ost Planet is a game that I played in a special time in my life. The PS2 generation was wrapping up and the Xbox 360 was the first to hit the market. TVs began moving to high definition and we save the biggest leap in visuals that we'd ever seen on the console market. I heard stories from and eventually go to play several games at my cousins including BioShock, Gears of War, Fallout 3, Crackdown and Lost Planet. Many of which we would go to the nearby Video Ezy, another major source of nostalgia, and hire out the game for the weekend. Lost Planet was one of those games; it was on the top of the list of games that made me want to get an Xbox 360 (in addition to my PS3). But I never got around to playing it again.
I absolute adore the theme and lore of this world. The snowy planet full of Akrid bugs that humanity is attempting to colonize, using the thermal energy within these aliens. The grappling hooks, the mechs and the gunplay overall. The dialogue is corny in the typical sense like Vanquish or Resident Evil 4, but who cares, I'm purely along for the ride. The short version is you are Wayne Holden, you your father and others defend the colony against the Akrid threat and others like Snow Pirates. Your father dies to the super Akrid called green eye, defending you in his highly advanced mech. You're recruited by a group Yuri, Luka and that one tech guy who is the most cheesy teenage "cool dude" in the entire game... They want to exterminate the Akrid and terraform the planet, also known as the Frontier Project. NEVEC, a super evil corporation plan to steal all that energy and terraform another planet, abandoning all the snow pirates. Luka doesn't trust you, you earn that trust. Yuri betrays you to NEVEC and then redeems himself. Wayne kills the green eye and avenges his father; then he takes down NEVEC. There are some gems in the corny dialogue. Like when Yuri attempts to explain who the snow pirates are to Wayne: "In the first attempt to colonise the planet we failed the middle class was left behind. They survived and after we returned the became known as Snow pirates". That's it... now you immediately process to kill all of them LOL.
Overall that's the weakest part of the game. Mechs aren't too bad but for the most part all the humans just stand there as you shoot the bullet sponges. The Akrid on the other hand are far cooler; with different move sets. From enemies that tunnel up; to some that curl into a ball and charge you. Floating jelly fish and bird like creatures that swoop you. It's super satisfying to find and exploit their weak spots as well. T-ENG is a really cool mechanic that consistently immerses you in the frozen wasteland of this planet. It's the energy harvested from the indigenous Akrid and without you'll die. You can collect a surplus and when you take damage it will heal you. So in reality you can carry like 30+ med kits with you. There are several ways to harvest it as well; other than the obvious you can steal it from other people, mechs, destroy storage containers or find beacons that carry about a thousand. They serve as a checkpoint in a lot of ways. Mechs drain more than on-foot so you need to balance when to use it or travel, encouraging a balance in gameplay. I would often scavenge on foot or ditch a mech if my T-ENG was too low. The mechs themselves are awesome and the animations are superb. I've never been a big mech guy, especially Gundams, but here I absolutely adore the designs. Bulky and functional, as you'd expect for colonizing a new world.
For example on mech doesn't have much armour, and it can go from a mobile gun platform to a snowmobile in a seamless transformation. The animations are very slick. All this culminates perfectly in Mission 7. Where you're non-stop fighting Akrid and Mechs in an open area that feels like all out war as you make your way to a facility. It's a shame more missions weren't like this. The ending also was a bit of a let down. After you upgrade your father's mech it becomes a cliche Gundam and you proceed to fight the big bad of NEVEC in his own Gundam. Not only does it feel very out of place in everything that came before, the boss fight is horrendous. There's no tactics in this fight, you just go in and spam your laser sword and hope for the best. It's terrible.
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| The levels are fantastic, you can even rappel down the side of ramps and snipe foes. |
I'm not sure what the sequel holds, from what I've seen it looks more like a cover shooter. But I would have loved to see a more TF2 style story, where you have relationship with YOUR mech. There is so much potential to modernize this as Bionic Commando meets Armored Core. Use your grappling hook to pin to Akrid backs and shoot weak spots. Use on off items to subdue and ride them. Grapple enemies, there weapons and attach stuff Just Cause style. Steal guns off mechs or launch to them and hijack them. It would be cool if there was a way to make your mech more durable; instead of just ditching it and finding a new one. Jumping out of a mech, detaching a weapon, then lugging a new one over and reattaching it is an awesome feeling. It makes me want more of a scavenger experience with a mech workshop experience. But what I did get other than the final moments was an absolute joy.
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