Anyone who knows me knows that I'm really bad at formulating an opinion of my own. As a former Sonic fan, I have the ability to turn a blind eye to poor quality in favor of fan-service. I was an immense fan of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, but I'm going to try an review the sequel as fairly as I can.
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition was a third-person shooter developed by Capcom and released in 2006 for the Xbox 360, PC and eventually the PS3. It had controls very different from something like Gears of War, and more in line with Crackdown. The story was typical Capcom fare, something about humanity trying to colonize E.D.N. III, and ice cube of a planet. EDN III is populated by native creatures called Akrid, with numerous species, ranging from large bugs, to floating jellyfish, to flying stingrays, to giant pillbugs. They all have giant orange-glowing weakpoints, which you shoot form massive damage. Akrid contained Thermal Energy (T-Eng), a kind of goopy liquid heat, which players had to collect; lest they freeze in the eternal blizzard. It also powered the harmonizer, a device which replenished health by using thermal energy. The story followed young Snow Pirate Wayne, as he struggled with amnesia and attempted to find the Akrid that killed his father; as well as thwart the plans of the evil corporation NEVEC. Not going to win any Oscars, but it was more than enough to drive the game.
Ten years on from the first game, sections of EDN III have thawed out, revealing more varied environments; like jungles, coastlines and deserts. Lost Planet 2 throws out the story of Wayne in favor of having each of the six episodes follow a different clan of Snow Pitates.
It also throws out single-player altogether, in favor of a Left 4 Dead-style four-player co-op experience. You can still play the campaign by yourself with three bots, but it is clearly a lesser experience. The controls remain largely unchanged from the first game, with to major differences. First, rather than have the harmonizer kick in when you are injured and heal you to full automatically, you must hold down the start button to activate it, and you are vulnerable while you do this. While this adds some interesting strategic angles to the combat, it can also be frustrating at times.
The other big change it in the weapon system. The first game had an amazing array of weapons, and while you can still use all the giant mecha-sized weapons you can find, the standard weapons are restricted. In your profile, you must assign a weapon to each of five categories; standard (Assault rifles), short-range (Shotguns), long-range (Sniper Rifles), heavy weapons (Rocket launchers), and support (Shields, Injection Guns, etc). You can only use weapons that you have unlocked. Weapons picked up in the world are assigned a class, not a specific model. So while your friend might have a Revolver assigned to his Short-range weapon slot, if he sets it down to pick up something else and you try to pick it up you'll get whatever weapon you have assigned to your short-range slot.
Thankfully, no such limitation is imposed on the Vital Suits. Lost Planet's main attraction, the VSs are mecha suit. They vary from realistic load-lifter style transports, to more Gundam-esque robots. There's even more types of VSs in this game, but they don't show up as often as in the last game. Additionally, certain VSs have little pods that your squadmates can enter and man the mounted guns, while others allow your squadmates to hitch a ride by grabbing onto the side.
Customization is a huge part of this game. When you kill bosses, it will shoot out "(?) boxes" which you can collect, but teammates stealing your boxes is not a concern. Inside the boxes might be new character parts, new weapons, new emotes, new passive abilities, or Noms de Guerre (Names of War.) But, far more often than not, it will give you credits to spend on the LP2 slot machine, which will get you any one of the previously mentioned items. If the game has any one major flaw, it's this. The slot machine is far more likely to give you new titles or emotes than a new weapon. You can also earn new things by leveling up your character. The names are fun, whether you use one of your earned titles like "VS Shotgun Master" or "Akrid Slayer", or whether you go for the sillier titles, like "Macho, Macho Man," "Undercover Perv" or one of the titles awarded by owning other Capcom games, like "I've Covered Wars."
The marketing line "Kill Big" isn't lieing; some of the boss Akrid are truely enormous. The matchmaking system is a bit retarded, but it's not a game-breaker. The ability to talk with your online friends over the cutscenes means you can get practice for starting your very own Unskippable, and join in the chorus of "holy shit!" whenever awesome stuff happens.
Lost Planet 2 is a hard game to review, because your experience can vary so drastically, and from the online component. When the game 'doesn't work,' it can be controller-chewingly frustrating. When it does 'work,' it becomes one of the most awesome games of all time. Thankfully, it mostly 'works.' All in all, Lost Planet 2 is an amazingly fun game, with immense replay value.
Verdict: 87/100 units of T-Eng.
BTW, my favorite VS is the Spider Tank that transforms into the Drill Tank. Awesome.
