Lost Planet may not be the most fast-paced or intense shooter out there, but it's loads of fun
You play as Wayne, a amnesia-afflicted...guy...on the frozen planet EDN III (at least I think that what it's called). Basically, humans came to this planet for some reason I forgot. (I think you might be starting to realize just how much I care at this point) And found that monstrous insects who survive by carrying thermal energy around in themselves. Normally, this planet would be too cold to support life, and technically it is, but humans find that by taking the thermal energy they find in Akrid (the inexplicably named insect things) they can keep themselves warm. As someone who enjoys sci-fi, I think the idea of a frozen planet where creatures keep themselves alive by storing extreme amounts of heat is a pretty cool idea. It's a nice touch that, after you knock out their thermal energy, the planet's extremely low temperature causes them to freeze solid. On the other hand, later on in the game you'll be in an extremely warm volcano area where the Akrid will turn to lava rock instead of ice when you kill them. Which isn't a nice touch because it really doesn't make any sense, nor does it make sense that your thermal energy still drops. But that's just me being nit-picky.
Most of these Akrid are too powerful to take on as a puny human, so you've got to get into your giant robot, or VS (Vital Suit) to take them out. The game does an excellent job of balancing the on-foot and in-VS sections, so that you feel like neither is left out. Especially since there will usually be a point in those VS sections where you'll have to eject from an exploding robot and go running from creatures one hundred times your size to look for another. Unfortunately, this is the only time the game is somewhat intense, and I say somewhat. See, in this game you have constantly dropping thermal energy that is restored by taking more from your enemies. I'm sure you've already heard of that. What you may not know is that, until your thermal energy drops down to zero, you're practically invulnerable on foot. The reason for this is because when you are hurt, your harmonizer will automatically take away from your thermal energy and use it to heal you. This means that, when you're fighting snow pirates who won't knock you down or blow you up, you can just charge in, screaming like a madman, fill them full of lead, and you'll probably end up okay as long as you make sure you have enough thermal energy. That being said, this game does a good job of NOT making that feel bland. In fact, this game does an outright excellent job of making you FEEL like you're vulnerable even though you aren't about to kick the bucket until your energy drops to zero, at least when you're outgunned against enemy VSes and Akrid. However, this is only a small part of the lack of intensity, another thing is that this game is simply slow paced. When you're on foot you make Master Chief look like an Olympian track winner. And, even though you're faster in a VS, most of those walk slowly to their destinations (the more advanced ones move quickly, though, and some of them can turn into vehicles). It usually doesn't end up being too much of a problem, you don't get impatient with the slow-pacing, but it's definetely there. The third and final reason why the game lacks intensity is the plentiful amount of ammo. You are never in any danger of running out of ammo unless you're using a rocket launcher. Eventually, picking up ammo gets old, because there's just an unreasonable amount of it. As an example, you can hold twenty frag grenades total, and you start out with ten. I can remember an area in the game that was so early on the level that I hadn't even had a chance to use three grenades yet, and there was a room where you could pick up thirty of them.
Yet, what Lost Planet lacks in intensity, it definetely makes up for in how fun it is. One thing that should be noted is that, in the game, you can press RB or LB to turn 45 degrees to the right or left instantly. The funny thing about this is that it would be so useful, maybe even ingenious in a faster paced twitch shooter. But Lost Planet is anything but a twitch shooter, so it rarely comes in handy. Another feature that actually is useful and clever is the grappling hook. In this game you have a grappling hook equipped to you that you can use any time by pressing X. If you fall off of a cliff, Wayne will immedietely throw out the grappling hook and catch on to the ledge. Which is good, since a game where you don't die easily would be inconsistent if you could just fall off of a cliff. The reason that the grappling hook is such a good idea is because the VSes can jump much higher than humans can. This means that, in certain areas of the game, there are platforms that only a VS could jump to. If you didn't have a VS at these points, you would be hopelessly stuck, and that's why you have the grappling hook.
The story in Lost Planet is the most disappointing thing about it, probably. The only reason I'm actually mentioning it is because this game advertised itself as somewhat cinematic and story-based. It succeeds at the former but fails at the latter. The characters never really grab you, and the plot just doesn't make any sense at some points. And, the whole time, you can tell that it's subtly ripping from other games, some of which really shouldn't be influences.
As a whole, Lost Planet is a great game because it excels at what it tries, and mostly doesn't try anymore than what it can excel at. It makes the whole game feel very polished, solid, and just plain fun.