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The Future of Lost Planet

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As the generation ends, I want to discuss one of my most beloved franchises: Lost Planet.

Back in 2005 shortly after the launch of the Xbox 360, I was 15 year old high school student, who finally saved up enough cash to finally get one. Weeks later it arrived, I had no games (I wanted DOA4) and eventually Sonic 06 when it releases, but at the moment, had no cash to buy any so I spent my time on Xbox Live (free one month gold trial) downloading demos and playing them. Along the list of demos available, one struck my eye, thatwas being advertised a lot a the time. At first I ignored it, because it looked like your average shooter which I wasn't interested in playing. But I noticed something that made this one in particular stand out. "CAPCOM". Recognizing that name, growing up as a fan of arcade, action, and fighting games quickly swayed my opinion. I wanted to actually give it a shot. (and I was bored.)

There were two download options.

-Single Player Campaign Demo
-Online Multiplayer Demo

I downloaded them both, but before I decided to just hop in on my first online console experience, I decided to at least try the single player campaign demo first. It'd be a good way to get familiar with the game and understand it before I get out with the wolves to be abused.

Single Player introduced me to some overwhelming shit at the time. A timer was ticking down, everything was cold and desolate. abandoned towns, cars and cold steel buried in the snow. Just me, 300 rounds of machine gun ammo, and 5 grenades.

When it came down to it, I understood what this game was about, "Survival" and I loved it. Death following me closely from all sides, be it Akrid, Snow Pirates, or just the depletion of my precious energy source that kept my body warm; T-ENG. Lost Planet was a game that forced me out of my comfort zone and to embrace shit I don't like, huge ass hives and cities invested with insectoid like crustaceans, spiders, pulsating assholes and other spine-tingling shit I don't fuck with. I had to do it to survive. I had to embrace the wilderness and unknown. AND I LOVED EVERY FUCKING SECOND OF IT.

Let's get this straight, I FUCKING LOATHE Spiders, you know what? FUCK ALL BUGS.Butterflies too, worms, ant, whatever the fuck it might be, fuck all that shit. The only bugs I like are from Pokemon and if that shit was real, fuck Butterfree too.

But Lost Planet made me face that damn fear, and packed ALL THEM MOTHEFUCKERS in a god damn parking lot. As I spammed my grenades, I ran out. As I fired wildly, I ran out of ammo. Shit was about to get real and I'm only losing thermal energy as I waste time.

I had to brave that shit, gather resources, ammo, grenades, T-Eng. i had to use them wisely to dispatch the enemy. I had to understand that system and loved every minute of it.

This game had some of the things I love most in video games that I know have quality.
  • Weight
  • Mechanics
  • Hit Stuns and Response
  • Physics


You don't get to fucking spray wildly in Lost Planet. You have to be on point. You have to be quick and responsive. YOU HAVE TO ADAPT.

Not only that. In 2005 I JUST WATCHING FINISHED DESERT PUNK. Just to feel so much relevance between two due to two of my favorite items. The grappling hook (anchor) and the goddamn Dummy Grenade (which I will discuss in a bit) Using that anchor to get around like Kanta in the fucking desert was orgasmic. Hook cancels and swinging around to get from point A to point B never felt some damn good.

This was indeed a motherfucking Capcom game. Core mechanics stuffed with fucking DEPTH. (If you were to EVER ask me what's my beef with today's Capcom. it's because they don't make it like this ANYMORE.

Rolling properly, grenade throws and shots, it was genius! It was like wet dream of an action game built on the mechanics founded by Megaman Legends.

And when I took my ass online. MULTIPLY THAT SHIT.

GET OUT YOUR CACKULATOR AND MULTIPLY THAT SHIT.

by a MILLION.

I played that shit for DAYS, MONTHS, YEARS, JUST THE DAMN DEMO, I EVEN BOUGHT COLONIES, AND STILL PLAYED THE DEMO. All we had, was Pirate Fortress, Friendly Fire, Unlimited Time Team Deathmatch. AND THAT ALL WE NEEDED AND IT WAS THE GREATEST SHIT EVER, especially when you find that worthy rival, that opponent that pushes your limits of cunning, tatics and planning on the fucking fly. IT WAS GOOD, IT GREAT, IT WAS AMAZING.

Like niggas turned down sex just to play! Which is another story, but that shit was crazy.

And all of that, is Lost Planet 1.

Now 2.

