Published by: Capcom
Developed by: Capcom
Release Date: May 11, 2010
Available on: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
INTRO: Won’t this planet just get found already? Excusing my awful pun, we’re here with Lost Planet 2, Capcom’s sequel to the surprise hit game from 3 or so years ago. If you care about plot in your crazy sci-fi blasting, alien-killing videogames, listen up. This one takes place about a decade after the first one does, and the planet which was once frozen has now thawed out. Different factions are still trying to kill each other, and the evil Akrid alien bugs are in the mix too, as everyone is still trying to harvest the energy of the planet.
This sequel promises to be bigger and more bombastic in every way. Read on to find out of bigger is actually better.
GAMEPLAY:
I was a huge fan of the original Lost Planet. It was fun, the monsters were huge and the game was challenging enough to keep you going through it. With that said, I was really anticipating the release of the sequel. There would be a great character progression/upgrade system that would let you get better as you go along. When I found out that there would be even more awesome monsters, more varied environments and these crazy robot suits called vital suits to command, I was pumped. On top of that, you could play either locally or online with a friend, doing online co-op! Yes! I love co-op games and I was sold.
I am unfortunately here to tell you that this one falls short of my expectations in a lot of ways and I’ll explain why. This game demands to be played in co-op mode, and if you decide to play single player you’ll end up being very frustrated because the game really relies on your partner to help you out along the way. The problem here is that the AI in this game is absolutely terrible. Your partners are completely inept and feel completely useless at times. They will be shot like no tomorrow, they’ll refuse to help you do things that you need to do to end the mission and will completely disappear (i’m serious) at crucial times. There’s a point during the ‘train’ levels when you really depend on them to man a part of a big gun, and the useless tits will never do it. This makes for a lot of frustration and I gave up several times.
As if that isn’t bad enough, the enemies can be just as frustrating and will kill you a lot, and kill you quickly. You know those games when you find yourself screaming “Oh, come ON!” at the TV? Yeah, this becomes one of them. You’ll time things well but you’ll be sniped and eaten by enemies that must have some seriously great timing. Also when you grapple, be prepared for it to give out halfway through and send you plummeting to your doom. If this doesn’t drive you crazy enough, there are no mid-mission checkpoints so you’re really going to love that.
Let me just say that if you’re playing this with other people, this game is much, much more bearable. At the very least, you’ll have the opportunity to check out some of the cool scenery from afar and cool weapons and enemies without wanting to pound your head into the wall. Unfortunately, the game has a really weird split screen that is dominated by maps and strange placements. If you don’t have a big TV, you’ll struggle here.
The weapons are awesome and at times can be even bigger than you can imagine. The akrid bugs are awesome too, and you’ll get a great sense of that when you head into their guts and destroy them from the inside. This is what the ‘bigger and better’ tagline for Lost Planet 2 is all about, and that makes it pretty fun. Also really cool are the vital suits, including one where three players can climb in, stomp around and wreak havoc, mowing down anything you come across.
The bottom line here is that although there are cool moments, this game doesn’t feel finished- it suffers from poor design, baffling glitches and the biggest killer is awful AI. Too bad.
Gameplay: 6/10
GRAPHICS:
This is a game that looks pretty darn good, with awesome looking levels, amazing enemies, and great effects. Unfortunately there are a lot of really bad clipping issues when you get close to things and some of the indoor complexes are less than impressive, but this is still a graphically pleasing game.
Graphics: 8/10
AUDIO:
This is another sweeping aural epic, with a great soundtrack, awesome weapon sounds and other ambient effects. The voice acting though? That is really terrible, enough to drop the score a bit.
Audio: 8/10
FINAL VERDICT:
You should never buy a game and have to play it in a certain mode. Think of Left 4 Dead- you can play that game just fine in single player; it might be more fun to play in multiplayer mode, but it isn’t broken if you don’t decide to. The single player mode is quite frankly broken and the frustrations are out of your hands and that is unacceptable. The multiplayer helps a bit more but the game is just awkward, poorly paced, uneven and the fun moments don’t happen often enough to justify anything more than a rental. This is a pretty package with a rotten taste.
Final Score: 6/10