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Some titles are just
flawed from the
beginning. Despite
the developers’ best
intentions, it
happens. Sadly, Lost
Planet 2 is one of
those games. It
doesn’t have bugs-
its design is
decent… there are
just so many odd
decisions that it
makes the game hard
to follow, hard to
play, and hard to
come back to.
Like Lost Planet,
Lost Planet 2 has an
extremely difficult
storyline to follow.
The planet EDN III
was once a frozen
wasteland and now
it’s begun to thaw.
The planet is
inhabited by
pirates- aptly named
for the regions they
live- tropical
pirates, ice pirates
etc. The groups of
pirates fight over
territories and
invading alien
species. The alien
monsters that land
on the planet are
trying to kill EDN
III, but are
equipped with
thermal energy that
the pirates use to
make them damn-near
immortal. Does this
seem confusing to
anyone else?
Eventually the
aliens come close to
destroying the
planet and only one
group of Pirates
does anything to
stop them. That’s
pretty much it.
The actually game is
a third-person
shooter that
generally focuses on
co-op play. The
camera views are
very strange and the
camera actually
takes a while to
follow you at times.
Some of the time
you’re running
around the jungle
and you can’t see
yourself until you
stop for a second so
the camera can catch
up to you. Going
through small
doorways and areas
is even more
frustrating because
it doesn’t handle
corners well and
sometimes an enemy
can shoot you while
the camera struggles
to see him… even if
he’s standing right
in front of you. The
controls are
slightly weird as
well. Right from the
beginning of the
campaign you’re
thrown into things
with no direction.
Nobody tells you
what you’re supposed
to do, and although
eventually you’ll
figure it out- a
training level at
the beginning would
have gone a long
way. The weapons
system controls are
fine, but when you
have to do an action
like enter a mech or
activate a beacon or
device…. You hit the
circle button over
and over until it’s
activated. You’ll be
hitting the circle
button a lot
aimlessly in this
game- to either run
or activate a
device.
The decisions that
don’t make sense for
Lost Planet 2-
Campaign levels are
basically
multi-player maps
that don’t guide you
in any direction.
You can’t have a
friend jump in on
your campaign mode
game. It takes an
hour to get through
the oddly structured
missions and levels
in the campaign
mode. You can’t save
in the middle of a
level and come back
to it- you have to
finish a level to
save your game.
Those are just a few
of the very odd
decisions that make
Lost Planet 2 a very
odd game. It looks
fine, for the most
part the controls
are fine too, but
the basic structure
of the game and the
interface is
ridiculously bad and
that makes it
unplayable. It could
have been so much
better than it was,
that’s what makes
Lost Planet 2 so
frustrating. If you
like online coop
games- you’ll find
some joy in this
game- but if you
like solo campaigns
in games stay far
away from this one.
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