The polarizing entry in the motherfucking series. (as you can see I'm hype just writing about it).

2 for some people felt off putting. Hell it was even weird at me at first, after I took the time to ask Capcom for a Demo Key. Throwing grenades felt kinda off and the explosions weren't past Michael Bay levels unlike original, but fuck all that. You'll get used to it. Some people had problems due to campaign.

Now before we even get into this, note that, if you're playing Lost Planet and it's not for the multiplayer, you missed the fucking train. That campaign was nice. Wayne was cool, but it could never amount to being a badass snow pirate at war.

Some people felt confused because the game itself was multiplayer centric. For some of us, it was a fucking dream. The only thing we loved than Lost Planet was playing Lost Planet with other people. Shit awesome. Lost Planet as a series itself, can be off putting especially if you're used to "standard" TPS conventions, like Aiming Sight or whatever the hell it's called I forgot. It's a demanding game, it has properties, it demands more out you. You can't blazing until someone dies, because you will get stunned if they have the upper hand. Some players weren't ready for that, some still aren't. But this isn't about that, that's their problem, you can discuss it in thread if you like however.

LOST PLANET 2.

So after some events in College, got my Xbox stolen, got a new one along with a computer and some other shit. I finally dived into LOST PLANET 2.

and....... I felt out of place.

Sit down LP2 haters, there's more to the story.

It was really off putting to play the campaign alone, so I didn't. Capcom made that shit clear when they were advertising it, this was I was hype about, Snow Pirates uniting and taking on the masses. So me and my closest friend who was currently in the Navy (still is) we got together, and he helped me get started on the campaign. Lost Planet 2 was not a game you play alone. And with friends, it's fucking amazing.

The customization system was off putting at first but you'll get used to it. It kind puts new players at a disadvantage in competitive due to lack of available weapons, and you couldn't take someone else's weapon as in LP1. (Something I wouldn't mind they bring back.) If LP2's co-op could be stated simply:

Arc Christelle said:
Lost Planet 2 Co-Op is like Metal Slug with four players, facing off against the soldiers, all the bosses, Allen, and the Mars people on CRACK.

New VSs, Armored Suits, New Akrid, New Weapons, A fucking Megazord, a fucking Nuke, crazy ass costumes, and so forth. There's a debate between LP 1 and 2, but personally, I vote for 2. The game is fucking epic, both co-op and competitive. The only real loss was the loss of the single player campaign and the lonely struggle it contained. There were still survival in LP2, but survival of a different breed. This time, your worst enemy was not timed T-ENG. It was the stage, your team, the enemy AI (they will scope you) the TRAIN, THE SALAMANDER, THAT ICE SHIT, THE WATER DRAGONS. THE OTHER MECHS, BIG WORM, THE SAME HATING ASS SPIDERS NOW WITH EXPLODING HEADS, YOU TOOK ON THE WORLD.

AND IT WAS AMAZING. You got 4 friends, you wanna have a good, time LP2. It's like Mario 3D World of Lost Planet. Also, you know you loved jumping the train with your friends, and watching them fail.

Lost Planet 2, stepped it up. But at the loss of the single player which weighed against them. Apparently people don't like to make friends. Whatever. Which backlash, brought upon to us, the following monstrosity.

Lost Planet 3.

Saw gameplay, hated it disputed it with all my heart for months on Capcom Unity, Youtube, wherever.I didn't like this shit. Now I don't mind if a game wants to focus on narrative, cool. But when it comes at the cost of EVERYTHING I loved about the previous entries....Fuck that. Maybe we can Big_Al in here, because he loves it for some reason, if he can type up his experience, I'll gladly add that to the OP to give players more of an unbiased view towards Lost Planet 3.

As for me, I REFUTE that shit. I might go watch it on Youtube or something later today but I'm not buying it.

They took out the core mechanics and everything that made it Lost Planet for some slow ass paced salaryman narrative that I didn't give a fuck about. Achors were restricted, the invisibility frames in rolls were removed, no jumping, I'm not sure if it had grenade throw shots like the original, but basically from all I've seen it was like watching something and promising sell out. Of course this isn't the only title Today's Capcom did that shit with, but it's one of the ones that hurt me the most. It was like they didn't even want my money. They served up a plate of mediocrity built with Unreal 3. It pisses me off that it even got to entry Number 3.

