I remember being intrigued by the reveal of the very first Lost Planet game (Lost Planet: Extreme Condition). I eventually got around to borrowing the game from a friend years after its release and playing through the entire thing on the Xbox 360. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is like trying to survive an alien snowstorm while wearing lead boots. The controls feel like Wayne is perpetually walking through waist-deep slush, and aiming your gun is about as precise as throwing snowballs blindfolded. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, a giant Akrid pops out of nowhere to ruin your day, leaving you flailing around trying to hit a weak spot that might as well be in another time zone. Oh, and the grappling hook? It’s less “Spider-Man” and more “stubborn fishing line”—good luck getting it to go where you want.
I’m not going to mince words here- this game sucked ass. I despised it. I’m sure it has its fans, but so does people who eat toothpaste. The reasons mentioned above really dragged the experience for me but the real kicker is the thermal energy bar, which drains faster than a drunk racoon raiding a campsite cooler. You’re not just fighting aliens; you’re also in a constant race against hypothermia. Forget strategy or exploration—every second is a frantic scramble for glowing orange goop just to keep this useless fucker alive. The game isn’t hard because it’s challenging; it’s hard because it’s basically Extreme Condition: Babysit Your Health Bar Edition. It’s extraordinarily tedious.
God bless me, I don’t know why I bother to finish games that I’m not even enjoying to begin with. Perhaps I’m just a professional time waster, but I like to see things through just for the glimmering hope that maybe a gem can be extracted out of the giant ball of misery. Maybe it gets better after 8+ hours?Lost Planet 1 left such a fowl taste that for the longest time I swore off even bothering with the sequels because of how much of a giant pile of frozen alien shit the first game was.
That being said, eventually I decided to give Lost Planet 2 a whirl. Maybe Capcom, whom I normally adore, learned from their poor first outing. Surprisingly so, the game fixes almost everything that I disliked from the first. If I was able to play through the game co-op and not be stuck streaming a PS3 version of it on modern consoles, I imagine I would’ve had an even more enjoyable experience. To be completely transparent, Lost Planet 2 is not a great game, but it’s significantly better than the first. I actually found myself having some fun with it. The levels have more variety and pacing and maintain a fair amount of interest rather than just a constant boring Hoth-looking wasteland throughout, like in the first one. The story, although lackluster, seems to have a bit more care put into the lore.
This is where the series peaks for me. I figured since Lost Planet 2 was still a pretty solid experience for at least one play-through, maybe 3 continues that upward momentum. One step forward and a small step back I’d say. Lost Planet 3 is easily the most approachable, and falls into a much more casual experience than the first two. It’s still a linear game but tries to disguise itself as more open-ended. It really isn’t. The game is a prequel to the first one and puts you in the snow-boots of Jim Peyton who looks like Nicolas Cage as a lumberjack. The story leans more into the drama, retelling Jim’s younger days through flashbacks of working on the “Lost Planet” EDNIII and all the events leading into the first game that nobody cares about. The overall gameplay is serviceable and the mechanics and world aren’t anything special but they aren’t necessarily bad either. The third game just seems to play everything safe. It doesn’t feel as high octane action as part 2 tried to be, but the game still feels more personable. Lost Planet 2 and 3 are at least playable but I can’t necessarily say it’s a series I’m seeing anyone begging to be revisited. In fact, I hardly see anyone talk about this lost and remarkably unremarkable franchise at all. 2 is good. 3 is alright. 1 is lame-sauce.
Chao,
Mikhail
Verdict-
- Lost Planet : 4/10
- Lost Planet 2 : 7/10
- Lost Planet 3 : 6.5/10