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Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2

Mechs, enormous weapons, and snow pirates operating out of the jungle - welcome to Lost Planet 2.

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Capcom throw me straight into the thick of the action in an enormous mech as I fight off giant insects known as Akrids within seconds of turning on Lost Planet 2. The visuals are much improved since the original and almost everything points towards a stunning experience as I try and chip away at the monstrous Starship Trooper style insects with my bullets.

But after this fantastic start something happens. The ice plains are traded in for jungles, Akrids are exchanged for human enemies and the mission variation never goes beyond exploring a new level and activate a few beacons. For the most part Lost Planet 2 is a completely different experience compared to the original.

The biggest difference is that you are no longer on your own. Where Wayne fought of Akrids and snow pirates by himself, you are joined by three mates this time around. And it's not optional. And if you're the kind of person who rather play games on your own, then Lost Planet isn't the game for you. You may recall what it was like playing with an AI controlled Sheva in Resident Evil 5, and how she squandered precious ammo and herbs.

Well, she was a genius compared to the fellows you have to drag along in Lost Planet 2. As long as it only comes down to gunning down enemies they get the job done, but everything else works poorly. Missions that revolve around splitting up the group and defending positions results in you having run all over the place as your team mates gladly abandon their posts as they follow you around.

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Another problem Capcom have had in the past are checkpoints (remember Dead Rising?). Lost Planet 2 is a multiplayer game, even when you play it alone, and if you die you respawn at the closest checkpoint. But only as long as you have points left on the communal life bar of your group and it goes down each time you die. If the bar is depleted it's game over. You can easily be forced to reply difficult passages that takes an hour several times, because your hopeless AI partners mess things up.

To make a long story short - Lost Player 2 is a multiplayer game. Purely. As soon as you join a few friends the experience grows to what it was intended to be. A visually mindblowing action game with lots of intense combat. The communal life bar still causes some problems, but in the long run it forces players to co-operate more as no one wants to run the risk of having to replay a level in its entirety after falling at the hands of a pesky boss.

And Lost Planet 2 has its fair share of giant boss fights. Size matters, at least in some cases. There are enemies so big that you can jump into their mouths and take them out from the inside while your friends lay down the fire from the outside. The original had better designed and well thought out battles, but Lost Planet 2 makes up for it with raw strength and size.

Something I really enjoyed with Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions was the interesting story you entangled as you fought off the giant insects. It is very apparent Capcom wanted to focus more on the action, and perhaps adapt the game more to a western audience, something that takes away some of its appeal for me personally. Much like the recent Call of Duty games, there isn't a main character in Lost Planet 2, and instead you jump between different groups, who often are at war.

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But Lost Planet 2 isn't a boring game. There are more mechs and they are more enjoyable than in the original, some of them are big enough for more than one passenger. The guns are also bigger and better, and the customisation options for your character are superb. You unlock more stuff to equip all the time, and Capcom have also had the good tastes of adding some cameos like Gears of Wars' Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago (exclusive to the 360 version) and several Capcom characters like Resident Evil's Wesker.

As we have come to expect from Capcom they deliver near perfect controls, that much like the original land somewhere in between Bionic Commando, Devil May Cry and an on-rails shooter. Instead of rotating the camera with your analogue stick, you do it in 90 degree chunks with your shoulder buttons. Different, but very functional and extremely quick once mastered.

To just run around and wreak havoc is pure joy. The environment are beautiful and more varied than in the original game. The soundscape has also been vastly improved, and the brunt force of the sound of explosions is enough to wake the dead.

Capcom has built on the foundation of the multiplayer component and up to 16 players can do battle online. This is actually one of the strongest areas of the game, and a breath of fresh air when compared to all the death matches in first person shooters we have endured during the last few years. All the original game modes make a return, the levels are large and well designed, and thanks to the grappling hooks and mechs these death matches are different from any other game.

And as you can expect from a Japanese action title, unlocking everything will take a monumental effort. There are countless numbers of weapons, costumes and other stuff to unlock. If Lost Planet 2 is a hit, I'm sure that the multiplayer scene will be better and more populated than the last time around.

Lost Planet 2 is filled to the brim with intense action, gorgeous graphics and deranged boss battle without much need to use your brain. It's great fun with a few friends, but playing on your own isn't advisable and the mission design could have been more varied. Capcom could have made better design choices and achieved a better final score, but Lost Planet 2 is still a good purchase for those who enjoyed the original.

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07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
Incredibly intense action, nice graphics, massive boss fights, great controls, rock solid online support.
-
Terrible AI, poor check points, lack of mission variation.
overall score
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