As this gameplay video shows, there's a blend of on-foot and killer robot 3rd-person combat
This is one of the end bosses, complete with its own energy bar at the bottom of the screen
In Lost Planet, you play Wayne, a dude with a very cold disposition
The PS3 conversion of Lost Planet isn't as good as it could have been
When I heard that Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
was coming to the Playstation 3 I was looking forward to
another great addition to the PS3's increasing games library.
Giant robots, destructive weapons, and epic
stories have always worked well on the Playstation consoles, and Lost
Planet has all of these.
It was released over a year ago on the Xbox 360
and PC so I was interested in what Capcom could have achieved with all
that time porting it to the PS3.
Surely it has to be light-years ahead?
This is not the case.
I think the development team assigned to this port
was getting paid by the hour because this version is just a
direct port of the 360 game and not even a good one; it’s the
only logical reason I can think of that would explain why it took
so long to release such a sub-standard game.
If you have a flux-capacitor lying around at home
and can go back in time and enjoy this game on the 360 when it
was released, please do so.
Web Wombat's slightly malformed Will Barker
reviewed Lost Planet back then and he quite liked it. If you want a
nice opinion on the game check out his
review, otherwise please continue reading as I rip this
shoddy game apart with my painfully grafted wolverine replica claws.
Let's begin with the story – not a
strong point.
It is there to serve a purpose; give context to
the gameplay and explain the levels and environments, that is all. Good
games have stories that make you want to keep playing to see
what happens. With this game it was not the case.
Puzzling is the statement on the games cover
“12 epic single-player missions…”, I
played through the entire game and there were only 11 (“help
me Will Barker, you’re my only hope” –
where is this magical twelfth level you wrote about [He was drunk - Ed]).
The environments are large and varied
from vast snow fields to blazing volcanic areas. The scenery is alright
however I’ve come to expect more than I did a year ago. This
simply doesn't cut it anymore.
Most levels are an A-B level design and I found
myself just sprinting through some levels to get to the boss so that I
could finish the level as quickly as possible.
Even the ‘thermal energy’
gameplay mechanic, which forces you to collect thermal energy from
defeated enemies and destructible structures for your health which
continually depletes until you die (I liked this because it tries to
keep the game rolling), didn’t even slow me down.
Maybe it’s just me, but I found bosses
pretty easy. All I did is learn the attack pattern and spam
shoot.
Also, the huge difference between the final boss
and the rest of the game in terms of playing style was a poor
‘gameplay’ move in my mind.
The AI in the game is mediocre. I can't remember a
time when I was playing that I stopped to appreciate the level of AI as
I do sometimes in other games.
The controls weren't the best originally (I think
they play-tested with apes), the controls were sluggish and you weren't
even able to look directly up – only about 65˚ –
which is annoying as you have to fight enemies that are huge.
Arguably, the PS3 is better than the 360 in terms
of graphical output, but that being said the Xbox version is visually
better than the PS3 version.
The textures on the PS3 version look like they're
run through some kind of strange hippy filter. It just isn't as sharp,
and the environments look rough. There are also some frame-rate issues
when lots of things happen at once, suggesting sloppy conversion work.
The sound is pretty good, particularly when the
explosions and effects of the Akrid. A bigger musical presence would
have been nice to really get you immersed in the game and the voice
acting could have been better as well.
Still on the 360 vs PS3 point, Devil May Cry 4
(also developed by Capcom) implemented an "accomplishment system" that
took all the accomplishments from the Xbox 360 version and translated
it to the PS3 version.
In no way, shape or form did the Japanese
developer try to do anything like that for Lost Planet.
In the 360 version you collect medals scattered
around the levels that earn you accomplishment points. The medals still
exist in the PS3 version but there is absolutely no point in acquiring
them.
There is nothing new to the PS3 version to make up
for the delay either.
In summary, there is no reason to get this version
over other the PC or Xbox 360 versions except that all the added
content released for the game is included. This means that there are
more multiplayer maps and characters.
The last feature that I’ll mention is
the installation process at the start of the game. It takes about 10
minutes and allows for quicker load times.
I have an overall mixed experience with Lost
Planet; I do like the blends of Eastern and Western ideas of action and
I thought some of the mechs were cool as well as the larger Akrid
enemies.
Nevertheless, I have no urge to play it again and
do not feel compelled to promote it. Hopefully the next game in the
series, Lost Planet Colonies, will be mark a return to form for the
franchise.
Finally, I suggest you check out Will Barker's review as it delves
into the game more deeply than I have here, and you might just be
tempted to have a go.
