Lost Planet is a series in flux. The first game stole my heart with its lonely atmosphere, its icy locale, and its abundance of interesting weapons, vital suits, and ideas. When the series changed hands for the sequel, things got a bit messy. There was no shortage of crazy ideas, but the increased roughness of its edges became harder to ignore than ever. It’s for this reason that I didn’t mind hearing that Lost Planet 3 would be outsourced to another developer.

Immediately, I noticed one aspect of the series that seemed fixed: the story. Rather than the cliché amnesia of the first game or the nonsensical protagonist shifting of the second, Lost Planet 3 feels instantly relatable. You control Jim, a man with a wife and kid who just needs to make a living. Unfortunately for him, that means taking on hazardous jobs on an incredibly uninviting planet.

As I conversed with other characters in the central hub area, I couldn’t help but appreciate the performances. Between the people in the base, Jim’s narration, and phone messages from Jim’s wife back home, Lost Planet 3 shows a lot of promise in telling a much more personal story than its predecessors.

“I was hunted by Akrid while trying to break my rig free from the ice.”

Making the third entry in the series a prequel is a good move. The harsh conditions of E.D.N. III’s frozen wasteland was one of the original game’s draws and the terraformed environments of Lost Planet 2 really lost something. Jim may not have to deal with a heat meter, but he will navigate through strong winds and run the risk of his rig (read: giant mech) freezing over.

Rather than any kind of gauge, this freeze happened when an especially bad storm passed by. I had to exit the rig and shoot the ice off while watching out for dog-like Akrid that pounced with the sole intent of eating my face. Dodge rolls allowed me to fend off the creatures with relative ease, but when they did pin me down things got interesting. Rather than relying on a quick-time event, I was tasked with aiming a very resistant reticle at their head while holding them off me and firing. It communicated the tension well without resorting to cheap tricks.

Jim’s rig is a far cry from the laser sword and gatling gun wielding vital suits of the previous games. In fact, it doesn’t technically have any weapons at all. Instead, you’ll be attacking and interacting with the world using a giant drill arm and a claw. You’ll also control the rig from a first person perspective. It’s rather slow to move around, but I generally didn’t have to travel long.

After completing an optional objective, I ran across an old ruin. This was the first real stage and I was surprised at its tone. Each piece came together almost like a horror game. The abandoned facility locale, the deliberately startling enemy placement, the sound design, and my very finite supply of ammo made me feel like I was playing some sort of icy Resident Evil spinoff.

Things turned from creepy to over the top quickly, though, as I found an enormous crab-like Akrid just outside. The sense of scale was pleasantly familiar, but the cracks began to show. Aside from a few annoyingly executed patterns, the real problem was the enemy’s reactive movement. Each time I tried to go behind it, the Akrid rotated in sync with me as if it was on some sort of invisible disc. It looked extremely silly and felt like something that would be more at home in a previous console generation.

Another point of concern I found was the grappling hook. Instead of letting me use it anywhere, it was restricted to a few pre-defined points (both for climbing up and rappelling down). As a fan of the freedom the grappling hook allowed in previous games, I found this very disappointing. I also only ran into a single grenade type, which was pretty standard fare. Considering the rather absurd variety of grenade and weapon types before, the Lost Planet 3 demo’s arsenal felt rather limiting.

“Piloting the rig is done in first person view.”

The demo ended with a second fight against the giant Akrid, this time from the comfort of my rig. Without weapons, I was forced to counter its attacks by grabbing its arm with my claw, stretching it taught, and drilling its weak joint. To be honest, it felt rather cumbersome. And taking damage seemed to be missing a real sense of impact while in the rig. The whole fight seemed rather nebulous, in fact.

In the end, I was left with both hope and concern for Lost Planet 3. I love the personal tone and horror-like elements of some of the on foot sections. Optional quests are a welcome feature and the environment of E.D.N. III seems back to what it should be. But the lack of variety currently shown in the weapons, the downgraded grappling hook, and the shaky boss battles worry me. In many ways, I can see refinement. Jim doesn’t walk like somebody who just crapped his pants, after all. I just hope Spark Unlimited doesn’t sacrifice too many of the ideas that actually worked in the previous games. We’ll find out when Lost Planet 3 hits stores early next year.

This preview is based on the showfloor demo of the Xbox 360 version of Lost Planet 3 at PAX 2012. The full game will release in Q1 of 2013.

Tags: 3rd person shooter, capcom, hands-on impressions, Lost Planet, Lost Planet 3, PAX 2012, preview, ps3, Spark Unlimited, third person shooter, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2012 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.