Lost Planet 3 Looks Solid if Unspectacular - Preview
by Gordon Bryant , posted on 13 June 2012 / 2,673 Views
I got to have a personal sit-down with Capcom at their booth at E3, and they showed a demo of Lost Planet 3. While there were demos on the show floor, which I'll talk about in a moment, they didn't explain much about the game, gameplay, or story. Instead, our personal presentation was one where we got to understand more about the world of Lost Planet 3.
A prequel to the first two games, Lost Planet 3 is once again set on a raging planet of ice that is clearly barely hospitable. The demo the devs showed us sent the protagonist on a mission to investigate a thermal post and the disappearance of the previous investigator of that same thermal post. Naturally, this can't possibly bode well for the player, who is evidently walking into a dangerous environment. The thermal post that is the object of the demo is inside a cave that has been overrun by Acrid; the ancestors of the enemies found in the second and third game.
Armed only with an unlimited ammo pistol and a powerful hunting rifle that is an heirloom of the protagonist's family, the player has to brave the dangers of the cave, reactivate the thermal post, and get out alive. While this demo only showed the claustrophobic but admittedly atmospheric environment, Capcom assures us that the full game focuses as much on the action the series is known for. It's also focusing on side content, hidden missions and caves, and the hidden audio-logs of the missing explorer that was your predecessor. We're also told there's a dynamic weather system that has fog, snow, and icy blizzards ravaging the planet intermittently, altering the look and feel of the game.
I do admit the game looks mostly fantastic, but I can't get around the feeling that we've been here before. The level design and aesthetics remind me greatly of Red Faction: Armageddon (if there was snow on Mars), and the dichotomy of action and atmosphere is something I feel was taken right from Dead Space, and based on the clunky nature of the animations and controls, I feel the same thing has been done better before.
Once we were done with the developer one-on-one, we were urged to check out the demo on the show floor, which is set later in the game and has you exploring an abandoned facility before being attacked by a killer mutant crab with glowing weak points, which was a boss battle more reminiscent of the previous games.
Lost Planet 3 looks like it's a solid game, and I admit I'd be happy to play it, but like many games at this year's E3, it evokes a very strong feeling of “been there, done that.”
