Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xbox 360)

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Mechs play a far bigger part than you might be expecting

Walking around is only one of the ways to get about in Lost Planet though, with Vital Suits (VS for short - mechs for all intents and purposes) providing a more lethal way to tackle the pesky Akrid. Wayne can hop in and out of these mechs whenever he wants, but like pretty much everything else in the game they'll only run while you have thermal energy to power them. Sadly, the mechs can blow up if they take too much damage, but it's worth the risk given that they pack a lot more fire-power than on-foot Wayne and leave behind huge thermal energy deposits when they explode.

The whole VS/mech aspect of Lost Planet is actually quite surprising, not in their inclusion, but in how much of a part they play in the whole game. During later missions you'll rarely want to be outside a mech, and you'll be searching around for more weapons to pick up and new machines to get into. The variety is great for a game that isn't focussed entirely on mech combat, with jumping, hovering, flying and tank mechs all available at some point during the game, with an extra special VS appearing at the close of the game. Action from within a VS has a MechAssault feel to it, but the variety of enemies and their large numbers makes Lost Planet a far more exciting game to play.

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All this brings us to boss battles. The majority of levels feature a boss at the end, and these are where the old-skool feel is most apparent. Tackled in Vital Suits and on-foot (on-foot is usually only used as a last ditch attempt once all the available mechs have been blown up), you're generally locked into an arena-like area, with an Akrid or VS boss sticking to a strict attack pattern while you try and spot its weakness. With the Akrid bosses this isn't too hard, seeing as bight yellow areas once again act as clear indicators, but the mechs prove to be far trickier customers - not that a few Akrid bosses won't cause trouble.

The bosses are great, and provide a spectacle that only next-generation systems are capable of, but boy, can they be annoying. Lost Planet is a game that'll take somewhere in the region of seven hours to finish, unless you fall foul of a few of the bosses. My clock time read a rather depressing 12 hours on completion, with three bosses sticking out as a big reason for this extended play time. Unless you've groomed yourself on titles like Devil May Cry 3 and Ninja Gaiden, the difficulty spikes in Lost Planet will have you cursing, tearing your hair out and generally feeling rather fed up. It's not game breaking, but for a lot of people it will spoil what is otherwise a superb action game.

... the snow covered landscape and more urban environments from later in the game look phenomenal...

Outside of the campaign you get a fairly complete online multiplayer experience for up to 16 players. At first glance it's pretty standard stuff for a third-person shooter, with favourites Elimination and Team Elimination being your typical deathmatch and team-deathmatch modes. The thermal posts seen in the single-player game make an appearance online too, and gaining control of these not only gives you thermal energy, but also gives you radar control, which can make a big difference to the outcome of a game.

Of more interest are the Post Grab and Fugitive Hunt modes. Post Grab is a Battlefield-esque mode that tasks each team with controlling the thermal posts on the map, while Fugitive Hunt pits every player against a single player in a game of hide and seek. Long-term players will also appreciate the persistent levelling up of online characters, giving a reason to keep playing beyond a simple online ranking and Achievement points.

The online modes are good enough to gain a following

Both the single-player and online game modes are complemented by some of the most impressive visuals seen on the Xbox 360. Environments look a little bland when you move indoors, but the snow covered landscape and more urban environments from later in the game look phenomenal, and the enemies and bosses look and move with a quality that would have only been possible in pre-rendered movies a few years ago. A fair bit of tearing and the odd moment of slowdown is slightly disappointing, but nothing to get too worked up about. Audio doesn't fair quite as well, with what can only be described as 'wooden' voice acting, but background music and sound effects are spot on, and the surround sound even helps you out now and again by pinpointing Akrid locations.

All in all, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition feels like a hardened old-skool title wrapped up in some lavish next-gen visuals. Annoyances with the save system, checkpoints and difficulty spikes are likely to mar the enjoyment for a fair few players, but there's still no question that Lost Planet should be experienced. Online multiplayer is also an option once you finish the campaign, and a recent patch suggests that Capcom isn't going to leave problems untouched for months. A fine addition to the Xbox 360 library and hopefully the start of another successful Capcom franchise.

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