HorrorTober 2017 - Lost Planet Extreme Condition (PS3)

Our next scary stop brings us to the icy planet of E.D.N. III, in the distant future amidst a war with an insectoid alien race. Seems scary enough, so let's see how it delivers. 

The Story

Lost Planet brings us to E.D.N. III. In the future, Earth has become uninhabitable due to issues of war, global warming, and pollution. A corporation known as NEVEC (Neo-Venus Construction) set out and located this planet, as it is relatable to Earth and it's atmosphere. However, the planet is inhabited by a race of insectoid aliens, and the planet itself is in the grips of a vast ice age. A war wages against the insectoid Akrid creatures, but it is lost and humanity is left to venture on as nomadic Snow Pirates. You play as Wayne, a soldier looking to overthrow NEVEC, as the unit he and his father are part of sets out to kill a giant Akrid known as Green Eye, but Wayne gets separated and watches his father die. He gets lost in the drifting snow, and ends up being frozen, waking up 30 years later in a gang of snow pirates led by Yuri. Yuri is interested in the device on Wayne's arm that can harness the thermal energy from the Akrid and prolong him being exposed to the harsh cold conditions of E.D.N. III. Wayne informs them of NEVEC's plan to thaw out the planet and take control of it, but he wishes to overthrow them and help the general colonization of the planet. Can Wayne survive the planet and save humanity from the grips of NEVEC?

The Controls

Lost Planet is a 3rd-person horror shooter game. The controls for it are really simple shooter controls. The button interface houses the main functions in the game where you can jump, melee attack, switch weapons, or use Wayne's grapple hook. D-pad is where you can zoom your aim (up and down) or turn your flashlight on and off (left and right). Joysticks control movement and aiming, and clicking the right thumbstick reloads your current weapon while clicking the left thumbstick let's you crouch. Lastly, the back shoulder buttons fire your weapon (right) and toss your grenades (left) and the front front shoulder buttons will turn you quickly to the right or left, respective to which button you press. Additionally, the O button lets you pick up extra weapons/ammo that are lying around in the levels.

The Gameplay

The game is very linear from start to finish. Each level is broken up as a separate mission, each containing it's own objective. Along the way, there are beacons you must activate and on the top of each one a light is emitted, pointing you in the direction for the next beacon. Between each mission, you are given cutscenes to flesh out the narrative of the game, with sporadic radio transmissions from Yuri and his gang along the way giving you information you may need against any enemy types or the environment itself. 

One thing that is always present in the HUD is a thermal energy meter. This is what makes it sustainable for you to be on the surface of the planet, but it is also connected to Wayne and can heal him when he takes damage. If this number ever runs out, it's instantly game over. However, you can find plenty of the thermal energy inside the enemies you kill and build up a pretty hefty stock of it. 

As far as enemies go, there's a pretty even balance between fighting the Akrid and NEVEC soldiers. These are scattered all around and will definitely be getting in your way to reach your objectives. Wayne gets a slew of weapons to deal with these things though, from machine guns to rockets and grenades. The soldiers are a straight up fight when you face them, but the Akrid are massive, and the only way to weaken/kill them is by firing on a yellow pustule on their body, as the rest of them is usually armored with their thick skin. Most of these guys, the weak spot is constantly visible but there are some who will require a little bit of tactics to get to.

You'll also be able to find VS, Vital Suits scattered around to use as well. These are tech suits that you can jump into and pilot around, complete with a massive gatling gun that you can also dismount and tote around on your own. The suits run on Thermal Energy, meaning it won't deplete your stock of it while you're inside. And once they are destroyed (your human enemies can use them too), they will leave behind a mass of energy that Wayne can take for himself. 

There's very little exploration to do in Lost Planet, with the levels being built like narrow hallways where you can only head in one direction. Like I mentioned, each level is broken up into it's own separate mission, and generally leads to a showdown with a beefed up enemy at the end. These level bosses come with their own health bars and a prolonged fight before you take them down. 

In the end, Lost Planet offers some solid gameplay while you're fighting for the planet and humanity, but how difficult is it?

The Challenge (or lack thereof?)

The only real challenges in this game comes from your enemies, so let's break it down and talk about each of the soldiers, Akrid, and bosses separately. 

Soldiers are the easiest one to face. These guys are just normal humans geared up for a fight that can go down with a few shots, or a single one depending on your gun of choice. Occasionally, they can hop into the Vital Suits, but all that does is turn them into bigger bullet sponges. Fighting against them in the VS gets a little bit more difficult if there's multiple piloting the suits, but otherwise they shouldn't prove to be too tough. 

The Akrid can be a bit tougher. These bugs are big, they're fast, and they can take a lot of damage, putting them at a moderate challenge. There's different forms of Akrid, meaning you'll have to find different ways to battle them. Some can be taken on head first, but there are some that require more precision. One form of Akrid will tuck itself into a ball and roll at you, and the only way to take this one down is by shooting a small pustule on it's tail after it's (hopefully) gone past you and crashed into a wall. 

