Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way: I’m not a hardcore gamer. I may be looking at designing them for my career, but I don’t enjoy spending all day playing games- unless it’s a game that really pulls me in (which hasn’t happened since Final Fantasy X.) I’m what the industry defines as a casual gamer. To make matters worse, I’m a loyal PC gamer, a tier of gaming that is seeing a rather ugly drought in new titles right now. I don’t like playing consoles in general (except perhaps for the Wii), and if I buy a console I usually do so only at the end of it’s lifetime. To put this in perspective: I haven’t owned a console since the PlayStation 2. Yeah. Shameful.
Why do I bring this up? Because I’ve just discovered a game on the PC that’s been out on Xbox 360 for awhile now, and I’m in awe of it’s visuals. It’s called Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
The screenshot above isn’t CG, or pre-rendered video. That’s real, in-game cutscenes rendered in real time. Like I said, the visuals are just incredible. The detail that Capcom put into everything – the environments, the characters, the animations, the special effects – is really just top notch, and I haven’t seen anything like it before.
The story is simple and a little weak: You and your father are Vital Suit (read: mecha) operators on a frozen over wasteland of a planet. Much of the intro scenes discusses the past of the planet, and how humanity discovered a new energy source housed within the gross, pulsating abdomens of Akrid. Akrid are the insect-like species native to the planet, and are more than a little pissed off at humanity for encroaching on their turf. Some crap goes down and your Dad gets killed, and your character Wayne Holden comes down with (what else!) amnesia. You start remembering bits and pieces of your life as the game unfolds, and you set out on your murderous rampage of vengeance across the frozen landscape. I probably made that sound cooler than it actually is, but that’s the jist of it.
So, we’ve got awesome visuals and a wonky storyline. What about the gameplay? I think this is Lost Planet’s biggest fumble: it’s way, way too repetitive. I’m only seven missions into the game and I’m already getting a little tired of the “kill these guys to get to next level, OK grab these awesome weapons which has been conveniently just left here for me, kill more guys, big crazy ass boss fight, sweet, next mission”. Not that this is a terribly different scenario from most shooter games, it just would have been nice for some originality to go along with the sights.
The coolest part of Lost Planet, in my opinion, is the Mecha action. Like I said, you can pick up weapons scattered across the landscape and use them, but many of the more powerful weapons can be swapped on and off of your Mecha, letting you customize your battle suit with all sorts of firepower. Gatling guns not your thing? Toss em and grab a couple rocket launchers, or laser rifles. I’m not too far into the game, but I’ve already encountered five or so different models of Mecha, each with their own unique appearance and abilities. My favorite one can “transform” into a speedy snow mobile.
Something cool I noticed is that Lost Planet is designed to natively take advantage of multi-core systems, I presume a bonus from porting the game from the multi-core Xbox 360. Lost Planet is the first and only game I’ve come across that actually takes advantage of all four of my processors. Awesome.
[rating:8/10]
So, what’s my conclusion? I’d give it a 8 out of 10. It’s definitely worth playing, if only to experience the wonderfully designed world it takes place in. Just don’t expect anything revolutionary from the gameplay or storyline.
Tags: lost planet, pc games
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