The original Lost Planet sold more than a million copies and with good reason. The sci-fi action game had great visuals, cool mechs, and a fun multiplayer. But there were a few annoyances that hurt what was otherwise a great experience.
Lost Planet 2 seems to have wiped away these issues. You now have a greater range of vision, so you can look straight up at the sky if you like; your character moves more quickly (there's even a run button); and you're no longer constantly bleeding T-Eng (AKA health). Oh, and to add to this,
Capcom threw in four-player online co-op throughout the campaign.
Two months ago,
we gave an in-depth preview of Lost Planet 2. The playable E3 demo focuses on one part from this preview, so I'll leave out the details you can already get from our previous article.
Co-op is a great addition to Lost Planet and pulls in all the good things from the original's multiplayer mode. You can unlock new things to help customize your character so that as you progress, you slowly become more unique-looking. And there's a helpful cooperative move that's been added. You no longer lose T-Eng constantly, but it does decrease as you use certain weapons or pilot mechs. Should your T-Eng get low, your friend can "share" his by firing it at you from across the room. In this way, one of the players can act as medic throughout the campaign.
The E3 demo had us battling a giant salamander-like beast. It has a massive growth that needs to be shot. As you hit it with firepower, the growth receded into the creature's body. Getting a shot at the growth requires getting to higher ground with your hook shot. Running alongside this beast as it runs, firing at its glowing parts is a pretty cool experience. And once you do some damage to its legs to get it on the ground, one or two of you can jump inside its mouth. The creature recovers very quickly, so it helps to coordinate with your teammates to have some firing at the top, while one or two stay in front of the salamander.
Inside, you fight through this horrific thing's intestinal track. If you through shooting anus-portals in the first game was gross, just wait until you see the sloshing insiders of this thing. As you make your way down, slipping and sliding along the way, you eventually reach the end. Yes. The end. The salamander launches you out and the attack cycles through again.
The battle is pretty epic. Capcom is keeping the scale of its bosses on the massive level. And because there are now four players going at it, there are numerous mechs and scattered about the large arena. How Lost Planet 2 plays when you're all alone is going to be interesting. Clearly the environments and enemies were made with cooperative play in mind.
I'd forgotten how much fun Lost Planet is to play. And the faster-moving characters and the adjustments to T-Eng make it all the better. I just hope the sequel can deliver the same kind of large-scale battles of the original and provide a new and unexpected competitive multiplayer experience.