Lost Planet 2

Most helpful review Lost Planet 2

• "Akrid" Lost Planet 2 Review

   

  By Izunin (12 reviews) from London , 13 May 2010

  [Highly rated reviewer]

  Lost Planet 2 is set ten years after Lost PlanetTM: Extreme Condition, which was a combination of a third-person action shooter and a survival game. Lost Planet 2 replaces the endurance mechanics, focusing more on action heavy teamwork as opposed to the feeling of being pressured by a time limit. The Campaign Mode is made for a cooperative party, allowing players to choose have up to three Friendly AIs, two player splitscreen (unfortunately both players get a small screen each), or with up to three gamers worldwide over PSN or Xbox LIVE.
  
  With six multi-chapter episodes, Lost Planet 2 features an interesting and engaging plot following no particular protagonist, full of superbly directed cinematic cutscenes and well done voiceovers. The game begins to impress its audience and at the same time, opens with a prologue designed to show and teach players the fundamental mechanics and abilities within the game; e.g. shooting airborne grenades at enemy weak spots.
  
  Colonists had arrived on the ice planet E.D.N. III, and with time, changed the environment introducing jungles and even industrial cities via the act of terraformation. The natural fauna of E.D.N. III consists of the beautifully animated alien species called the Akrid - Lost Planet 2 brings back familiar creatures and all new ones, notably the entries to the exciting Category G subgroup, which consists of much larger and fiercer Akrid. Those familiar with the Green Eye from Extreme Condition will know that battles with Cat-Gs is where the series brings the most thrill.
  
  The Campaign Mode should take about twelve to fourteen hours to complete. There are four difficulties. The hardest difficulty, Extreme, again needs to be unlocked by completing the game. Lower difficulties will give player access to more ammo and available VSs (Vital Suits). VSs are generally slow moving mechanical battle suits (mecha); some can hover above the ground. Typical traits include boosters to allow high jumps and the use of two large V.S. weapons simultaneously, and most importantly, change your sense of scale. New to Lost Planet 2, there is a way to merge two VSs together, though don't expect to be able to do this with every mecha. For higher difficulties, these battle suits become essential to keep functional, which is done by repairing them while safe.
  
  In order to repair a VS, you trade in your T-ENG stores (Thermal Energy); T-ENG is one of the reasons why the Akrid are being hunted, and why humans could survive on the snowbound planet in the first place. T-ENG is also used, with the help of a technology called Harmonizers, to replenish health. In Extreme Condition only a couple of characters used one, in Lost Planet 2, this technology has been mass produced so that almost everyone has one for themselves. T-ENG can be shared amongst the party in any mode, and unlike in the first, it is plentiful and the players will barely ever run out. Super human healing abilities is something that anyone would desire, so T-ENG is being robbed from the natural for other means than just surviving in the cold - and where would T-ENG be found in large quantities? Problem is, after a Cat-G is killed, the planet rapidly returns to its natural frozen state.
  
  Lost Planet 2 is more complicated than simply aiming and shooting, resources need to be reserved and used effectively and efficiently, and there are many gameplay mechanics which separate the series from other shooters. Similar to Monster Hunter, there is no falling damage, and a perfectly timed roll/dodge rewards invincibility frames, an important thing to get used to in Lost Planet 2. While being attacked, you are almost always completely helpless - you can't shoot back or toss grenades (not that that'll be a good idea - grenades have large hit-boxes and they blow up airborne), and if you get caught in a huge blast or swiped by a large attack you'll be sent flying, and it is likely this will cause you to... fall off a train and die. While your character attempts to get back up, this rarely happens, but it is guaranteed to get hit again. Unlike in Extreme Condition, you have to manually replenish his character's health. This means that whilst your character is blasted away by an attack, you can't heal; you will have to wait until your character gets up, if you get hit while down you'll die, guaranteed. If you do manage to escape a combo, you'll get back up on two feet with barely any life, even on Easy. So after getting hit it is best to run out of the way and use the Harmonizer - healing takes a little while to start, and without an upgrade, it will take sometimes too long to completely heal before another attack kills you. Not as frequent as it was in Extreme Condition, these mechanics don't force the player to learn them - but play online or on higher difficulties, then you'd best stay away from those shotguns, rocket launchers, and roll exactly when you should.
  
  You can upgrade your character's abilities (such as faster recovery). Not only does every enemy drop T-ENG after death, they may or may not drop [?] boxes. Usually, the [?] only contain credits, which are used in a Slot Machine which will randomly reward you with something either useful such as a new weapon or ability, or something trivial such as a new title or emote (animation). In any game mode you will be rewarded with Career Points which will level up any of the five different factions you can play as. Levelling up does not do what you may think it does, every ten levels you will be able to customize the look of your character a little more, changing their costume. Prior to your first completion of Campaign Mode you can't change the look of your character, but you can still use the abilities you have unlocked. Playing as a female character in the campaign looks very weird as the voice work is the same. At one point where the character usually takes off his helmet, yours may instead take off her head...
  
  From a third-person perspective you're able to look around corners and over cover. There is no cover system in the game - characters don't stick to walls, but it is easy to make them safe behind a piece of debris or whatever, because in Lost Planet 2, objects have hit boxes. If you're battling a VS or manned turret, you shouldn't waste your time shooting the enemy inside, the VS will absorb the damage. Just like the Akrid, VSs have specific weak spots as well; typically this is the knee region and/or the back of the suit. Enemies also never run out of ammo; so take out those snipers quickly! Headshots are very powerful in Lost Planet 2 - with a rifle a single hit to the head will score an instant kill on humans. Getting shot in the head with a rifle shot is also one of the few moments in the game where you can be taken out in a single attack. Fortunately, dying does not always mean it's over.
  