The only disappointment that come close to this shit, was Breath of Fire 6, and that's another story for another time. From the last financial reports, I recall Capcom blaming their low sales for LP3 on competition. lol competition was the least of LP3's problems.
But that's my view, I haven't played the game, just studied it and watched a lot of videos, judging from them. Perhaps someone had a different experience.

There was also EX Troopers which didn't even get fucking localized outside of Japan, >=/

If anyone have any comments on that title. I'd gladly add to the OP.

UPDATE: Big_Al's experience with LP3.
Yeah, the thing that surprised me out of all of this was how much I loved Lost Planet 3. I'll try and explain why to the best of my ability (I apologise in advance as I'm not a good writer)

Anyway the big thing for Lost Planet 3 is that it takes a much more storytelling approach at its core. The main writer of LP3 being the same guy who wrote the underrated Anachronox was especially surprisingly, a very dialogue heavy RPG with great writing. This straight away makes it very different from any of the others in the series. Lost Planet 1 and 2 are all about the action, they both tell stories but they are action games that want you in the action as soon as possible.

The big thing that jumps out with Lost Planet 3 is how different it is in pace, it's veeeeeeeeery slow to get into its story, as in surprisingly so. It's overall a very low key game and I can completely see why some folk just found it boring. When you first start the game you are new on the planet and have just started your job. You are a guy looking to earn some payola to send back to your wife and kid back home. The game starts off introducing the character Bill, and hence the player, to the world via basically doing Bills job. Planting energy posts, helping out other members of your team etc. You are essentially doing mundane things to start the game off with and dealing with the local Akrids is just another part of the job. Even Bills RIG ties into the story. With LP1 and 2 they are purely a gameplay mechanic, completely disposable and there to used, destroyed and another one grabbed from somewhere else. In LP3 it has a history, Bill built his RIG himself and it's a very clunky, slow machine made especially for contruction/engineering which Bill himself needs for his job. None of the upgrades for it are completely over the top, you don't all of a sudden get a chain gun, and it fits within the world they have built.

None of this would mean shit if it had terrible writing and voice performances but thankfully I thought the game excelled here. One big component of the game is that you get messages/and send messages back home to your wife. This would be soooooo easy to fuck up, like REALLY easy to mess up. But they didn't. I came to really like Bill and I felt the relationship between him and wife was genuinely touching and even realistic to an extent. I came to really like Bill the further the game went on and that drew me in and made me want to play more. I found none of the cast to be incredibly cliche an/or badly done. Their is one guy with a french accent who could have been so badly handled but thankfully wasn't.

Now from a gameplay perspective it's also different from Lost Planet 1 and 2, both inside and outside the RIG. LP1 and 2 as you have said have much more weight to them. They feel different to play. I enjoyed Lost Planet 3s on foot combat and it's fun but it doesn't really standout from any other third person shooter. It's much lighter than 1 and 2's combat and you can't just use your grapple anywhere, I was admittedly disappointed with this and did feel it was a bit of a step back. The number of weapons seemed pretty limited as well - shotgun, pistol, assault rifle, explosives. Nothing out of the ordinary really. The weapons feel good to use and sound great too, especially the shotgun which I used for a lot of the game so it's not a horrible game to play at all. But it's safe to say that it could have done with a bigger variety/arsenal of weapons.

The biggest change with LP3 is the RIG. As I've said you only have one RIG which you upgrade throughout the whole game and you control this from a first person perspective. The combat is from a first person as well and it's very slow and weighty. You have no guns and it's all about hitting Akrids across the head, grabbing their arms with your rig, squashing them etc. A fight with just a couple of them can get intense at times, at least when you're new to them and not sure how to take them on. The RIG is VERY slow and doesn't move fast at all (though you unlock fast travel later on in the game), they basically stay very dedicated to how limited/slow this RIG is. I also love the little touches such as the music in Bills cab. Your wife sends you music tapes which you can play and later on when it unlocks you can even play your own music. Something most people wouldn't even give a shit about but fighting an Akrid with 'We Fight For Love' from Commando blasting in the background is a very unique experience :p

I also found it to be an incredibly atmospheric game as well, I've read it described as almost Aliens like and I can see that. It's a very hostile planet, it FEELS hostile. The glistening ice, the atmosphere storms when you are walking outside in your rig and the crunching and breaking of ice all really drum this home. The game is set before LP1 and 2 and it feels like it. It's not a friendly place at all to be in.

