually pretty riveting,
with enough style and production quality to easily make up for the
voice acting, which certainly varies at times. But after that, the game
switches to in-engine cut-scenes whose jerky character animations and
uneven voices harks of the typical cinematic moment found in a
Dreamcast game.
As far as multiplayer is concerned, there’s a
16-player online feature with the standard Xbox Live system in place-
although no split-screen or even system link, which will surely bum out
the LAN party crowd. Nonetheless, the online play is smooth and, like
the single player mode, offers a unique twist on the typical shooter
gameplay mechanic. Rather than the traditional variety of deathmatches,
online competitions are instead played as capture-the-flag style
events, with checkpoint posts acting as bases to be captured and fought
over. Between stomping an opponent in a VS suit and flying up a
building wall with the gatling gun, playing Lost Planet online is truly
one of the most original experiences available on Xbox Live today, and
a hell of a lot of fun. Think MechAssault meets Team Fortress, and
you’ll start to get a clearer picture.
Lost Planet: Extreme
Condition is a game with a very strange identity crisis: it knows
exactly what it wants to be, but it doesn’t always know how to be it.
There are some head-scratchingly poor decisions on Capcom’s part, for
sure- but they’re so spread out amongst an overall solid game that
you’ll likely forgive most of this game’s strange quirks, and enjoy a
gameplay experience that is unique, fun, and most importantly (in
accordance with the mandatory one winter weather pun law,) won’t leave
you out in the cold.
Ratings (out of 10):
Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 8
Sound: 7
Replay Value: High
Entertainment Value: 8
Overall Rating:
8/10