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Lost Planet: Extreme Condition PS3 Review
Gwynne Dixon
27/02/2008
A year after Wayne first traversed the icy world of EDN III, he's back to do it all over again on the PS3...
Over a year after its birth on the Xbox 360, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition finally makes the transition onto the PlayStation 3. That possibly makes for the biggest gap in a port's release so far on the next-gen formats and, far from being a significantly expanded version of the Xbox 360 original, this PS3 version is more or less exactly what you would get after purchasing the Xbox 360/PC game and downloading all the additional content that has come out since the game's original release (i.e. maps and additional characters etc.).
Nevertheless, it is worth noting that this PS3 version has made the transition relatively unscathed, which is more than we can say for some other games that have struggled with multi-format releases where the PS3 is concerned (The Orange Box? We're looking in your direction). Additionally, when the game came out on the Xbox 360 last January it was certainly one of the better third person shooters on the next-gen formats. If you cast your mind back, there hadn't actually been that many third person shooters (beyond Gears) that had actually provided a visual display and gameplay that was particularly worthy of a next-gen title. Instead, the market had experienced its fair share of uninspiring titles such as The Outfit.
The question is, now that the next-gen juggernaut is fully up to speed, does Lost Planet still hold its own against other shooters on the market? And the answer is yes, for the most part at least. For PS3 gamers who religiously avoid Xbox 360 reviews so as not to taint their loyalty, let's have a re-cap of the Lost Planet pros and cons.
Unmistakably Capcom
Firstly, Lost Planet is unmistakably Capcom. Most third person shooters don't even bother with bosses anymore. They're either far too far down the stealth/tactical shooter route for a boss to seem credible, or their developers realise that game bosses (with a capital B) are an old-skool concept that's fast going the way of the dodo. Capcom is one publisher-come-developer that refuses to relinquish the old-skool boss, as has been evident from its recent release of Devil May Cry 4.
This is no bad thing, as it will be a sad day when all you encounter in a game are the same generic NPCs, punctuated by the odd slightly harder enemy. Bosses are so much a part of Lost Planet, in fact, that the other parts of the game just seem like padding - a slight gap in the storm until the next behemoth crosses your path. Some levels even have multiple bosses, such as the third mission where you face up against a worm that looks like it's from the film Tremors (only bigger), followed by a Nevec VS. These VS' (or Vital Suits) take on a traditional mech walker style and you also don a VS in this particularly boss battle (as well many of the other ones throughout the game). Indeed, It's fair to say that mech warrior style shootouts form a significant portion of the game.
There are a couple of human NPC factions who you'll battle throughout the game such as the Nevec corporation and the Snow Pirates. However, your most significant adversary is the Akrid, which are a horde of insect looking aliens (it's no surprise, then, that we originally referred to Lost Planet as Starship Troopers on ice). You'll battle Akrid of all shapes and sizes as Lost Planet unravels, from giant wasp-earwig thingies to the massive blob called Green Eye, which killed the father of the game's protagonist, Wayne.
Each of these bosses follows the old-skool style of heavily scripted movement and specific weak points. For example, with the fifth mission's boss you'll firstly have to blow its legs off. Once you've done this, the boss arches over to expose the glowing amber weak point on its head, which you then have to liberally fire rockets into. Like many of the other boss battles in the game, it'll take many attempts to figure out how to kill the creature, each one filling you up with more aggression towards the beast until you eventually destroy with an eruption of euphoria. We even found ourselves shouting "Smile, you son of a b*#%h" a la Martin Brody in Jaws when we unloaded the killer blow into one of the brutes.
Brrr! It Is Cold In Here, So There Must Be Some Akrid In The Atmosphere
These amber weak points are present on all of the Akrid creatures throughout the game and they also make for an ingenious gameplay dynamic. The amber is the Akrid's store of Thermal Energy - a biological power source that keeps the animals warm in the bitter cold of the planet EDN III. When humans came to terraform the planet, they realised that they could utilise this T-Energy for their own devices as a kind of life force. Wayne even has a 'Harmoniser Life Support' on his arm which allows him to store the energy.
T-Energy acts first and foremost as your health meter. As well as being present in the Akrid, it's also present in other manmade objects and can be harvested by Wayne. The amount of T-Energy that you have is constantly ticking down and depletes faster if you're taking damage or using a VS. As well as acting as a health meter, your T-Energy store also acts as a kind of time limit on everything you do. You'll occasionally find yourself stuck in a certain area, unsure of where to go next or how to use your grappling hook to get to the next area. It's here that you suddenly realise your frailty when exposed to the cold and it's certainly a nifty little feature that, along with the sub-zero visuals, helps to provide the hypothermic feel to most of the game.
However, it also exposes some of the shortcomings of the game. While you'll often find yourself running out of T-Energy in boss battles, you'll rarely find yourself running out of the stuff in-between these battles. In fact, when you're taking on various Akrid foot soldiers or Snow Pirates in the levels' padding, you'll usually have an abundance of the stuff, meaning that moving through these sections is far too easy. If you add to this with the fact that some of these more basic NPCs (particularly the human Snow Pirates) aren't particularly bright, then it makes these in-between stages very dull and uninspiring. It's a bit like an album with a lot of filler: sure, it has some killer tracks, but you'd much rather skip tracks until you get to the killer tunes.
I Once Was Lost (Planet), But Now Am Found
Multiplayer wise, the offerings are the same as what you can currently find on Xbox Live with all the various updates. Up to 16 players can battle it out on 16 multiplayer maps, with a range of four fairly conventional modes: there's the all against one Fugitive mode, Elimination games (both individually and in teams), as well as a control point based Post Grab mode. The wide array of weapons from the single-player game is also on show in the multiplayer including sticky grenades, Nevec VS and laser rifles. It's certainly a competent multiplayer offering for the PS3 but it's worth bearing in mind that Lost Planet hasn't exactly set the Xbox Live charts alight over the last twelve months, so don't expect anything spectacular.
Graphically, Lost Planet has aged a little bit. It still looks very good, but when you compare it to some of the stunning shooters that have appeared over the last year or so, it loses its impact slightly. Games such as The Club, Bioshock and CoD4 have certainly raised the bar for next-gen shooters and, while Lost Planet can still hold its head high as a next-gen game, you certainly wouldn't rank it up there amongst the big guns.
The sound effects of wounded Akrid beasties will certainly warm your chilly Lost Planet loins, while whistling winds across the ice deserts certainly add to the atmosphere of the freezing game world. Unfortunately, however, the voice-over work in the game's extensive cut-scenes certainly isn't its strongpoint.
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