It's not perfect of course. It has its flaws. It could have done with more weapon variety, the grapple not being able to shoot anywhere was disappointing and sometimes, during a few boss fights, it didn't really feel as polished as it should have. A bit more Akrid variety would have been nice and you can find yourself fighting the same enemies a bit too frequently. Multiplayer on PC also uses Gamespy which blows my mind. Awful, awful decision.

But yeah LP3 is so different I completely understand why fans of LP1 and 2 would especially hate it. I just think that overall it's a very underrated game and despite being from Spark Unlimited they did a great job, had a particular vision for their game and stuck with it. So yeah I guess I did like it a lot :)

However I firmly blame Capcom for the death of franchise over anyone else.


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With the failure of Lost Planet 3. What will be the direction of the Franchise? Will it return to core gameplay? Will LP3 be the direction for all future entries? Will they bury the franchise once and for all?

What are your experience with the Lost Planet Franchise? What do you think lies in the future for it? What would you want out of it?
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
I liked that first game. Thought the second had cool ideas but was executed poorly. Never played the third.

I don't think there is a future. I think it's done.
 

pants

Member
Lost Planet 2 was my favorite and a hell of a game, I'm afraid that garbage LP3 ruined it for us all though.
 

Takao

Banned
The most you'll be seeing from Lost Planet is some cameos in a Capcom phone game or something. IIRC LP2 performed under expectations, and EX Troopers as well as LP3 bombed.

My experience with this series is almost entirely from the second game. I enjoyed playing co-op with some friends.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
I liked that you could get the Ragnaros set in LP2.
I hated that it had the worst AI on the planet basically making you fucked if you couldn't find 3 other people.
 
Let it die. Lost Planet was a new franchise last gen. I'm glad that Capcom took chances with it. Now let's seem them try again with a new franchise this gen.
 

kazebyaka

Banned
I liked LP1, but LP3 is an awesome game and deserves more recognition. The story is good, the music is great and it's beautiful.
 
The first game was pretty good... considering there was nothing else to play at the time and that I purchased it for only $15.

Series blow. It's one of those launch things where the company thinks they've got a hit and doesn't realize that literally, the only reason people purchased it is because there were only like 3 games to play on the system when it came out.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Inafune threw it under the bus along with the LP2 dev team.

Honestly, a LP3 should have continued down the Monster Hunter path LP2 began down, perhaps on Vita with all manner of giant Akrid recolours to hunt and carve and whatnot for armor/gun/mech upgrades. Essentially "what if MonHun was GUNZ + MECHS".

The time spent on this tech demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRcmRNGjU1s
is honestly bizarre when you consider Capcom's allergy to Vita.
 

Eggbok

Member
I think LP3 killed the series. Unless they decide to go back to the style of the first 2, LP is done. RIP in Peace.
 

Pooya

Member
I quite liked the first game at the time, it was my first "true next gen graphics" moment back then. Single player was pretty cool, I liked the boss fights. Online was good too.

I was disappointed in how they ruined the campaign with 2, but still it has its moments and some great boss fights like the one with the rail gun and reloading the gun with 4 players isn't something you get to experience often, the UI was really terrible though and there was hardly any story... That game could've been good, it felt incomplete to me.

LP3 sold so bad I don't think there is any future now. I wish this game didn't exist then there was some hope they'd revive it at some point, I think it's over. They've handled this series as bad as Mega Man...

EX Trooper was a huge bomb too, I don't think that has any future either. I need to play it someday, looked cool.

yeah, I also think turning it to a Monster Hunter with guns is a good idea, LP2 isn't really that. I'd also make it open world like Dragon's Dogma, it has a lot of potential which we'll never see. I'm not sure what they were thinking with LP3, it doesn't really appeal to LP fans.
 

FreeMufasa

Junior Member
What I don't understand is why they abandoned the protagonist and set up from the first game. It just doesn't make sense. Here they got this successful new IP that's sold well and they decide to drop all that shit...
 

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
I never bought any of the Lost Planet games, but I played the heck out of the demo for two (it was one of those awesome demos that lets you play online with other people). It was incredible. Unlike any other game out there.

Even if it is of surprisingly decent quality, I'm sad that LP3 did away with what made the series Lost Planet.

It's a pipe dream, but I'd definitely get on board for a next gen Lost Planet that brought back something close to what 2 had.
 

