Too often throughout Lost Planet 2’s main campaign you’ll find yourself engrossed in the action, feeling like you’re racing towards a climactic moment, only to have control stripped from you at the last possible second. ".the game doesn’t play by any sort of consistent rule set." Regardless of whether you need to go up or down, the map stays the same, causing you to play a guessing game and getting very frustrated. It’s a pretty modern convenience that in game maps let you know when your objective is either above or below you oh no, not in Lost Planet. This is due largely to the fact that the game’s map feature is all but broken. In a good portion of the levels, there’s no rhyme or reason for the layouts and you often feel like you’re wandering around a maze. Unfortunately, Lost Planet 2 is one of the most uneven games of this generation. The times I found myself enjoying Lost Planet 2 the most was when I was surrounded by giant Akrids, blowing them to bits, rather than just playing a sub-par third person shooter.
Think of the Akrids as the bugs from Starship Troopers except just more pissed off. The levels featuring a heavy dose of human VS human combat tend to be the most boring, as the game really hits its stride when you’re battling against the game’s real enemies, The Akrids. ".one of the most uneven games of this generation"Īs in the first game, you’re cast in the role of multiple factions amid a civil war for Thermal Energy (or T-ENG as the game refers to it). Spoilers aside, there’s a bit of that here (especially in the later levels), but it just doesn’t feel the same. I like the fact that we’re seeing a different side of the locale, but I was a big fan of the way Capcom used the wintery effects in gameplay – how enemies would be hard to see when the snow got too bad. Much of the icy areas are now completely melted away to reveal lush jungles and intricate hideaways. Taking place ten years after the events of the first game, Lost Planet 2 places players on a far different E.D.N III than players of the first game will remember. The AI is terrible, the missions have no structure and perhaps the worst sin of all for an action game like this – the game relies too heavily on showing players what’s happening, rather than having them as active participants.
Lost Planet 2 absolutely nails everything that makes it “next-gen ” it looks gorgeous, it’s got fantastic explosions and high powered artillery, it’s just the basics that the folks at Capcom got so very wrong. In fact, Lost Planet 2 is somehow a step backwards for the franchise. You could also make the argument that the game’s high end production values and big budget effects make it more badass, but unfortunately –it’s far from better. To paraphrase a popular developer, sequels have to be “bigger, better and more badass.” With more enemies and a larger scale, Capcom’s Lost Planet 2, the sequel to one of the Xbox 360’s first big break out hits is definitely bigger.
Lost Planet 2 - Cheat Happens Game Review