I received Lost Planet 2 in from Gamefly today, and actually got the chance to put a little over an hour into it. I’m still a little on the fence with it, but it is definitely too early to make a final verdict, especially since I haven’t actually gotten to play with anyone online yet. Still, here’s what I have seen from the campaign so far.
The campaign mode of the game is interesting. There is technically no “single player” mode that you just continue from the last save point. From the campaign menu, you can either jump into someone else’s campaign, or you can create your own campaign. If you start your own, you can start it at any point you wish, up to any point you have already unlocked in the game. The campaign mode supports up to four players, and they can be online buddies or AI. I played two campaigns…one with the AI and one with the online. Unfortunately, no one decided to join in my game, so I was basically getting my butt kicked around. That was one of the first annoying things…it’s hard to play online with random people. I can see it being a lot of fun with some friends who you know will be playing alongside with you, but if you’re hoping to have someone join your game, you could be in for a bumpy ride.
So on to the actual gameplay. I played the original game a long time ago, and remember very little of it. Basically, you are on a planet infested with aliens, and you have to shoot them up. Oh yeah, and space pirates. So your enemies are alien creatures and space pirates. Guns and ammo are plentiful, and come in a variety of choices from normal machine guns and shotguns to large infantry guns which you can remove from battle suits and wield on your own.
The health system of the game is interesting. You have a said life force, and also a bank of T-Energy. T-Energy can be found all over the battlefield, as it’s either stored in containers or bleeds from enemies. So long as you have T-Energy, pushing start will regenerate your health, at the expense of T-Energy. So if you run out of the T stuff, then you will not be able to regenerate health. Also, if you run out of T-Energy your health will gradually decrease, so definitely make sure you have an ample supply of the stuff. Also, there are no lives in the game per say, but “battle points.” So long as you have enough battle points, you will be able to respawn at a marker after you die. However, run out of battle points and it’s game over.
The game controls are pretty tricky, and take some getting used to. For example, R3 is the reload button (not square), and if you want to crouch, you have to constantly hold down L3. Switching alternate weapons (grenades) is a bit odd also, as you have to hold down the triangle button and then press L1. Oh yeah, and pushing L2 and R2 will cause the camera to turn 90degrees to one side, which gets annoying fast, so you don’t want to be pushing those buttons. One of the more interesting controls is the fact that square lets you use a grappling hook device, which allows you to climb up and down ledges, which was fun.
All in all, the game is promising. A four-player online co-op campaign where you and friends bust up aliens (and there are some pretty big bugs out there too!) There is also a competitive mode with different character classes and other stuff, but I didn’t delve into that yet. One of my biggest complaints is the game install. It’s a huge 3GB install, and after it’s installed (which took my PS3 about 15 minutes), there are still a bunch of long load times. I mean, come on, if you’re installing game data onto the PS3 directly, there should be no need for long load screens. Dynasty Warriors Strike Force did it, and it is one heck of a smooth game, with almost no down time. One of my other complaints isn’t directed at the game necessarily, but at my standard def. TV. I can’t read any text in this game. I hardly know what weapon I have equipped, and when I looked at the five character classes for competitive mode, I couldn’t tell what each class was. It was pretty bad and frustrating…almost on par with the frustration I have with playing Sacred 2 on a standard TV. I really need to upgrade…but I digress.
As I said, the game is promising, but I’m still on the fence. I’ll definitely need to pop some more time into it and check out the online modes before I decide if I like the game or hate it.