Gatsu

Neo Member
Lost planet 1 awesome, multiplayer sweet but servers poop.
Lost Planet 2 kinda crazy single player but still good, multiplayer poop (servers again).
Lost Planet 3 out? joking but doesn't even look like LP anymore...very saddening.
 
LP3 bombed hard, its over for the series. LP was really enjoyable back in 2007, great graphics at the time, bought LP2 expecting it to be the same... it was so different and disappointing. It was the time when Capcom was pushing it co-op shit in every game, neglecting important gameplay elements just to have shitty co-op implementations in every major game.

Not played Lp3 and not planning to unless I can find it dirt cheap.
 

Vegivo

Member
I loved lp1 :) lp2 didn't quite feel right. Tried to be something else. And LP 3 looks kind of interesting. May give that a shot sometime.
 
I liked LP1, but LP3 is an awesome game and deserves more recognition. The story is good, the music is great and it's beautiful.
I don't play Lost Planet for Story and Music tho.
The first game was pretty good... considering there was nothing else to play at the time and that I purchased it for only $15.

Series blow. It's one of those launch things where the company thinks they've got a hit and doesn't realize that literally, the only reason people purchased it is because there were only like 3 games to play on the system when it came out.

Totally disagree.The games had a lot a quality that could expand on and stand can. There's not many experiences similar to Lost Planet.
 

Tizoc

Member
I enjoyed Lost Planet 3, although its gameplay is for the most part solid but unimpressive. It gets the job done but it makes you wish it was more...I dunno Vanquish-ish?
Voice acting, setting and characters are top notch (or at least 99% top notch) and are the best part of the game.
 
I love Lost Planet 2 too, shit blowing up everywhere, motherfucking multi seat VS, shapeshifting VS like tank-robot spiders and stuff. Also, sticking to an Akrid weak spot with the gappling hook and unloading all you've got on it : feels good man.
On top of the awesome action you really feel like the game was designed around coop and that makes for some great levels.
The giant worm boss where you need to operate the train, just one of the best fucking moments I had in coop.

If someone wants to jump back in the game on PC, I think I still got the game installed. My 360 copy is dead unfortunately :
http://steamcommunity.com/id/RobertJSullivan/
 
LP3 bombed hard, its over for the series. LP was really enjoyable back in 2007, great graphics at the time, bought LP2 expecting it to be the same... it was so different and disappointing. It was the time when Capcom was pushing it co-op shit in every game, neglecting important gameplay elements just to have shitty co-op implementations in every major game.

Not played Lp3 and not planning to unless I can find it dirt cheap.

What important gameplay element was neglected?
 

Kysen

Member
Ex Troopers was great, played it on 3DS and loved every minute of the 22hr campaign. If I had played on PS3 I bet the multiplayer would have been even better.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
I think finally Dino Crisis 3 will have some good company of a 3rd game that killed it's franchise.

I mean just look at this.
Dino Crisis 3 and Lost Planet 3 were meant for each other
The box arts alone tell you both of these games gave up on what the previous 2 tried to do.

Dc3-cover.jpg
 
I think the fact you made a huge thread about Lost Planet, yet left out a game in the franchise....show how much of a chance it has going forward. Like in your OP, Ex Troopers and the franchise are just a foot note in the generation.
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
Well you know my thoughts Arc :p But I'm not here to argue about the games as such.

If anything I believe Capcom themselves are firmly to blame. It's a series which never really established a firm identity IMO. I loved the first Lost Planet, I thought it was, and still is, a great single player game. I never liked the multiplayer aspect so I can't talk about it much but I thought Lost Planet was a great game, in a cool environment with some fun bosses. Nothing outstanding but a lot of fun.

Then Capcom changed the game completely with Lost Planet 2. They took a different approach, made it more coop focused and made a game where I honestly couldn't tell you what was going on storywise. Didn't particularly like the bosses, disliked them moving away from the snowy landscape and didn't like the randomness/grind in getting items. Obviously some people loved it and it still kept the same core movement/shooting so it had its fans. However I feel it also put a lot of fans of the first game off as well, specifically those looking for another single player experience and hence a lot of fans were put off by it.

Then comes Capcom giving the game to Spark Unlimited, a western developer with a terrible track record. That probably put both the fans of Lost Planet 1 and 2 off to a big extent, especially with Sparks track record which as we all know was shit. The game comes out and then it takes a completely different approach to its storytelling and just feels completely different. It is, for all purposes, a western approach to Lost Planet 3. It's personally my favourite of the lot but I don't really need to go into why right now. Though I will say it has some of the best writing and voice performances of any game this year after The Last Of Us IMO.

