Lost Planet 3

Capcom recently transported Ready Up to the snowy wilderness of Lost Planet 3. Check out how we got on with Jim Peyton, a lost French man, alien bugs, and snow… all the snow.

Lost Planet 3 is a prequel to the first game and sees Jim Peyton travelling to a E.D.N. III to make some big bucks for his wife and child back home. In typical video game style, all is not what it appears to be and the job turns out to be even more dangerous than first anticipated. We join Jim near the start of the game and get to meet several of the crew and people who help make up the storyline to Lost Planet 3.

Jim has joined the NEVEC team to replace Diaz who went missing out in the tundra of the planet. Our mission is to help prepare the planet for terraforming and to collect the T-energy that flows through everything on the planet. The T-energy is a great source of power, and scientists think it will help solve the energy crisis back on Earth. While unloading his ‘rig’ Jim finds out that the engineer has been tinkering with it and he isn’t pleased. However, another member of the team, La Roche, has also handily gone missing, so we get a chance to go test out the new upgrades while stopping the insectoid alien Akrid from trying to kill us.

The game works as a prequel as it not only explains Jim’s story a little more, it shows the planet in its natural form, before the terraforming. The Akrid are more natural too; it’s not just wave after wave coming for you, there are some scuttling about in the background and ignoring you. E.D.N. III feels very desolate and you spend a lot of time alone with just the video messages from your wife as company. This fleshes out the character of Peyton more as you realise just what is he going through in order to look after his family. There’s no co-op in the game but that doesn’t feel like a loss as it only helps to add to the loneliness of the planet.

The sections of the game when you are in the rig and when you are on foot play very differently as the rig does feel very heavy and mechanical. The rig really feels like it’s your sanctuary and saviour, and returning to it after running around on foot is a welcome relief. There are sections in which you will need to alternate between one or the other but this always feels needed and is worked into the game well.

The start of the game is quite story-heavy with many cutscenes that these blend seamlessly with gameplay and aren’t too frequent. Cutscenes are often needed in games to perpetuate the story or make sure a certain event happens but you can sometimes be left feeling like you have only pressed three buttons in half an hour. Lost Planet 3 balances the frequency of these really well with chunks of gameplay at regular intervals in between.

There are several competitive multiplayer modes available for Lost Planet 3 and we got try out four of them. ‘Stronghold’ pits NEVEC, and the Snow Pirates against each other during a raid on a pirate base. The NEVEC team have to roller the place with a BattleCat tank, and the Snow Pirates have to stop them. ‘Alpha Lair’ mode has been dubbed ‘rugby with Akrid’ as both teams have to get canisters of T-energy back to their bases. The first to three points wins. The Snow Pirates have to plant bombs around a NEVEC base in ‘Research Lab’ and ‘Quarantine’ is the standard ‘capture an area’ mode. While the multiplayer modes were enjoyable to play they are certainly not going to be the reason to buy the game. It’s obvious this is a predominantly single-player product.

Overall Lost Planet 3 feels like a fairly strong prequel with a story and life of its own, and certainly one to pick up if you enjoyed the previous two.

Lost Planet 3 will be available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on August 30 in Europe and August 27 in North America.