Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2
PS3 (version tested) – Xbox 360
Capcom

The Good – High production level – fun Multiplayer
The Bad – Broken levels – abysmal AI – Boring boss battles – lack of direction throughout

Back in 2007 a fairly accomplished game named Lost Planet was released on the Xbox 360, with desolate ice fields and an enjoyable single player campaign. Three years on and we have the sequel LP2, but it’s really only a sequel in name. The snowy Ice fields have been replaced with lush jungles, arid deserts and futuristic compounds. The focus now is heavily on multiplayer, there’s much more variety in missions and settings, but with abysmal AI and some serious flaws it just doesn’t live up to its predecessor.

Still set on EDN III, 10yrs on from the 1st LP, the Snow Pirates are at war with Nevec and there are still lots of big beasties knocking about called Akrid. If none of that means anything to you it doesn’t really matter because the story is so disjointed you won’t really care, that’s a real shame because some of the cut scenes are really gorgeous.



The main campaign is designed to be played online, if playing offline your AI counterparts are of little to no help at all. So you play online with three others, the problem with this is that the amount of re-spawns you have is measured with a battle gauge, a big chunk of this will be sapped every time you re-spawn, when playing offline only your own re-spawning saps the battle gauge, but when playing with three others all of you will sap the battle gauge and this can result in a quick gameover. Because there are no checkpoints this can be extremely annoying, especially if you have just invested 30mins into a level and now have to start from the beginning again, or if you’re teamed up with a couple of numpties who keep dieing.

Some of the bosses are Gargantuan in size and they all have obvious weak spots, but it doesn’t really matter where you hit them and most boss battles will drag. Get a big gun/mech, empty the rounds into it, rinse and repeat. There’s no real clear direction on most missions as well, in particular there is one level with two trains travelling side by side that will go down in history as one of the worst designed levels of all time. The first two thirds are spent progressing up the trains where you are bombarded by rocket launchers, often resulting in you being knocked off the train and losing a valuable respawn, if playing offline your AI companions will move up the train do nothing but stand by doors that do not open. The level finishes with a boss battle against a giant worm, a new map of the train appears with symbols on it that you’ve never seen before and you’re then given absolutely no direction at all. You in fact have loads of things to do, load a giant turret, turn the turret, extinguish fires and shoot the worm. It doesn’t help that the worm smacks the train fairly regularly often knocking you off the train, while all of your AI counterparts stand around dumbfounded by the situation. To make matters worse when you’ve finally figured everything out and beat the damn thing it requires one last shot and failure to do so will result in yet another gameover and a trudge through the trains again.



Some of the games design choices are baffling to say the least, for example going into water on some levels will result in instant death, where other levels require you to be underwater for the entire level. Lots of weapons and beasties will knock you on your arse, some even freeze you in position while you must waggle the analogue sticks to break free, this can take time and can result in a never ending loop of being knocked over and then frozen.

There is a really boring training mode with a collection of time trials that does absolutely nothing to teach you how to play the game. This leaves the multiplayer mode and here there is finally some fun to be had, many of the modes are shooter standards: Elimination, Team Elimination, variants on Capture the Flag and Conquest. Fugitive mode has returned as well and pits a small team of lightly armed fugitives avoiding capture against a fully equipped team of hunters. Some of the levels are well designed and there is also a leveling up system here which enables you to buy upgrades, new outfits, perks etc.



I really want to like LP2 and on paper it’s the perfect sci-fi shooter, the production levels are really impressive, the graphics, sound and settings are amazing, A long campaign mode with a good multiplayer mode. But all of this is wrapped around some very poor game mechanics and broken levels mean that it does not work.

6.5/10