But there you have 3 games all with different focus' and different approaches. It honestly feels like to me that Capcom never really knew how to take the franchise going forward and hence disappointing many many people going from game to game.

I would love to try EX Troopers though.
 
I think finally Dino Crisis 3 will have some good company of a 3rd game that killed it's franchise.

I mean just look at this.
Dino Crisis 3 and Lost Planet 3 were meant for each other
The box arts alone tell you both of these games gave up on what the previous 2 tried to do.

Dc3-cover.jpg

5df78_orig-cringe.gif


Oh god no....stop that.
 

Tizoc

Member
I think finally Dino Crisis 3 will have some good company of a 3rd game that killed it's franchise.

I mean just look at this.
Dino Crisis 3 and Lost Planet 3 were meant for each other
The box arts alone tell you both of these games gave up on what the previous 2 tried to do.

Dc3-cover.jpg
Hey man Dinosaurs in Space can work, they just didn't do it right in Dino Crisis 3 =v
Did you play LP3 though?
 

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
I think the fact you made a huge thread about Lost Planet, yet left out a game in the franchise....show how much of a chance it has going forward. Like in your OP, Ex Troopers and the franchise are just a foot note in the generation.

EX-Troopers-Game-12.jpg


This sure looks like Lost Planet to me.
 
I think the fact you made a huge thread about Lost Planet, yet left out a game in the franchise....show how much of a chance it has going forward. Like in your OP, Ex Troopers and the franchise are just a foot note in the generation.
lol look I gotchu, I'll add the box art.
Well you know my thoughts Arc :p But I'm not here to argue about the games as such.

If anything I believe Capcom themselves are firmly to blame. It's a series which never really established a firm identity IMO. I loved the first Lost Planet, I thought it was, and still is, a great single player game. I never liked the multiplayer aspect so I can't talk about it much but I thought Lost Planet was a great game, in a cool environment with some fun bosses. Nothing outstanding but a lot of fun.

Then Capcom changed the game completely with Lost Planet 2. They took a different approach, made it more coop focused and made a game where I honestly couldn't tell you what was going on storywise. Didn't particularly like the bosses, disliked them moving away from the snowy landscape and didn't like the randomness/grind in getting items. Obviously some people loved it and it still kept the same core movement/shooting so it had its fans. However I feel it also put a lot of fans of the first game off as well, specifically those looking for another single player experience and hence a lot of fans were put off by it.

Then comes Capcom giving the game to Spark Unlimited, a western developer with a terrible track record. That probably put both the fans of Lost Planet 1 and 2 off to a big extent, especially with Sparks track record which as we all know was shit. The game comes out and then it takes a completely different approach to its storytelling and just feels completely different. It is, for all purposes, a western approach to Lost Planet 3. It's personally my favourite of the lot but I don't really need to go into why right now. Though I will say it has some of the best writing and voice performances of any game this year after The Last Of Us IMO.

But there you have 3 games all with different focus' and different approaches. It honestly feels like to me that Capcom never really knew how to take the franchise going forward and hence disappointing many many people going from game to game.

I would love to try EX Troopers though.

Good ass post, and I actually agree with it.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
Hey man Dinosaurs in Space can work, they just didn't do it right in Dino Crisis 3 =v
Did you play LP3 though?

Believe me I yearn for the day that Dinosaurs in space works.
As for LP3 I watched a few streams before I left and while LP3 from that looks infinitely better than DC3 still I have a feeling that it'll be the final game in the series. Going to grab it come the winter/holiday sale on steam regardless though.

Also EX Troopers is only 20 bucks on amazon.
Wish the menus were at least english though
 

a.wd

Member
Love lp 1 and 2, but probably for the potential of the series, felt like they never really took advantage of the idea
 

Air

Banned
The first game was probably my most memorable gaming experience last generation and the closest thing to bring me the same amount of joy super Mario galaxy game me. It's a shame the series went down hill so fast because it truly was unique in an enviornment of shooters that mimic each other. I have no hope for the series.
 

