Plot.
Technically a third person shooter, Lost Planet chronicles the adventures of Wayne Holden, a modest young man who experiences deep gaps in his memory, and is placed in a world almost devoid of human life, where there are only a few few pirates and mysterious corporate affairs. Not to mention the strange alien beings who are prevented from successfully colonizing the world, and since then things get really complicated.
Performance.
Although the game is not entirely original, we must applaud to Capcom's effort to change the market of first- and third-person action games. The result is not optimal, especially the PC version is not (in 90% of cases) to match its console counterpart. And we say in most cases because there is not much equipment capable of running the game in Dx10 and maintaining a decent performance without those occasional slumps of framerate suffered at certain stages.
Graphics.
Enjoying the full performance of this title is complicated. Complicated because should either have one of the few (and expensive) Dx10 cards with more than 512 mb of memory (CF or SLI worth), or opt to use the old XP, and with quite a similar result. But it is important to say that in either case, graphically Lost Planet looks pretty good anyway, but not enough to define a new standard for Windows games.
Sound.
At sound level, there is no problem. Lost Planet plays well its role of deploying a great number of effects and jingles that sometimes shake. The tremor happens before leaving the stage of the "Chryatis" soil, "Dongo" attack us as if they were vermin-balls, or just walking out from our heavy "Vital Suits" armors.
Gameplay.
In a sense, the mechanics of the game are good old school, something that is not bad at all, but sometimes the difficulty level can be too low: the enemies have a very definite pattern of movement that after some time the trick is quite simple to perform. Occasionally we may be surrounded by bugs and see how our energy dangerously lowers, but we rarely feel threatened to master the controls. Control, of course, is quite precise and perfect to play even at a low mouse sensitivity.
Bottom line.
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition for Windows is entertaining. It is a good entertainment product, but that is not the problem. The problem is that once you finish the game, there is no additional value in it besides the multiplayer options. And it is disappointing that the game has not been exploited more. Lost Planet may brighten up a few hours of playing, can leave you happy to have finished the main campaign... but then again it will be left on a shelf and never touched again.
Fortunately capcom listened to us and re-released a more challenging and content rich version, called Lost Planet Colonies Edition
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