Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Review

July 16, 2009 by Mark Barley Editor in Chief

Players: 1 Campaign, Multiplayer Online

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

Engine: MT Framework

Platforms: Xbox 360, PC, PS3 (this review is based off of the 360 version)

Release Date: December 21st, 2006

Humans are a violent species. War rages, cities collapse, countries burn. This is the backdrop of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. Earth has become to hostile to sustain human life, so man ventures out to find a new place to call home. E.D.N. III, in the year T.C. -80, is just the starting over spot humans are looking for. A company named NEVEC (Neo-Venus Construction) has taken the lead in the campaign to this new world. Upon landing on E.D.N. III, amidst colonization efforts, the humans are attacked and subsequently forced to leave the planet by an alien race known as the Akrid’s. A bug like species that did not want the humans there, nor were they taking kindly to having their planet harvested for another lifeform.

The humans soon discover that these “Akrid” contain a vital energy source, thermal energy, that would sustain their efforts on the planet and support more life. NEVEC develops the first “Vital Suit” or VS, a robotic suit that is powered by the Thermal Energy, or T-ENG as it’s represented in the game. This provides a vital weapon to combat the Akrid and allow the humans to fight back against the alien bugs.

Wayne and his father, Gale, are two of the best NEVEC VS pilots in the galaxy, and they have been called to destroy the alien Akrid known as “Green Eye”, a giant Akrid who is the harvester of an abundance of T-ENG. Things don’t go according to plan and Wayne is left to die on the planet alone until he is discovered 30 years later, his body frozen from the subzero temperatures of the planet. He is revived by a team of “environmentalists” who are looking for ways to bring warmth back to an otherwise white, snow covered planet. Luka, Rick, and Yuri are the three that form the when they stumble upon Wayne.

Wayne, after being revived, can only survive off of T-ENG which flows directly through his body from a device attached to his arm called the “harmonizer.” It gives Wayne a little boost when it counts. After Wayne gets his feet back under him he joins Luka, Rick, and Yuri in their conquest to stop NEVEC.

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Personally, I loved this game. The controls, the graphics, the cut scenese, the innovative concept, the Gundam meets Halo type gameplay. It all seemed to come together to form a very complex yet simple story.

I will go ahead and break the game down into the Good, Bad, and Ugly for you guys once again. But as always, I’ll start you out with the The Bad.

The Bad

The campaign was too short. It was 11 missions long, and while not every mission was incredibly short, I did only beat in a couple of days, and that was casually playing it. I would venture to say that I spend maybe between 10-12 game hours on it. The cut scenes were rather lengthy and that was good, but the missions themselves didn’t seem that long at all.

In order to kill another human, you have to waste an entire magazine on them. I don’t know if that was designed to keep you honest or find more innovative ways to kill people, but I hated it. The machine gun is the best normal weapon throughout the game when you’re not piloting a VS. There is an abundance of ammo everywhere for it and you cap out at 999 rounds. Which is fair enough. But level after level I would come across a band of NEVEC soldiers or “snow pirates” and I would use all my ammo on 7 or 8 guys. It’s not like I wasn’t aiming either, as there is an auto lockon feature that activates by itself.

The story itself had some flaws and bloopers in it that made me question it at times. For instance, Wayne on certain missions would be travelling miles away from their base camp, in exreme weather conditions and yet could still talk on his radio crystal clear. As if it was bright and sunny, and not a cloud in the sky. When in reality they are in a blizzard 95% of the time and the possibility of maintaining radio communication in conditions such as those are poor at best.

Another discrepancy is the use of the “internet” or whatever it would be called in the year T.C. -80. How exactly were they able to access the data files of NEVEC database on this planet covered in snow with no hard communication lines? It’s just weird to me. Eh, I guess I’m nitpicking.

The Ugly

There is only one real big gripe I have with an otherwise fantastic game, and it’s the mobility of the VS and the controls used for them. Everytime I got in to pilot one of the VS’s, it would take a couple of seconds for the thing to power on and then when I was up and running, the thing moved slower than dirt. Why? I mean, really? The thing has jet propolsion, why can’t it move faster? The flying system is weak…as you don’t really fly, you more or less hover around.

Now there are a lot of different VS models throughout the game, with my favorite being the Gundam Wing looking VS. Alas, they just seemed to be the worst part of the game for me, and that’s sad too because they are the most intrical part of the campaign.

The Good

Oh man, where to begin? We’ll start with the thrid person switch to first person shooting system that is employed throughout the game. More and more games are going to this type of outlook with the view points. Being able to switch back and forth from third person to first is the best improvement you can have in a game. It was great using my sniper rifle to zoom in on someone, shoot them, and then keep moving without missing a beat because the camera automatically goes to first person view.

Having a playable character that has the freedom of movement to basically do a bunch of differnet things makes a title so much more fun to play and mess around with. Throughout the whole game you play as Wayne and a majority of the time you’re outside. The developers gave Wayne the ability to repel and climb up structures using a grapelling hook type device. You aim, hit “X”, and then release and you’re soaring through the air. Basically the whole aiming system was right on task when it came to being able to aim at something and hit it with relative ease.

The story here is phenomenal, and it’s no surprise that Lost Planet 2 is being made, starring Luka. I half expected this game to be poor excuse for a Halo remake but I was proven dead wrong; It holds it’s own as a shooter, while delivering a great story with pretty good character development. It’s got your evil corporation, you’re token bad guy, you’re token good guy turned bad guy, and in every Japanese game…you have your token English guy. What’s there not to love?

The boss battles were easy enough, never being too incredibly difficult and the alien bugs mixed with rampaging robots is a nice touch. I would recommend purchasing this game as it does have a multiplayer mode, which I was not able to play as of yet, and it’s pretty cheap if you pick up a copy used. A worthwhile addition to the library.