A good arcade shooter to waste some time. Could have been alot better.
Story: "Lost Planet: Extreme Condition" is third person shooter created by Capcom which is set on E.D.N. III. Human kind has left it's "world in ruins" to make life on another planet. On a new planet they find that the extreme cold climate is not the only obstacle for survival in this merciless tundra. They come accross a hostile, insect-like race known as the Akrid. The humans retreat from the overwhelming akrid and discover that within these creatures is a powerful energy source. The humans return to the planet equipped with mechs know as V.S. designed to battle the Akrid and collect the material known as Thermal Energy. The game puts you in the shoes of a young man named Wayne who's father was killed by an Akrid known as "Green Eye". Found frozen beneath the snow he is rescued by snow pirates. He lost his memory and only remembers his name and the monster that took his father's life. With the help of his new found friends, Wayne sets out on a quest through the frozen planet to find Green Eye with the hope that it will return his memory and to avenge his father's death. The setting is a basic human versus aliens on another planet whichll remind you of a flick called "Starship Troopers". The characters including the protagonist are not memorable. You will find yourselfplaying through the game and not caring about the story line at all. The action keep you occupied and through out the game the story will take a back seat. The cut-scenes that support the storyline are dull and uninspired. You will find yourself just skipping through it in order to get right to the action.
Gameplay-The actionis non-stop and the enemies keep coming. Each mission you take on is filled with bugs to shoot. The gameplay is your average arcade shooter followed in a simple sequence, kill enemy collect item, repeat, defeat boss, stage finished. The are no sorts of tactics in the game, just plane shoot and then shoot some more. Graphics-The graphics look great, especially on hdtv. After a while though, the snowy environments get quite annoying and you find yourself looking for some indoors to get away. Honestly, just like in the real the all white starts hurting your eyes after a while. There is not much veriety in environments. You will find your self running through the snowy middle of nowhere with buildings the indoors of which are all the same, and caves. The enemies are rendering quite well butin my opinion, not enough to make a good impression on an average gamer. Controls-The control scheme seemed weird to me and takes quite a time getting used to. You control your aiming with the right analog stick, basically moving the reticle around the screen to target an enemy and using your left stick to run backwards and forward or strafe.The bigest problem with this scheme in my opinion is not being able to turn with the right analog stick. Instead you use the left and right bumpers to turn your character ninety degrees or so which feels weird. I found myself not being able to precisely turn when surrounded by enemies. There is not much change when you try a different scheme from default since the effect is exactly the same, only the buttons are different. Sound-Everything from the snow blowing, your footsteps in such environment andweapons are a music to your ears. From the shots of your weapons to mechs sound precise and realistic. I fountthe soundtrack of the game quite good and very enjoyable. The music, the snow, weapons blasting, the barrels blowing, are all done reallly well and you really feel like you are in the action.The only flaw is the enemies. The enemies sound quite simple and sometimes like they just came out of the last gen game. The sound of bosses reminded me alot of old arcade bosses.
The Verdict-In my opinion, this title could have used alittle more work. It seems there was not much imagination used in the storyline. The action is satisfying to say the least only ruined by crappy controls. In the end, it's great title to waste some time, but that's about it.