  Depending on the difficulty chosen, you will be given a number of Battle Points that act as extra lives. Die, lose 500 points; commit suicide in a VS, lose 1000. Running out of Battle Points will result in mission failure, and you'll have to restart a chapter, possibly setting you back up to thirty minutes. In Lost Planet 2 if you run out of Battle Points you could be set back thirty or so minutes. The number of battle points is shared for the entire party and can be increased by activating data posts, which also increase the T-ENG supply for the whole party. Activating takes time, but the time can be reduced if multiple players in the party work on the same data post (this also applies to repairing). This forces players to learn how to play Lost Planet 2 properly and use teamwork, key for their success. With the right combination of spacing, resources, and timing, players will be able to clear any area without dying - all deaths and be avoided.
  
  However, Lost Planet 2 feels unique, so those who are not willing to spend time to learn and master the different controls and mechanics of the game will instead be very frustrated with the disadvantages Capcom® imposed on their characters. Fortunately, the difficulty can be changed between any of the chapters, and the Easy mode is much more forgiving.
  
  The use of sound in the game is good, sound effects don't sound cheap and have a unique feel to them, and the music is epic. Although mostly in the first half of the campaign you'll be fighting without music, when it does begin to play, it adds to the already overwhelming feeling of scale in the fights with Cat-Gs. There is one instance in the game where all of the sound goes soft - this lasts longer than it should, but when it begins it helps to remind you why Lost Planet 2 stands out from the rest. Graphics look similar to Extreme Condition's, but now much more large scale and beautiful. Some character textures however are bad, and this isn't helped in one of the earlier cutscenes when the camera shows to horribly detailed jungle pirates. There are two more negative issues: a graphical and picture quality error - shadows through objects and intense screen tearing respectively - that will be noticed, which is a shame, because there are many areas where the atmosphere is being brought by the use of sound and looks.
  
  Lost Planet 2 has quite a few strange aspects to get used to. T-ENG must be ridiculously dense, because whenever the character goes into water it will sink right down, and if there's no bed underneath it, it will die. If you change which sort of Heavy Weapon you want, every Heavy Weapon in the map will be the one you. A jarring issue in Lost Planet 2 is the many invisible walls within the areas - the landscapes are beautiful and believable, but you can't move outside of the playable map - meaning you'll be trying to reach areas for the sake of an advantage which will be inaccessible. To reach these higher areas, you'll be attempting to use the Anchor, a grappling hook used to get the character to higher areas all over the different maps. The Anchor can also be used to collect T-ENG or [?] boxes that fell in places the character is unable to get to.
  
  As mentioned before, a lone player and have up to three Friendly AIs to help complete each chapter. Friendly AIs in Lost Planet 2 DO NOT decrease the Battle Gauge when they die, allowing them to respawn indefinitely. They won't run off and complete an area for you, they tend to stick by you, only activating data posts and attacking enemies near to your character. They won't help repair your VS or anything fancy like that. You're unable to give orders to the Friendly AIs, but they do their job every now and then - they are supportive - they'll supply you with T-ENG and even use shields to protect your character. Shields in Lost Planet 2 make you and your allies invincible from frontal attacks, and you can choose to move and even bash enemies whilst defending. You can trade your use of shields for a weapon called the Injection Gun, a supportive weapon used to enhance party members.
  
  There are many abusable techniques in Lost Planet 2 that contribute to the short list of errors. Enemies may stay still while you shoot them off at a distance, allowing you to take the mission slow and safe. It is a shame that enemies will talk, but won't communicate with each other, making the enemies in the game seem like they don't work together. Enemy AI isn't very smart, which work for the Akrid, but humans will do stupid things like persisting to hold up shields when protecting no one else even after you've thrown a grenade its way, only putting the shield away right before the bomb blows up. Another abusable mechanic is that you are invincible while entering and leaving VSs - though this isn't as abusable as it was in Extreme Condition. A very useful abusive technique is to let an enemy VS keep shooting when close to it but with a wall blocking the way, so the VS will slowly destroy itself. In defence of the Enemy AI, teamwork is only easy to execute and effective because the enemies are predictable.
  
  As mentioned before - Lost Planet 2 has amazing cutscenes. After you have fought a total of eleven Cat-G's, on a train, in a jungle, even underwater, you'll think back to all of the great and exciting moments of the game. You'll realise that even though there were bumps of frustration along the way, Lost Planet 2 delivered. Episode Three and Six both demonstrate the peak of the game and what it wants to execute; Episode Three having one of most heart pounding and teamwork requiring boss battles this generation, and Episode Six having one of the most heart stopping dramatic sequences this generation. While the ending cutscene plays, you would have played about thirteen hours of a cinematic experience that, while not perfect, was definitely worth it\. Not to say that Lost Planet 2 does what Extreme Condition did better. If the first game was released with its sequel for the first time, then you would have a complete package of awesome. Lost Planet 2's Extreme difficulty is much easier than Extreme Condition's, so those looking for amazing teammates to complete Extreme, should know that it's very much possible to do so solo. Lost Planet 2 does not force you to play with friends or Friendly AI.
  
  Bringing back the exciting sixteen player online battles and translating Extreme Condition's survival focused campaign to an explosively exhilarating cooperative action shooter, Lost Planet 2 seeks to keep in touch with the series' previous fans and create new ones. Those new to the series should expect an action shooter that plays and feels different. Lost Planet 2 is one for the hardcore - go online or on Extreme without mastering the dodge, and there is no doubt that you'll be falsely accusing the game of cheating you. You're in for an experience only available in a videogame.
  
  Classification: Gem of the Genre

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