14 DAY TRIAL // 
I've been playing Capcom games from the early stages of my gaming life and the Resident Evil series will always be a pleasant memory. Considering that the next-gen consoles have become a real hit, the producers couldn't ignore them and prepared a set of neat titles that exploited the Xbox 360's capacity to the max. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is one of those titles and I must say that playing this game has been a real privilege. At first sight it's eye candy above all, but you'll soon see that the "candy" lies in the gameplay, too. It might be a bit similar to Gears of War, but only the good things got copied from the most famous Xbox 360 launch title.
Story The story is typical for a mediocre sci-fi/action movie featuring a frozen planet, a couple of pirates and many alien bugs. Consider this a combination between Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie and Starship Troopers. On the one hand we've got the flying creatures and the apocalyptic atmosphere that seem taken directly from Spirits Within and on the other hand there are the famous huge alien bugs that are very similar to the ones from Starship Troopers. You control Wayne Holden, a young man that sets on a quest to find the giant "Green Eye" creature that killed his father, Gale Holden.
The game's action takes place in the distant future, when humanity is struggling for survival on a planet named EDN III. People left Earth and colonized this planet, but they have to fight the unbearable cold and the alien species that want them dead. The "bugs" are called Akrid and they're not just the enemy, but the most important resource that the planet can offer: heat. Once they're dead, thermal energy is released from their bodies and humans invented the technology that allowed them to store that energy. As Wayne, your ultimate goal is finding the Green Eye and destroying the bugs' hives, while fighting a bunch of snow pirates on the loose.
Concept Welcome to the world of Wayne Holden! He's a pretty troubled young man and the main character of my favorite third person shooter for the Xbox 360 console. Considering the potential of this next-gen device, I'm not sure how long this supremacy will last in my personal gaming top ten. During the game you'll have the opportunity to control your human character, Wayne or you'll pilot a huge mech called VS (Vital Suit). Always keep your eye on the T Eng meter, that's below your health meter, as this shows how much thermal energy you've got left till you freeze and die. While walking on foot, the concept of distance is very well defined and you'll spend lots of minutes walking around in the blizzard. In order to survive, you must kill Akrids to recharge your thermal energy and avoiding the enemy creatures is not an option. The classic third person shooter weapons are included in Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, ranging from shotguns to machine guns, rocket launchers and a special energy weapon that shoot green bolts towards the aliens.
The VS can be upgraded with rocket launchers or Gattling guns,that you'll find lying around, simply by attaching them to the vehicle when you're prompted to. Once you're inside a Vital Suit, the temperature will drop slower, but the mech's hovers will deplete a lot of thermal energy points. So you'd better use the VS wisely and I, for one preferred to face all the Akrids on foot, mostly because the mech tends to be a bit slow on the snow. Heat can be collected by gathering heat pads from the ground after the enemies are defeated and you should really make a run for them, because they have a tendency of disappearing after the Akrid is killed. Fighting snow pirates will be totally different than fighting the aliens, as the humans can wield weapons and attack in organized groups.
Back to the whole heating process, you'll be able to gather more T eng points by blowing up barrels or activating data posts that give you a lot of heat. Refilling the T eng meter also refills Wayne's health meter in the single player mode only. Don't expect to find any experience concept in the game, because this is a classic third person shooter, no strings attached, just linear missions (11 of them) and "do this do that" requirements. In the beginning you might be tempted to say that the AI rocks, because of the way that the Akrids storm on the battlefield and surprise you, but they're far dumber than they seem. Also, killing them can become a walk in the park, once you've seen their weak spots and learned their attacks by heart. The Snow Pirates' attacks are nothing impressive, but they're pretty efficient considering they strike you in groups and take cover. There's a lot of interactivity with the environment in Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and you'll be able to use a grappling hook to hang on walls, climb or descend from the tallest mountain. Also, you can get hit by rocks that visibly damage your VS or blast them to pieces in order to crush an Akrid that's speeding towards you.
Gameplay Why do aliens have to look like bugs each time a new shooter comes out? Before you know it, we'll become bug experts and fear the tiniest insect that we crush in the kitchen sink. For me it's all about two types of creatures: Final Fantasy: Spirits Within monster lookalikes and Starship Troopers bugs lookalikes. However, Capcom named them Akrid and loaded them with thermal energy. There are two ways of disposing of these huge and nasty foes: shoot them till they drop dead or play smart and aim for their weak spot. The producers might think that we have never played a shooter before or that we have sight problems, because they made that weak spot so visible that you couldn't miss it even if you wanted to. Akrids have a pretty realistic behavior, if there's such thing as realism in a fight against ten meters-tall bugs. Wayne, the main character can only carry 2 weapons at a time and swap them according to the enemies that he must defeat.
