Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Hands-on Preview

While thousands of members of the video game industry have flocked to Los Angeles for this year’s E3, one of the stars of the show can actually be played from the comfort of your living room. Lost Planet from Capcom is a third-person shooter with some mech combat mixed in, and, if you haven’t played it yet, a demo is available to download on Xbox Live Marketplace right now.

Lost Planet is set on a treacherous snow-covered planet that is home to many dangerous creatures. A young man is saved by a group calling themselves the Snow Pirates, who use Vitality Suits enabling them to explore the unforgiving tundra environment. Other than the harsh environment, the biggest danger comes from the Eecrid, the new dominant species on the planet. The humans must fight the indigenous creatures for thermal energy, needed to keep the human population alive.

The final game will feature a story that revolves around the death of the main character’s father, and a plan to sterilise the entire planet. The two-level demo doesn’t give too many clues on the story, but it does point towards Lost Planet being a stunning action game.

The first demo level sees your character tackling crab-like enemies that are scattered around the environment. Weapons and grenades can be picked up and used on the enemy, and explosive barrels are hard to resist, causing a quite wonderful effect when pierced by a bullet. It’s amazing that the game looks so polished at this stage of development, with Capcom recently announcing that the game won’t hit stores until early 2007. Enemies range in size and design, with the demo featuring armadillo-like rolling enemies, large scorpion like beasts and more. Their movement is also really impressive, and the visuals have a CGI-like quality thanks to some well implemented motion blur.

It’s not entirely clear how varied mechs are going to be in the game, but those seen in the demo can be jumped in and out of, much like you could do in MechAssault 2 on the Xbox. The extra fire power the mechs provide allows you to shoot limbs off enemies, and while you can boost into the air to reach areas you’d struggle to get to on foot, movement speed isn’t that fast, meaning that the rolling enemies do pose a bit of a threat.

The second demo level sees you go up against a number of human enemies, and suggests that the game will offer a nice variety in gameplay styles. The visuals here are once again hugely impressive, with explosion effects and motion blur really needing to be seen to be believed. The extreme difficulty of this level is a slight concern, as it could alienate a huge number of gamers if it’s representative of the game as a whole. Still, the gameplay is intense and fun, meaning you want to continue on, rather than give up at the first sign of trouble.

Enemies seem to endlessly spawn from pods around the environment, so it’s essential to take these out before you try and tackle the enemies themselves. Your weapon choice also seems to have an effect on your mobility, with the biggest weapon in the demo packing a huge punch, but it causes your character to stop moving while it’s being fired. Grenade throwing seems a bit hit and miss at this stage, but considering the game is so early, it’s a problem that can easily be forgiven.

Lost Planet has a long way to go before we’ll see the final version, including multiplayer game modes over Xbox Live, but from what I’ve seen, it’s looking incredibly good. As an aside from the game itself impressing, the fact that a demo has been released on Xbox Live Marketplace so early is brilliant. Never before have gamers been able to get their hands on a great game like this so early, and Microsoft and Capcom deserve huge credit for bringing some of the E3 experience to the living room.