Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

"AAA Title? Not unless A stands for Average..."

If you were to go back to June of 2006 and ask any Xbox 360 Owner or Fan for a list of Triple-A titles scheduled for release within the next year, there is no doubt that Lost Planet would have been on any list. Like any title that is expected to receive tons of sales and well deserved press, Lost Planet was previewed on tons of websites as well as any TV show dealing with video games. So with all this publicity should come the Xbox 360's next great game, right? Unfortunately, this is not Gears of War. Nor is it Dead Rising. Nor is it Oblivion. Interesting game, this is not. It's just an average Third Person game with a few twist thrown in.

Gameplay: 7/10

Plain and simple, the gameplay isn't horrible, but it's neither innovative, nor is it mind-blowing. In fact, it's incredibly repetitive. However, you will find yourself coming to play this game whenever possible for some reason. There are some clear flaws, such as making the “Average” Vital Suit controls lackadaisical in order for you to understand just how great the “Advanced” ones are. Furthermore, it feels as if Capcom made a novice move in throwing way too many enemies onto the screen to present a challenge. While that notion works in Dead Rising, it does not here. It makes no sense for levels to consist of a single man with an assault rifle to have to fight against 3 large aliens, 2 Vital Suits, and 10 individuals with assault rifles as well, all at the same time. Further reason the gameplay score has been deducted is because this game includes a grappling hook, and yet they don't use it well enough. There are few, if any truly hidden places, so it just becomes gimmicky other than to use in an attack. To it's credit, the Boss Battles are some of the most fun, yet most frustrating battles in recent memory outside of Ninja Gaiden.

Graphics: 9/10

Plain and simple, there are only two games on the Xbox 360 that have cutscene graphics that rival that of Lost Planet. Gear of War, and Capcom's other 360 project, Dead Rising. The cutscenes are amazing, and you will find yourself playing the game all over again, simply to watch them once again. The character models are interesting, and the actions and movements of the characters during the aforementioned are realistic. However, the graphics score isn't perfect because, in game, the graphics feel as if they're in the average range.

Story: 9/10

In my humble opinion, this is clearly the reason to play the game. Given the premise of the game, it would seem as if there is only so much you can do with your typical revenge story line. Lost Planet, however, manages to expand upon this typical story line, and completely shift directions to the point where you feel as if you're playing two separate games. At no point should the individual watching the cutscenes feel uninterested in what is going on. Unfortunately, this game, like so many other 360 titles that I have review suffer from “Xbox 360 syndrome” as well. Like many other Xbox 360 titles, it's single player story mode feels way too short.

Sound: 5/10

Like the game itself, not great, but not horrible. The reason is because while the music score is good and brings you well into the game and keeps you intrigued, when you're playing you will continue to hear the annoying sounds of the same shots being fired over and over and over again. Simply put, they cancel one another out. The greatness of the music score is murdered by the horrible fact that you will continue to hear the same sound effects over and over within the game.

Multiplayer: 6/10

Many fans of this game will tell you that you must play online for this game because it is greatly done. Many of those fans are blinded. While this game does offer something in the way of moderately fun online play, especially because you can use a Vital Suit, aside from a few decent maps and 8-on-8 play, it offers nothing good, let alone great, aside from the fact that it actually uses the grappling hook correctly, allowing you to access hidden sniper areas. It also has a few interesting online gaming modes that I have not seen before that garner the addition of an extra point to the MP score by themselves. Other than that there are horrible flaws, such as a limited amount of pre-determined themes. Yes, there is customization, but not enough to differ you from anybody with the same or like models as yourself. Another large blunder is the simple fact that there clearly wasn't enough development of team based games. Due to the aforementioned like models, as well as the simple difference between teammates and enemies being the color of the font above their head(which is, like another Capcom game almost impossible to read without an HD-TV) multiplayer has quite a few problems. However, it actually has a playable multiplayer online, which at least makes up for the fact that you can't play vs matches locally or even via split screen. The final reason the Multiplayer score is so low is because when the game does lag, you're not kicked off, you're simply a huge liability to your team. During respawn, you cannot do anything, however, can be shot at, beat up, or killed, all while reading “Respawning in 0" if you are lagging.

Replayability: 6.5/10

As previously mentioned, the Multiplayer isn't anything amazing, but after playing all the missions I found myself wanting to use the nifty little feature that allows you to play any mission you want after you have beaten it to play the 2 or 3 truly great missions that this game has, and skip the other ones. So that simply adds another half a point from the multiplayer score, because you can only play a mission so long until it gets repetitive.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

Despite that there are some decent scores listed above, this game is nothing more than average. In reality I would give the game a 6.5 out of 10, however, due to GameFAQ's scoring rubric it has been rounded up to a 7. Plain and simple this game is average, I don't realize how many times I can state it. I realize the game is an homage to classic gaming, but it just doesn't pull you in as much as a classic did. At least, not for the correct reasons. Throw in cheaply done Online play, as well as a novice-like move of putting way to many enemies on the screen at once, Lost Planet feels like an average action shooter.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/07