Lost Planet 2

The first thing you notice when you launch Lost Planet 2 is the familiar barren snow covered land. Which does great to set the tone for the opening sequence, but leaves a lot to the imagination. It’s not until the game moves locations to the lush green rainforest of the second area, that you appreciate how great this game looks.

Capcom did a great job of making the game feel fresh. Just as a location begin to feel too familiar, they send you off to a completely new location. You’ll find yourself driving mechs through complexes, firing turrets on the back of train in the desert, traversing areas underwater, and even flying through space. The enemies are as varied as the environments, and around almost every corner, you know there is the potential of coming face to face with a giant beast making you feel like you’ve made the wrong decision. The bosses are the true spectacles here. They are huge hulking monsters that leave you breathless when they first burst onto the scene.

The character movement and combat are slow paced. Every step feels deliberate, but sometimes to a fault. The game does very little to explain its mechanics so I played through about half the game before I realized there was a run, and was on the last episode when I found out there was a dodge. During the standard campaign areas, this doesn’t seem to be an issue, but when you encounter your first boss it can make you feel like you have no idea what’s going on. It usually boiled down to, shoot whatever part of the boss is glowing orange a lot.

I played the first half of the game solo with 3 AI characters. Sure it was fun, but it was also incredibly frustrating. Sometimes they would do exactly what you wanted to. Other times they were no where to be found. Leaving you to deal with hoards of enemies on your own. The second half of the game a member of the Twitch community joined me, and this is when the game truly started to shine. This game was meant to be played cooperatively. There were parts in the late game that made me feel that they shouldn’t even allow you to play alone. When you have to defend two points, and the AI refuses to actually hold down the other point, you can start to get frustrated very quickly. Do yourself a favor and find at least one other person to partner up with.

The music is exactly what you’d expect in an action adventure shooter. Orchestrated symphonies flow through the cutscenes. While the music during battles pounds through the distance. It does nothing unexpected or new, but it is done by the books. The sound effects are the same. You know what to expect here. Typical gunfire and mech sounds, but to be fair, I didn’t go into this game expecting the sound design to blow me away. It does just enough to be effective, but nothing to set it apart as anything special.

The story is fun even if it is a bit cliche. It takes place 10 years after the conclusion of the first Lost Planet. You receive a transmission to save EDN III during a 3 way civil war. EDN III is a beautiful planet full of T-ENG, the games energy source that’s used to heal, power weapons and items, and open crates. Capcom has put a fun twist on the potential apocalypse scenario, but the most fun thing about it is being able to play as four different characters from four different factions. The story builds at a great pace along with the chaotic gameplay until it hits its final and satisfying crescendo.

Lost Planet 2 is worth a playthrough, but in my opinion, only if you have someone to run through it with you. So grab a friend or three and go save the planet.

  • Eye feel: 9
  • Ear feel: 7
  • Hand feel: 8
  • Mind feel: 8
  • Overall feel: 8
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