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Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition Review for Xbox 360 (X360)

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition Review for Xbox 360 (X360)

A Planet Worth Discovering?

Special editions of games are starting to make some headway. Persona 3 FES landed in our hands a few months ago, and soon Gears of War will be joining the re-release show. It’s a smart strategy: bring a game back into the limelight by slashing the price and packing it full of bonus content. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition (that’s one long-winded title) takes the original game, released over a year ago, and jams it full of new weapons, some single player additions, and a massive list of online modes. Now, all these features look good on the back of the box, and should draw the average consumer’s eye, but do they really add to up to a better game? The answer is yes and no. They make the multiplayer better, but don’t help the shaky single-player campaign.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition screenshot

The Lost Planet in question goes by the name E.D.N. III. A frigid globe, it is overrun by an alien race known as the Akrid, who are posing trouble to intrepid groups of human colonizers. It plays out like an icy version of Starship Troopers. Problems arise when the narrative aims for exposition – instead of keeping it simple (people versus bugs), the story weaves a convoluted path. Putting you in control of Wayne (yes, just Wayne – no last name), the cutscenes unravel a hard-to-follow plot about secrets of planet supporting thermal energy sources, and try to get you interested in two dimensional characters with ridiculously silly names (one goes by the name of an herb – she’s just known as Basil). And, like so many video game characters, Wayne has memory issues, so he’s constantly reassessing the situation and getting reacquainted with the same cast.

Thermal energy plays a part not only in the plot, but is also central to the gameplay. Wayne has two heath indicators: one is T-Eng (thermal energy) and the other is a standard health bar. T-Eng slowly drains from the cold and enemy damage; once it all drains Wayne’s health bar starts to dwindle. The key is to constantly keep Wayne charged up with T-Eng. This spills out of the aliens – so there’s an incentive to stay on the move while keeping the kill count up. To absorb the T-Eng, Wayne and all the other human characters have a device called an energy pod – it essentially looks like a glowing, over-sized fanny pack.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition screenshot

Bug blasting is fun, but there’s a catch to how it’s done: instead of requiring you to unload a massive amount of ammo into the aliens, the game is built around an exploit-the-weak-point system. Each Akrid has a particular spot on its body that glows yellow; as you pummel that particular spot with rounds, it grows a darker and brighter red until the alien explodes. It feels like an old school gameplay mechanic in a satisfying way. Wayne does have a unique attachment at his disposal: by pressing a button he’ll shoot out an anchor (a grappling hook) that allows him to reach high ledges or descend down into caverns. Aside from your standard assortment of machine guns, rifles, shotguns, and varied grenades, you can hop in what the game refers to as Vital Suits. These are essentially mechs, which can hold up to two weapons at a time (for instance, a Gattling gun and rocket launcher), and have special abilities like double jumps or limited flight.

Even with all the neat abilities and equipment at his disposal, Wayne isn’t the most fun character to control. The game utilizes an arcade-like, tight control set, which is responsive, but Wayne seems to run at a terribly slow clip. He also isn’t very nimble either – the force of many attacks knocks him to the ground, and by the time he gets back up, he’s already getting knocked over again. Another problem is the game’s camera. While it works well most of the time (with an over-the-shoulder setup), during boss fights it gets stuck in odd situations. This is a fault mainly of the game’s ambition – bosses take up more than the whole screen, and as a result, the camera constantly has trouble staying where you want it. Visual oddities aren’t restricted to just the camera. Explosions – which look quite impressive – can sometimes become so frequent they cloud your entire field of vision with smoke and fire. You’re left to swing the targeting reticule around, waiting for it to turn red, and point you in the direction of the explosive weapon spammer.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition screenshot

For a game with a year already under its belt, Lost Planet still ranks up there as one of the best looking Xbox 360 games. The arctic environments are stellar, and the game has some truly awesome alien creature designs. The only stumbling block comes in the form of environmental repetition – you’ll be trekking through a lot of snowfields, industrial complexes, and caverns. An added fault is these environments don’t communicate the right direction very well – the game relies on data posts (which you activate) to point you in the right direction. From a sound standpoint, the game doesn’t fare as well. The score has a very epic feel and sets a proper tone. It’s too bad the game has a lot of melodramatic cutscenes voiced quite badly. Instead of having a B-movie, campy quality, they come off as anime-inspired throwaways, and most players will be racing to skip through them.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition screenshot

Completing the single-player campaign should take players about eight hours, which feels like just the right amount of time. The length isn’t the problem – rather, it’s the splintering of gameplay. The first half of the game is more on-foot combat, and has you blasting away Akrid, while the later half plays out like a Gundam anime with constant mech-versus-mech showdowns. To encourage you to go back to the single-player, the game ships with modes like Trial Battle (where you fight bosses), and Time Attack features a combo-based scoring system.

The real draw of Lost Planet is its bevy of multiplayer options. Clocking in at over 10 multiplayer modes, these should help players quickly forget about the less-than-stellar last half of the single-player campaign. Some notable new additions are Akrid Battle and Egg Bandit. The former puts one player in control of a giant Akrid, and it’s up the rest of the players to take down the big nasty. The latter is similar to a skull mode – players vie for control of an alien egg, and whoever holds onto it the longest comes out on top.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition crams a lot of new content into the frame of a respectable game. The discounted price doesn’t hurt either – 30 bucks gets you a more action-packed version of last year’s entry. However, there’s probably not enough compelling new content to convince previous players to throw more money at Capcom’s wallet, but anyone who missed the title the first time around should give it a worthwhile look.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.4 Graphics
The environments are beautiful, and the creatures on display are an awesome sight to behold. It’s too bad there’s a lot of texture repeating – there are more than enough caves, snow, and random steel constructions. 3.5 Control
The stiff character control and problematic camera can make playing the game an exercise. Also, what’s the deal with the default run speed? Why so slow? 3.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
While sporting a respectable, epic-sounding score, the game’s voice acting is flat-out bad. 3.8 Play Value
While the single-player campaign has a hit-or-miss quality, the plethora of multiplayer options should keep players entertained. 3.8 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • New Modes for Single-Player Campaign – Score Attack, Trial Battle Mode, and Off Limit Mode.
  • New Online Modes – Akrid Hunter, VS Annihilator, CounterGrab, Point Snatcher, Akrid Egg Battle, and Egg Bandit.
  • Four New Multiplayer Maps – Crossfire City, Area 921, Lost Arena, and Assault Space.
  • New Playable Characters – Two female and two robot characters are added to the roster.
  • New Weapons (human) – Hand Gun, Revolver, Flame Launcher, and Hand Cannon. New Weapons (VS) – Pile Bunker, VS Rifle, Rocket Pod, and Laser Lance.
  • New Environments – Snowstorms, arctic winds, and towering mountains of ice are all stunningly realized, creating a truly immersive and cinematic event of epic proportions.
  • New perspectives – Switch to first person view or the over-the-shoulder view from Resident Evil 4 for even more intense action.
  • Screen Resolution: Up to 1080p (Full HDTV, Widescreen).

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