I used the shotgun and machine gun most of the time and you should never worry about ammo, because there's always plenty of it scattered throughout the levels. When you want to equip a different weapon, you'll have to drop one of the two that you have in your inventory. The VS is present in Lost Planet to make your life easier and it packs some serious firepower, being extremely useful when dealing with bosses, but not when you want to kill a couple of Akrids, the fast way. If the "bugs" attack you in groups and you're overwhelmed, there's always the grappling hook that can help you escape by reaching higher ground. Once you get used to the game's combat system, you'll have the time of your life during the battles, especially when a couple of Akrids storm a snowy valley by rolling and making the ground tremble. The AI has its stupid flaws, for example, I was fighting a huge spider-like creature while approaching the edge of a snow dune and while I was trying to avoid falling from that tall spot, the beast slipped and fell in the ice cold water down below. There will be tons of such accidents and the small rolling Akrids never watch out for bombs or explosive barrels, ramming straight into them.
That may be "realistic", but I'm not looking for such a feature in a sci-fi game. If you feel that the VS is slowing you down, you might consider using a version that can be transformed into a snowbile-like vehicle. Watching the aliens lurk around can become a real hobby and the Akrid species are so varied that you'll take a while to get used to them. You'll deal with flying Akrids, or Akrids that throw acid, perhaps avoid those that explode or inflate and always look out for those that roll and hit you with their spikes. "Bugs" are produced by Genessa creatures that look like some sort of meaty portal that spawns Akrids. You'll find them on the wall and you'll have to shoot them if you want to stop the enemies from spawning, in a way that reminded me of Gears of War and the sequence when you had to shut down holes that produced aliens by using grenades.
There's also an Akrid that produces electric current and you won't be damaged by it, instead your VS and any other ship or gear will stop functioning because of the electrical shock. Throwing grenades is probably the most fun thing to do in Lost Planet, as it provides you with eye candy and dispatches many Akrids at a time. If the difficulty of the standard enemies is pretty average, the bosses pretty tough to beat, even if they have the same weak spot to aim for. Rocker launchers will usually do the job, even if you're fighting creatures that are ten time the size of a normal Akrid. The title's physics are also well built and we'll see Wayne falling on the ground when a huge block falls near him or he'll be tripping (not the slang word) when the earth's shaking. You'll use the two analog sticks to get around and one moves the camera, while the other is used to move the character. There are no camera and control problems whatsoever and it seems that the days of console trademark camera problems are over.
Video This is probably 60 percent of the reason why I like this game and I'm not the only one to love this sensational amount of eye candy. The graphics are stunning, dazzling, amazing and this whole next-gen phenomenon is becoming a pleasant surprise. The explosions are brilliantly done, especially when you'll be throwing grenades or blowing up barrels. When you're sitting right next to an Akrid you can see his...."muscles" twitching and its whole body looking lively and gorgeously gruesome. The VS looks great and it puzzled me to see that the damage it takes is noticeable through the missing parts of its body and the sparks flying out of it.
The environment is stunning, with the blizzard effects, the rolling rocks, snow all around you and other cold-related weather phenomena. Also, the Akrids have a funny way of dying, which adds a bit of satisfaction to the kill: they freeze and become some sort of ice statue. If you want to collect their thermal energy, you'll have to break them to pieces. You're not the only one that's interacting with a frozen environment and you'll see stupid aliens slipping on the ice, falling from cliffs or hitting each other by mistake. Also, there are some bigger "bugs" that tend to attack the little ones, so it's survival of the fittest, especially if you have enough thermal energy to ignore them and keep walking.
Sound Great graphics can't be complemented by lousy music, because it would be a real pity to spoil the game's atmosphere. You'll always feel the presence of the Akrid around you, and you'll hear the earth trembling and their screams, while they're still far. When the ground cracks, it's go time and you'll hear the sound of the machine gun, that can really become music to one's ears. Speaking of which, Lost Planet's soundtrack is well done, synchronized with the game's action and it's made out of orchestral compositions or music with a faster tempo during the battles. Each Akrid has a different scream, each weapon sounds differently, but the human dialogs are not worth mentioning. We might as well listen to the alien bugs talking, since men share only clich�s.
Multiplayer Lost Planet: Extreme Condition offers support for the Xbox Live and the multiplayer game seems to be as entertaining as the single player mode, if not even more. Don't expect to have two people play this game on the same console, as the title doesn't feature a split-screen mode. However, up to 16 players can join a Lost Planet session online selecting one of the 4 game types: fugitive, elimination, team elimination and post grab. The purposes and rules of these modes vary and you'll have the chance to hunt a certain enemy down, destroy Vital Suits, hack data posts and earn lots of points.
These get you high scores and the highest level you can reach is 99. Also there are a couple of unlockables available for hardcore players. Gamers will battle it out on a couple of great multiplayer maps: Crimsom River, Dark Town, Diplidation, Training Facility, Canyon 810, Lost Coast, Pirate Fortress and Frozen Wasteland. If you're planet LP: EC online you'll notice that the weapons are more varied and you'll up to 5 varieties of grenades and 15 weapons (7 of them attachable to the mechs). 6 types of VS await you if you like those mechanical beasts you'll notice that they come in all shapes and sizes (tanks, walkers).
Conclusion Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is one of the best games I've played so far and the best title for the Xbox 360 console. I remembered the part of my childhood when I first made contact with the Alien series and the animated version of Starship Troopers, not to mention the Final Fantasy: Spirits Within title that changed my vision on sci-fi animations forever. Fast-paced action, great combat sequences and some of the most aggressive alien beasts around made me enjoy this title more than any other third person shooter I've ever played.
