Lost Planet Review (360)

Old School meets Next Gen….And us gamers are the winners!

Big congrats to the guys at Capcom- they gave us one of the best next gen games in 2006- Namely the Zombie based genius of Dead Rising, and even though its only January, they give us a contender for game of the year in the awesome sci fi action shooer that is Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.

This game is soo good

This game looks stunning- not as drop dead gorgeous as Gears of War, but still one of the best looking games for the xbox 360.
Based on a snow planet, complete with snowstorms, arctic winds and huge mountains of ice…this is one hostile environment, that’s even before we mention the natives.
Enemies come in two flavours- human snow pirates who use vital suits- mechanical armour very much like something outta a top draw anime movie. As well as these, we have the aliens that live on the planet our heroes have tried to colonise.
These are called Akrid and are much like the aliens from starship Troopers…only cooler & harder to kill.

This being a game from the creators of the Devil May Cry series, the difficulty curve is mighty high- for example- the end of level boss for the first level, is situated deep inside the planet, and rolls itself into a alien wheel type thing and keeps running you over…time and time again. When you finally find its weak spot and trash its alien ass, the next level gives you these buggers as your standard foe…sometimes sending threee of them at once…without a vital suit to help you out.

Just like the Devil may Cry series(well…one and three anyway!), this game is soo good, its worth the effort you put in as things just get better & better, It is a joy to play- even with the rock hard difficulty. Take the life bar for instance…not a normal thing this- it is based on a new power source called T-Energy, which is basically a heat source.You collect it from dead enemies and from their nests (a bit like a next gen Gauntlet…but not!)- this is vital as your T energy is counting down all the time- run out…and yer history.

Add a stunning online experience and the guys at Capcom have done it again- this would have probably won the coveted 10/10 rating…only my review copy arrived as I was half way though playing Gears of War.

The first essential game of 2007….on any format.