Lastly, the bosses are a moderate-to-hard challenge to face. They come with their own health bars on the bottom of the screen, so you can follow how well you're doing at taking them down. Bosses can come either by themselves in little arena-style fighting areas, or they can be one among a mass of enemies, requiring you to cover your ass from all ends. Either way, don't expect these guys to go down easy. 

Everything else in the game is really simple. The beacons are easy to get to and activate, and it's hard to get lost in the hallway type levels. Lost Planet overall is a pretty easy game, but the combat will definitely give you some action. So before we label this one and talk about what ways it's scary, if any, let's talk about what's good and bad about it.

PROS

Battling The Elements. I've played plenty of games that are set in a "cold" setting, whether it's an ice planet or extremely snowy conditions, whatever it may be. And a lot of the times, you're just built for the weather. Given some suit or equipment that makes you immune to the circumstances, or it's just completely ignored and not an issue while playing. Lost Planet requires you to have the thermal energy to be able to survive on the planet. It's easy to come by, and hard to run out, but it's still a threat if you don't pay attention to it.

Different Enemies. Battling the Akrid in addition to the soldiers expands on the combat in this game so much. Otherwise, all you would be doing is just gunning down everything in your path. However, the Akrid, as I mentioned, require specific ways to take them down sometimes, so it brings a bit of tactical gunplay into the equation, and it definitely adds to the challenge of the game since it's about hitting a specific spot on your enemy.

CONS

Short Grapple. The grapple is such a cool inclusion in this game. It helps you reach high up or far away places. The only downside is that it only helps you reach kind of high up or far away places. It's a lot of fun to use when it's introduced in the beginning of the game, and seems like it will bring some uniqueness to the game. But once you get into the core of the game, it's usefulness runs out real quick. It still has some uses, and a few spots where it's required so you can progress, but other than that it really only fulfills the role of a background item that you'll forget about until it's your last option.
Mediocre Beacons. This feature I was really excited for. Finding your way to your objective by lighting point-to-point beacons is definitely different from most games. The suffering point though, is that the map/radar you have is so minimally detailed that the beacons can feel useless. Your radar doesn't mark buildings, mountains, valleys, or even elevation. All of that is solely placed with the light from the beacon. So if the next one is placed in the middle of buildings, or an a higher level, you need to trust the light to guide you because nothing else will. 

Awkward Aiming. Lost Planet's aiming is one of those features where I can see why they did it the way they did, but it's done completely different than just about every other game like it, so it's individuality makes it suffer rather than stand out. In most third person shooting games, any way you turn automatically turns your character in that direction, and if you want to move the aiming reticle more specifically, you have a separate aiming button to do so. With this game, there's a certain radius in the center of the screen that is just for moving your aim around, and once you cross the "threshhold" Wayne starts to physically turn. It becomes most annoying when you're battling a number of enemies and only want to aim, just to end up turning. Or you want to turn but do so a lot slower than intended. Again, I understand the intent behind it, but it doesn't come off the greatest.

Horror Level 

There aren't a lot of things that try to scare you in this game. The one thing that consistently does, though, is the appearance of the Akrid. These bugs are already towering over you, but the majority of them will just spontaneously appear from underneath the snow without any warning. You'll just be walking along, and then all of a sudden, a thirty foot bug is tossing snow everywhere, awakening to try and kill you. You'll get used to it after a bit, especially if you play the game in long stretches, but it's still a bit terrifying either way to see a giant bug where there was flat snow moments earlier. 

Final Verdict

While it might not be the scariest game, and it definitely has some flaws,but the story alone in Lost Planet is what makes it so enjoyable. The use of the elements of the planet against you will put you at war with yourself, as you'll want to find more Akrid to make sure you have enough Thermal Energy, but you might not want to face them at the same time. To have this game in your collection for only $5 from GameStop (possibly even cheaper if you can find it at a retro store in the wild), is really a gift. This game is so much fun, and it's got two sequels to follow it up which would give the impression that things only get better.

I haven't finished this game entirely yet. And that's only because this game is part of a poll I'm currently holding on my stream, because I would love to stream every moment of this game. If it loses the vote I will definitely finish it in my own time and hang onto it for playing in a future stream, but for now things are on hold with Lost Planet. 

What's Coming Up? You're going to have to stay tuned to find out. These first two reviews were the both the games I revealed going into HorrorTober. I've still got two more lined up, as well as a horror themed Honest Opinion. If you're interested in following me on Twitch, I'm nearly done with my Assassin's Creed Franchise run (only a couple memory sequences remaining in Syndicate) and then the rest of the month will be all horror games. So come check out what I'll be playing at twitch.tv/honestgamermike

HG