Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Review

When it comes to dramatics in video games, you could say with some certainty that there is no nation more adept at delivering than the Japanese. Hence, a great number of Western gamers become infatuated with the whole culture surrounding the Far-Eastern releases. The overblown, larger-than-life epic battles, intertwined with emotionally charged relationships between the characters, are what draws many fans to classic Japanese gaming. In that sense, the latest action extravaganza from CapCom, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, is no exception. It's got it all - the mind-bogglingly large-scaled bosses, the family tragedy angle to the storyline, the whole nine yards.

In fact, this PC port of the highly successful Xbox 360 title has one of the (if not the most) spectacular array of boss encounters I have ever seen in a video game. Visually, the game brings loads of atmosphere, embodied in an amalgamation of special effects, which deliver the most cinematic and most believable portrayal of humongous on screen bosses I have ever seen. World of WarCraft took this approach with stuff like the Ragnaros encounter (part of the reason why people got so hooked on raiding - it delivered a sense that they are battling something vastly superior in size and strength to them, and yet, that with perseverance, they are able to prevail). Somewhat similar to this (only even more spectacular) is the visual experience of fighting bosses in Lost Planet. When I first encountered one, I was truly and utterly blown away by the intensity of the affair.

The problem (if you can call it that) with the main campaign is that well through the game, you follow a rather unchanging pattern of going through a map while killing all the bad guys, only to face a final boss creature at the end of the level. Missions go by and it's rinse and repeat. Now, bear in mind that, personally, I didn't find this to be too much of an issue. Surely, some gamers will feel that this sort of approach to gameplay sets too much in its stride and eventually gets repetitive, but if you pay closer attention to the design, you can see how the developers tried to liven each mission with subtle nuances; in the way you move through the terrain, or in the type of monsters that you encounter (the alien race called the Akrid); or, indeed, in the type of human opponents that you run up against. In that sense, the weapons and mech-like vehicles (called the VS), which are quite fun to use, do offer a slight shift in the dynamics.

This, however, will likely not be enough for many gamers. The fact is the setting of Lost Planet is conceptually centered on a freezing world, so you can expect to tread through a lot of snow-covered terrain. While the indoor sections provide some variety, they are not enough to truly keep the players on their toes as far as the environments. Still, the quality of the action itself (in just how you go through a level shooting), was good enough to get me hooked.

It also helps that the game features beautifully rendered in-engine cinematics, which will unravel the story as you complete the missions.
Another issue that some will have with this game, is the rather questionable quality of the port job. While the transition from the 360 did not in any way make me lose interest in Lost Planet, or throw my mouse at the screen in frustration, the fact remains that even though the controls are intuitive for any PC user, the noticeable lag on the mouse (it feels like you are playing with a mouse filled with tiny led weights - and no, it's not a Logitech G5) will often hinder the aiming, causing some frustration at sniper-friendly levels (CapCom has had problems converting from the analog stick on the 360 controller). Another thing is that the game will only truly look good on wide screens, and that may clash with some more conventional LCD monitors (in terms of crispness of the image). Finally, Lost Planet comes in two versions: the Direct X 9 and 10 flavored one. For it to work OK under a Direct X 10 environment, you'll have to have the new BETA drivers from NVIDIA (available at NZone, so additional hassle is needed to make it run well under Vista. As for the DX 9 version, it looks equally as good (in my opinion), but it can be extremely taxing on your hardware. I have a 21" LCD Samsung at home and I eventually gave up on trying to run it in 1600x1200 with relatively high settings. We're talking about a Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 7800GT rig. When the screen clogs up with particles, the frame rate drops considerably, making certain boss encounters a slide show fest. Setting everything to "default" in the visual settings area (1280x720 res) made everything run as smoothly as possible without any noticeable visual drawbacks. This was good enough for me.

In closing, even though the game may feel slightly repetitive, and the mouse lag and other minor cases of "consolitis" (performance on some systems) may annoy some gamers, the quality of the action itself and the sheer magnificence of some scenes, should prove a good enough reason to play this one. I for one am really glad I got the chance to enjoy both the action and the storyline (tacky at some instances, but endearing nonetheless).