When you see critic reviews all but outright lashing at the game to fan reviews saying it's a ton of fun and not worth the amount of negativity thrown at it, you can see that this is clearly a game that has a "try out and see" approach. Not to say Capcom has had completely flawless run-ins with the press lately. Devil May Cry 4 had a great first half only to be marred by the entire first half literally played backwards by a different character. Or the really stellar Resident Evil 5 that everyone complained was exactly like Resident Evil 4 when other games are just like prior entries too. So when one hears of oddball game mechanics and approaches to their games in the reviews, you might be a bit hesitant to give Lost Planet 2 a try but this is a game where the reviewers are right in saying this isn't completely flawless but the low scores and negativity thrown at it seems a bit overdone and the best way to gauge whether this game is for you is just play it and see what you think. Stunning graphics, some great score and some of the biggest bosses you'll ever come across also comes with some screwy controls, a near pointless plot and not to mention a game that seems programmed specifically for co-op and you got the makings of a great game that's only good and worth playing but man, if only somebody looked at the bigger picture and said "hey, wait a minute....what if we were to change...?"
Story: The story takes place on the planet E.D.N. III, a once-frozen planet completely covered in snow now largely changed in the 10 years since the adventures of Wayne and Co. in the first game. Instead of having one character go through the game chapter-hopping, they all involve different groups with different objectives that will come to a head near the end. What this means is that the story feels slightly inconsequential since you control nameless dudes who are trying to do something you're not quite sure yet against people you're not introduced to. However this also means some diversity in locations so you can hop from frozen tundras to thick jungles to deserts and back which makes up for the repetitive-but-pretty all snow environments of the first game.
Graphics: Complain all you want about the games of Capcom but you can't argue against their graphic-making abilities which are pretty stellar. From Resident Evil 5 to Street Fighter IV to this, this company knows how to make some really impressive looking games and this game is no different. From the locales you'll see to the absolutely enormous bosses, the MT Framework engine that powers the game is quite a powerful one indeed. However there is some slowdown when things go boom a bit too big and on the train level which I'll get into later, I literally ran into a glitch where the shells required to load into the gun's cannon were floating in mid-air. But from a look standpoint, Lost Planet 2 certainly has the chops but it's not quite 100% smooth but it looks damn fine trying to get there.
Sound/Music: When things aren't exploding so loudly that it completely drowns it out, the music in the game is appropriately epic, intense and nicely bombastic. Things get exciting really quickly and the music used reflects it and that main menu music which you'll be hearing a lot of, I'm sure, is catchy but not so it becomes grating after the 105th damn time. Sound effects are also nicely made from the screeches and roars of the Akrid to the gunfire of the different weaponry, this is a game for your surround sound system or some great headphones. The same can't be said for the voice acting which feels appropriately Capcom. Not as much emotion and dialogue choices read exactly as you'd expect them to: almost flat. Occasionally they'll do some good work in other games but it just feels really iffy here.
Gameplay: Unlike games like say Halo 3, Borderlands, or Gears of War which can be played single player but the main bulk of fun comes in co-op, Lost Planet 2 in a way feels like it was designed specifically to be played with more than one person. And when you see the near brain-dead AI of your squadmates, it's easy to see why you need extra players. They barely shoot and half the time they stand there while you're running around trying to do the bulk of the work which makes the campaign feel really average but then you have some buddies and everything makes sense. Tactics come into play, players can be relegated to a specific weapon usage or task and strategies can be made more efficiently. Take for example Chapter 3-3 (the chapter nearly every reviewer has complained about, dubbing it the "train level"). In this chapter, you start off on a train traveling parallel to an enemy train so you can have one guy with a sniper rifle shooting guys from afar, one with a rocket launcher blowing up the turrets and enemy air support while a 3rd can carry a shield to soak up some damage and keep your other guys safe. Then there's the boss fight in which a huge sense of roles and tasks have to be laid out to each member: you're on a cannon which needs to be fired at weak points of probably the biggest boss you've ever seen. Those shells need to be loaded into the chamber, energized for quicker reloading and potentially given some help with a console that allows for quicker gun rotation. This is not done automatically and whoever is shooting has to rely on the other 3 to supply the shells, load them, energize them and help the rotation speed of the barrel or you're dead. And what if you take damage? Then you need someone to go below decks and activate the coolant systems which act as damage repairmen and gun cooldown. Not to mention there's gun turrets somebody can climb into to shoot down giant meteors or help shooting at the weak points. Think the AI will do all that on its own? Think again.
But this co-op has some side effects. The game operates on a lobby system where you can find a game for a specific episode within a specific chapter and hope one of them says "standing by" because that means they're in the menus and haven't started yet. If their status is "playing" however, you have to wait till they're done before you can come in as there's no join in progress or drop in/drop out co-op in the game. Also co-op can have slight frustrations involving the Battle Gauge. When you activate data posts or accomplish objectives, you add some points to a battle gauge but points get deducted if someone dies. So nearly every death can be treated as a surefire way to get people to yell at you since you're the one who keeps dying and getting your whole team closer to a mission failure. As far as the competitive multiplayer is concerned, it's fun but some issues from campaign carry over. Getting shot puts you in a stun animation, leaving you unable to fire back, heal or do much of anything except rolling or hopefully throwing a grenade which kills the other player first. Unlike games like Call of Duty or Halo where one-on-ones were won by skill and accuracy and which gun you brought, this game feels more like ambush tactics: surprise attack someone and shoot them first before they can do anything. Also nearly every mode has what you'll be doing a lot of in the campaign which is dealing with data posts. In both campaign and multiplayer, these data posts act like spawn points but unlike other games where standing in the area started the capturing, you have to mash B against the data post which leaves you completely vulnerable to weaponry and grenades. This can of course allow players to wait till you try to activate it then kill you while you're completely defenseless. But the modes and gameplay are rarely seen in multiplayer now which makes it quite unique to other games where it's mainly FPS and somewhat familiar.
Another gripe is how you unlock things. In a lot of multiplayer games, unlocks came through level progression: more you played, better toys you got to tinker with. In Lost Planet 2 on the other hand, some of that is unlocks while others have to be literally won from a slot machine. The more you collect those "?" boxes in campaign, the more points you add to your total which act as your "quarters" for the slot machine where you can win new weaponry, abilities that can alter how your character can behave in combat but mainly you'll be seeing emotes and "noms de guerre", in other words, nicknames. Emotes are done by pressing the Start button and either any D-pad direction or the shoulder buttons and they're strictly poses whereas noms de guerres are kind of like your callsigns but when you're being bested by players that have better weaponry or better abilities than you in multiplayer, it can be frustrating when all you keep unlocking are names.
That being said, the gunfights and Akrid encounters can be incredibly intense, the multiplayer from the first game had a very strong community and that'll no doubt be translated here and the game's achievements and trophies feel designed to do one thing: make you play the game over and over. Level up the different factions to level 99, kill an insane amount of enemies, collect everything from the slot machine and play the chapters a whole bunch. This is one of the longest 1000/Platinums you'll find. The game is certainly not without its faults but avoiding the game altogether isn't really the way to go about it. Unless you're a diehard fan of the first or loved the demos in which case you most likely already played it or about to, give the game a try since everyone will react differently. Some of you will love it so much you won't mind playing the game for the next year or more while some others will think it's just way too flawed and backwards and not worth your trouble. I like it and I'd recommend but keep in mind this is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of game so I'm in the former camp so just have to see which camp you fall into.Get more detail about
Lost Planet 2.
