Just so you know, I'm going to refrain from making any jokes about a game called Lost Planet that takes place on a frozen rock and the fact that Pluto lost it's planet status. Now, onto the game.
You play Wayne, a young snow pirate who, like many humans, is resisting the threat of the insect Akrid who inhabit the snow rock that, for some reason, we are so desperate to colonize. Because the Akrid produce a powerful heating gel called Thermal Energy in them, killing them and collecting the goo is priority numero uno. However, the game doesn't act like that.
In the story, as typical with these games are, there is a big conspiracy going on that Wayne and his band of misfit pirates must try to stop. I wont spoil what story there is for you, but I'll just say that it doesn't make a lick of sense from start to finish.
The immediate problem with LP is that the game has no focus. I got this game hoping for some good, Starship Troopers-esque, bug killin' in the frozen tundra. And while that is in here, it's not the main focus of the game. Instead, you are constantly doing battle with the NEVEC opposition and their battle VSs. that'd be fine if this game was meant to be that, but it is marketed as a game where it's you against the bugs. Instead, they are just an after thought in the game. Severly disappointing.
Because you are on a frozen planet, you must stay warm. That's where T-ENG comes in. You must keep a steady supply of this rapidly depleting substance in order to keep from quickly losing health and freezing to death. This is maintained by blowing up silos of T-ENG or bursting bugs open and bathing in the orange goop. You rarely will ever find yourself fighting for T-ENG, however, as it's in a huge abundance. The only time you will find yourself short of it is when it's getting used up restoring your health, and even then, if it depletes that much, you'll die anyway.
Speaking of death, you'll die so randomly you'll never see it coming. It's not that a good challenge is not great, it is, but the game fluxuates between overly easy to suddenly rough with each transition of the stage. It just doesn't keep good pace, like the story and premise and...well everything.
Sound is great with the sound of war going on, but the voice acting is horrendous. I mean just absolutly bad. Bad bad bad. Get it yet? Bad. This is made worse by the cheesy and predictable dialog that you typically find in Japanese RPGs. With lines like "Huh? Oh...nothing" and "Nevermind", the story gets moving and then haults because someone has to cover up a Freudian slip. This is 5th grade level writing, at best.
Graphically the game is goregous. With snow that picks up with big booms, creepy bugs, and just an all around good sheen, LP is like a beautiful woman with a really really annoying voice. Think Carmen Electra with Fran Dresher's voice.
Now, onto the topic that every shooter must address more prominatly than the single player: online multiplayer. If Capcom could have done a good job with it, it may have well saved the game. In games that you don't lag up to a rubber band effect every 5 seconds or network boots you, the game is fast paced and fun. People are a bit harder to kill than your typical shooter, but that's fine. Guns and VSs are in numerous and balanced supply, and the mech VSs are easy to take down as long as you understand that a head to head confrontation will not work in your favor. However, as said before, this is only when the game performs at its peak. Usually, 90% of the time, the game lags to high heaven or just all around quits out on you. This makes for a frustrating online experience. However, you will find many people online. My theory on that is they are there for the leveling system. LP rewards your efforts with experience at the end of each game that goes towards a level that you can display and flaunt, as well as use to unlock new character models and skins. This is a nice touch, and keeps people who usually succumb to MMORPG addiction around. However, give it two months and the hardcore gamers will be all done at lvl 99 and the other, less devout, ones will stop somewhere around 60 when the road to 99 becomes much much longer than previously thought will all be gone and you'll be left with people who are renting the game and some randomly placed devout LP fans.
Overall, the game fails. Sorry, but it does. Oh sure, the graphics are nice and accompany the fast paced action, but when the story can't keep up past page one and is explained by crummy voice actors using avatars of stereotypical character design to the script writen by a 13 year old on some fan fic webpage and the online just can't keep up with other, much better, shooters out there, you just can't excuse the game and be generous with high rating. The game is a bust, in more ways than one. Capcom has the right idea most of the time, but it seems with their latest games that they really need to review gaming fundamentals.
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