Madisonians who want to escape the recent bleak weather and its blustery snow might want to avoid Capcom's latest Xbox 360 title Lost Planet: Extreme Condition"" for its frank depiction of a frozen Hoth-esque planet. However, they'd miss out on a fun, but flawed start to a new Capcom franchise.
In ""Lost Planet,"" the player jumps into the role of Wayne, a mech pilot, who, along with his father, is helping to terraform the ice planet E.D.N III into a habitable area for human life. To do this, Wayne and company must rid the planet of the bug-like Akkrid and absorb their life essence, the T-ENG. This plan goes awry when a giant Akkrid sends Wayne into an ice-induced coma while also killing his father. Now, 30 years later Wayne is revived by a sibling team who want to continue the terraforming mission, but government intervention, space pirates and the Akkrid themselves complicate this simple plan.
A story setup such as this lends itself to a variety of control stylings and enemies. At its heart, the game is a third-person action game in the vein of ""Gears of War,"" but within a single level, Wayne might do battle with space pirates, Akkrid on foot or jump into a mech and clash with robot suited space pirates who pilot mechs.
The numerous encounter types give the game variety. The Akkrid and mech encounters, in particular, allow the game to excel.
Zapping the Akkrid bugs might at first seem dull, because they're awfully weak. As the game progresses, stronger enemies emerge""which actually requires new strategies as players must shoot the bug's glowing weak spot""not always the easiest task, but one that is very doable.
The mech battles are intuitively controlled with the left and right trigger buttons corresponding to weapons on either side of the mech. Mechs can swap in and out a variety of weapons from the standard Gatling gun to the mech-splosive rocket launcher at the press of a button. This simple customization scheme contrasts with complex mech simulations like Steel Battalion, and gives the mech elements an energetic arcade feel.
However, when the character jumps out of the mech and runs around on foot, ""Lost Planet"" falters. On foot, this game is no ""Gears of War,"" it's not even a ""Rainbow Six."" Unlike the Akkrid battles, these fire fights require no strategy, just the ability to hold down the R trigger and move forward. The enemies are ruled by a weak artificial intelligence system in which they hardly attack and when they do, they'll cause only low levels of damage.
What is especially strange about the poor space pirate A.I. is the mechs, which should have a similar level of intelligence, are programmed to use evasive action and quick counterattacks that the space pirates would never dream of.
Occasionally, being on foot can get annoying, especially when a band of Akkrid and mechs team up to make life a living hell. But there are only few moments in ""Lost Planet"" where a player would encounter this kind of chaos. Usually this problem is solved by jumping into a conveniently-placed mech that allows Wayne to turn the tables on his enemies and engage in truly chaotic dogfights. This battle-type sets the game apart from any other standard third person shooter or mech game and gives a uniquely fun vibe.
""Lost Planet"" as a whole does have flaws, as an entire third of the gameplay is nearly intolerable, but the other aspects more than make up for the shortcomings. Any problem with the gameplay can be fixed in later sequels, but until those arrive, the game remains an entertaining way to get out of the cold Wisconsin air in favor of fun E.D.N III bug and mech zapping.
