Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

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List Price: $19.99
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I was a bit surprised to see IGN and other gaming sites give this game lower ratings. While not the most impressive game in the world, it is definitely more fun than they made it out to be.

Lost Planet definitely has some downsides, however, these cons do not make the game worthy of avoiding.

For example, one of the most annoying parts of Lost Planet is the fact that a 5 gigabyte installation of content is required before you can play. Another downside is that the same button is used to exit your vehicle as to pick up weapons for that vehicle, meaning you could be trying to pick up some much needed ammo and instead find yourself jumping out of your vehicle directly into harms way. And, despite the massive content installation, there are still a few points in the game where frames will be dropped and the screen will hang up a bit. However, these things I believe gamers will find to be forgivable.

Now for the pros...Gameplay for one. I found the game to be a unique and rather entertaining mix of first/third-person action and mech-style combat. Parts of the game you will play on foot while others will be impossible without a VS (mech.) Also, the graphics are pretty nice, granted this game did come out a while ago (and it's a 360 port...) so they are not as impressive as more recent releases. The cutscenes, however, I found to be very nice.

Overall, I found Lost Planet to be a worthwhile gaming experience, despite the flaws. The originality of the game definitely makes it worth checking out.

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Allow me to start out by saying, Why did a lot of people/review sites give this game such a low ratings??

With that said, Lost Planet (LP) is a great game,while it doesn't do anything groundbreaking,it offers a lot of fun. The graphics are nothing to write home about but they are nice and do the job well, The story is a little bare bones but does have a surprising plot twist.

Length wise the game has 11 missions with cut-scenes in between each one. Each mission took me on average of 45 min each with the exception of the first 2 missions witch took me 30min to finish. LP can be beat in a weekend if you put your mind to it,but for me it took about 5 days to complete,I'd do 2 missions a night witch was more than enough for a person who is not used to TPS (3rd person shooters) I'm a RPG nut at my core.

Overall for the price you cant go wrong,It would cost you about $6 to rent,put in another $10 and own it. Perfect to waste a weekend on,or good for 5 days playing 2 missions a day :D.

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Other than Bioshock, this is the "strangest" game I've played on our PS3. It just has a WEIRD feel to it. Maybe it's the non-stop frigid planet...Or the obvious Japanese flavor to it...Or the cuss-inducing Boss battles that alternate with simple pushover Boss battles...Or the chief Japanese villain most oddly named "Dennis Isenberg"...Or the near coma-inducing cutscenes...Or the whole Mechs vs bugs thing. Perhaps it's ALL of those together. It's just STRANGE.

However, that doesn't mean it wasn't FUN. Lost Planet has some really enjoyable aspects. The rocket-fired grappling hook allows you to move vertically in addition to the normal horizontal play of most shooters. The mechs (V-S suits) add another dimension to the battles. You also have to continually locate T-ENG to avoid freezing to death in the elements. And any game with gattling guns, rocket launchers, shotties, laser and sniper rifles, homing missles and plasma guns can't be all bad...There are even BIG versions of these weapons too that can be shot from mechs or by hand.

If you like Boss battles, then there are 3 or 4 of them in this game that will give you a pretty good challenge. They're practically impossible to win on the first try on just normal difficulty. In fact, it will take a dozen or more tries for some players. There's one (the Giant Worm) you CAN'T DEFEAT no matter what you do...You just end up throwing your PS3 out the window or giving up the game or running away (the correct option here). As a rule, I don't like games that put invincible Bosses in them. It can take a great deal of time and effort just to finally find out there was nothing you could do to win...

One of the more annoying parts of this game were the cutscenes. There are some that truly sound like the voice talent were all in the same room taking turns READING their lines with a complete absence of emotion. This makes it really hard to get into a game. In addition, your character just fought through a large portion of bug and pirate-infested frozen tundra to reach another area, then he magically appears back at the command post in an involved discussion during the next cutscene...WTH?!?! I found myself DREADING the next cutscene, repeatedly. Talk about phoned-in performances...

The controls were mostly GOOD. But I kept running into a frustrating exchange problem when trying to replace weapons on the mechs. For example, you're in the heat of battle and jump the mech over to a rocket launcher you want to place on the right side of it. If you're SLIGHTLY out of position, it shows up on the left side ready for pickup, then you get hit by Boss fire and have to maneuver back to do the same thing again, all the while taking damage. Another example is just walking up to an empty mech in a Boss battle. If you are slightly off to the side, the screen may briefly show press "O to enter", then you press O and end up removing the weapon off the side mount. So then you have to press "O to attach" it again before entering or enter first then pick up the weapon, and some of these annoying delays can make the difference in a heated Boss battle. Having another button other than just "O" to enter, remove and attach weapons to mechs would make more sense to me.

The end cutscene was really pretty weak. Maybe I should say EXCEPTIONALLY weak. In fact, if it's late at night, you might just fall asleep to it. And that kind of sums up my experience with Lost Planet EC. I mean, your hero character loses his memory at the exact moment he shoots the bad guy. Apparently his friends who were watching the exchange just left him there when he went face down in the snow instead of taking him inside for medical care. Then he wanders around in a roughly 1/2 mile radius outside of the main base (where his friends are inside and warm & toasty) so he can bump into them when they finally come outside several months later. Just a HORRIBLE ending that was obviously tacked on in the final moments of development. You end up saying, "THAT WAS IT?!?!"

The whole game has the feel of a newbie director who was going for a summer blockbuster in his first directing gig, but ends up with a late night cult classic "B" movie instead. Some parts were enjoyable...Some parts deplorable. That's what you get with Lost Planet EC...

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I remember about 3 years ago I used to play the demo for this game for hours on end, and I really wanted to buy it. After some time I forgot about this game, but ever since I bought it I've had so much fun with this game. Truly one of the best games for PS3.

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This game is a pain in the butt, can't believe how difficult it is to get started, and once you are it is still difficult to stay with....not compelling to put back in the machine.

Spend your money elsewhere...