Lost Planet : Extreme Condition Review

goldfries rated it

 

Lost Planet : Extreme Condition turned out to be one of the best PC Game title of the year in my book. With non-stop action and an engaging story-line, it’s something you shouldn’t miss!

The Story

Rescued from a veil of ice with only fragments of memory, Wayne Holden struggles to recover his past on a blizzard-ridden world with deadly aliens. With only treacherous Snow Pirates and the mysterious NEVEC Corporation remaining. can anyone be trusted or is everything lost?

Source

Gameplay

Lost Planet is a 3rd-Person Shooter with 2 other optional viewing perspective, including a 1st-Person view.

The game starts with an innovative action-packed introduction where you are given the opportunity to play the game while going through the tutorial as the story is being presented. In this story, your character’s survival depends on Thermal Energy (TE).

Each time your character sustains damage, the TE will help regenerate health. Once TE is depleted, health will not be regenerated and will eventually lead to death once you lose all health. Luckily the game is automatically saved on various points of the mission so if ever you character dies, just click on RETRY and you’re back to the last saved location.

TE is regained by activating data-posts or walk over TE deposits that are left on the ground after a creature, human or a vehicle is terminated.

What I really loved about Lost Planet was that it was straight-forward mission-based game, just get from 1 end of the map to complete your mission – all you had to do was SURVIVE! No confusing maps with tunnels or paths going around and about No such thing as running aimlessly from one end of the game world to the other in a mindless and usually boring attempt to search for someone or some thing to accomplish some nonsense side mission.

Action was something this game does not lack at all. There’s practically something for you to hit, or to hit you at practically at a corner not far from your last combat. There are also myriads of armored vehicle and weaponry available throughout the game, it’s just a matter of where and when you come by the weapon of your choice. Armored vehicles rely on your TE for operation while energy weapons use your TE as ammunition. These armored vehicles are called Vital Suit (VS) and besides piloting these VS, you also get to arm them with VS dedicated weaponry that you come by.

To make it more interesting, your character is also armed with a zip line that allows you to be lifted speedily, whether it’s up a ledge or across a cavern or even to lower you from a higher place. It’s like being Spiderman, minus the swinging part.

The AI for the hostiles aren’t great, they’re generally dumb and on one of the mission, I took out the almost the entire base defences (probably more than 20 humans, 4 mechs, 4 rocket turrets) just by standing at the same location. It’s amazing how the AI stood together at literally the same place and didn’t even take cover. I could easily pop-out, snipe a few and hide with minimal damage. Carnival game? Yes it was. The prize? TE.

AI Shooting accuracy? I believe your average kid next door hit better with their toy pistol but what the AI lacks, they make back for it by coming at you in quantity even though they still pretty much suck at it unless they have far superior weaponry, such as enemy VS, larger alien life-form or the Level Boss. Yup! There are Level Bosses, there’s one for each mission.

As usual, the downside of 3rd-Person Shooter games would be their view angles when cornered. There were times that I just couldn’t target an object properly as the camera automatically places itself behind the VS. I also didn’t like that I can’t point even 80 degrees upwards, it’s as if the hero has stiff neck or something.

Another thing I didn’t like was the controls issue. Being a game ported over from the Xbox360, the in-game instructions often display only Xbox360 controls. So for example, if you hopped on a VS which you’ve not come by previously, the quick view of controls show Xbox360 version of it. Pointless on a PC game, isn’t it?

Seriously CAPCOM, if you’re porting something, you might as well do a complete job on it. It’s not difficult to tell draw simple diagrams to tell the player which keys are for what.

Generally, the game could be pretty difficult at times, especially when you’re up against Level Bosses. Newbies or people aren’t used to fast-pased action might have a little trouble going through the missions.

Graphics & Sound

The game was stunning in both departments. Graphically, the game was top-notched with realistic effects from the hostile weather, explosions, shadows while energy weapons and creatures blowing up to bits were impressive, again I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Besides the breath-taking environment and effects, the game also had interesting character designs, especially that of the non-human AI that looked like some insect mix. I can’t help but think of Starship Troopers as I face all these creatures.

The cut-scenes in Lost Planet were nicely crafted with scripts and cinematography that delivers the story better than what I ever imagined I could see on a PC Game – it was an impressive cinematic experience! I also can’t help but notice how realistic are the characters’ body movements and facial expressions in those cut-scenes, simply amazing!

As for the sound, just as great as the visual details. Great voice accompanying a great script throughout the cut-scenes, while well-composed soundtrack brings atmosphere to the game. The sound effects and sound positioning were awesome, whether it is during the game or cut-scenes.

Online / Network Gaming

The game supports ONLINE and LAN gaming and I did gave it a try and it was pretty fun. I was surprised there wasn’t lag issues. 🙂

Lost Planet has 4 Multiplayer modes.

• Team Elimination – Team vs Team combat.
• Elimination – Free-for-All combat.
• Post Grab – Capture the flag style, basically just capture the posts around the map. The team with most posts when time is up wins the match.
• Fugitive – A player is chosen to be the fugitive and has to survive against the rest of the player. Basically Solo vs Team.

Conclusion

It’s been quite a while since I came by a game that keeps calling me throughout the days and nights. Every mission is exciting and every cut-scene reveals more of the story that makes you feel like just finishing the game by having marathon gaming.

If I were to rate this game based on FUN FACTOR alone, this game would score PERFECT! Unfortunately due to the lack of polish in the conversion and also the nonsense requirement of STEAM service just to launch the game – so yeah, if your Internet connection was down and you want to play Lost Planet, YOU CAN’T! The installation was a hassle as STEAM doesn’t seem to allow you to change installation drive unless you copy the entire program over.

Luckily for Lost Planet, it’s a damn solid game that’s really taking up a lot of my time (for work, for life, and of course, even for this review!) – the best I could give the game was 9.5. 😉

Ratings

PC Specifications Used

Processor : Intel Pentium E2140 @ 3.2ghz
RAM : 2GB DDR2 667
Cooler : Xigmatek HDT-S963
Graphic Card : Albatron 8600GT
Monitor : 20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD