Lost Opportunity
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition finally arrives on the PS3 a shell of its former self.
Published: March 16, 2008
Wayne does have a tool custom-made for exploration, though: a grappling hook that can attach to most surfaces (and enemies) and pull him up to spots. This was especially useful on the 360 because it meant discovering little tokens that could be shot to unlock Achievements. Despite Capcom happily and fully supporting Accomplishments, the PS3 equivalent, for Devil May Cry 4, finding these tokens really gives you no rewards outside of the end-level tally screen, further proving that Lost Planet was just a rushed attempt to cash-in. That the extra characters from the PC version were included but none of the apparent improvements that came as a result of jumping up to DirectX 10 like better textures and more detail.
In fact, Lost Planet looks significantly worse than the 360 counterpart. Normally I roll my eyes and ignore the console warriors that spend hours nitpicking per-pixel differences between cross-platform games, but in this case the job Capcom did in bring it over is deplorable. Instances of slowdown are rampant, the overall sharpness of textures, models and effects is noticeably lower, leading to everything looking blurry and low-res.
If not for the fact that the game's soundtrack, which swings from bombastic and driving with an almost techno-industrial bent to more dramatic orchestral-feeling movements, the audio would be something of a wash too. The voice acting is passable in most cases, and the effects are clear enough, but none of it seems to have the kind of pop that I was hoping for, particularly in some of the weapons.
The one saving grace of the game is getting all of the online content that was released over the past year. Thanks to a basic experience points system, it's possible to level up your online profile and unlock new character models as well as skins. For the most part, the online matches were quite fun, from the basic Elimination and team Elimination modes to Fugitive where it's one player and their ticking Battle Gauge against everyone else and the tried-and-true see-saw of the capture-and-hold Post Grab modes. In terms of level design, balance and use of both VSes and on-foot weapons, the online part of the game is easily its most redeeming feature. It's just a shame that it, like the single-player game, looks markedly worse than the previously released versions.
I wanted to like Lost Planet, I really did. What starts off with a fairly promising intro quickly turns into regular bouts of watching Wayne clumsily bumble his way through missions, getting leveled and beaten into submission before he finally unlocks his "true" potential and the game zips right along to a classic anime-style showdown. The online action makes for a sweeter pot, but the general... well, laziness of the port calls into question whether or not PS3 owners are even better off having a version that feels so slapdash being included in their libraries.
Here at TotalPlayStation, we're of the mind that it's a good think to have all available consoles, and if for some reason you have a 360 or PC and haven't played the game, go check out those versions. For PS3 owners, though, I can't honestly give the game anything more than a rental recommendation, and even that's pushing it.