YoungOne

Member
like amy said lp1 great single and its multi was prety awesome, Lp2 was amazing co-op akrid killing game. It was great the awesome things that you can do with that grappling hook. Haven't got a chance to play 3 yet, but it looks to do away with the things that made lp1 and 2 so great will rent it later to see how it is. Ex troopers I did enjoy what I have played of the demo so I will get that at a later date.
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
Good ass post, and I actually agree with it.

Yeah, the thing that surprised me out of all of this was how much I loved Lost Planet 3. I'll try and explain why to the best of my ability (I apologise in advance as I'm not a good writer)

Anyway the big thing for Lost Planet 3 is that it takes a much more storytelling approach at its core. The main writer of LP3 being the same guy who wrote the underrated Anachronox was especially surprisingly, a very dialogue heavy RPG with great writing. This straight away makes it very different from any of the others in the series. Lost Planet 1 and 2 are all about the action, they both tell stories but they are action games that want you in the action as soon as possible.

The big thing that jumps out with Lost Planet 3 is how different it is in pace, it's veeeeeeeeery slow to get into its story, as in surprisingly so. It's overall a very low key game and I can completely see why some folk just found it boring. When you first start the game you are new on the planet and have just started your job. You are a guy looking to earn some payola to send back to your wife and kid back home. The game starts off introducing the character Jim, and hence the player, to the world via basically doing Jims job. Planting energy posts, helping out other members of your team etc. You are essentially doing mundane things to start the game off with and dealing with the local Akrids is just another part of the job. Even Bills RIG ties into the story. With LP1 and 2 they are purely a gameplay mechanic, completely disposable and there to used, destroyed and another one grabbed from somewhere else. In LP3 it has a history, Jim built his RIG himself and it's a very clunky, slow machine made especially for contruction/engineering which Jim himself needs for his job. None of the upgrades for it are completely over the top, you don't all of a sudden get a chain gun, and it fits within the world they have built.

None of this would mean shit if it had terrible writing and voice performances but thankfully I thought the game excelled here. One big component of the game is that you get messages/and send messages back home to your wife. This would be soooooo easy to fuck up, like REALLY easy to mess up. But they didn't. I came to really like Jim and I felt the relationship between him and wife was genuinely touching and even realistic to an extent. I came to really like Jim the further the game went on and that drew me in and made me want to play more. I found none of the cast to be incredibly cliche an/or badly done. Their is one guy with a french accent who could have been so badly handled but thankfully wasn't.

Now from a gameplay perspective it's also different from Lost Planet 1 and 2, both inside and outside the RIG. LP1 and 2 as you have said have much more weight to them. They feel different to play. I enjoyed Lost Planet 3s on foot combat and it's fun but it doesn't really standout from any other third person shooter. It's much lighter than 1 and 2's combat and you can't just use your grapple anywhere, I was admittedly disappointed with this and did feel it was a bit of a step back. The number of weapons seemed pretty limited as well - shotgun, pistol, assault rifle, explosives. Nothing out of the ordinary really. The weapons feel good to use and sound great too, especially the shotgun which I used for a lot of the game so it's not a horrible game to play at all. But it's safe to say that it could have done with a bigger variety/arsenal of weapons.

The biggest change with LP3 is the RIG. As I've said you only have one RIG which you upgrade throughout the whole game and you control this from a first person perspective. The combat is from a first person as well and it's very slow and weighty. You have no guns and it's all about hitting Akrids across the head, grabbing their arms with your rig, squashing them etc. A fight with just a couple of them can get intense at times, at least when you're new to them and not sure how to take them on. The RIG is VERY slow and doesn't move fast at all (though you unlock fast travel later on in the game), they basically stay very dedicated to how limited/slow this RIG is. I also love the little touches such as the music in Bills cab. Your wife sends you music tapes which you can play and later on when it unlocks you can even play your own music. Something most people wouldn't even give a shit about but fighting an Akrid with 'We Fight For Love' from Commando blasting in the background is a very unique experience :p

I also found it to be an incredibly atmospheric game as well, I've read it described as almost Aliens like and I can see that. It's a very hostile planet, it FEELS hostile. The glistening ice, the atmosphere storms when you are walking outside in your rig and the crunching and breaking of ice all really drum this home. The game is set before LP1 and 2 and it feels like it. It's not a friendly place at all to be in.

It's not perfect of course. It has its flaws. It could have done with more weapon variety, the grapple not being able to shoot anywhere was disappointing and sometimes, during a few boss fights, it didn't really feel as polished as it should have. A bit more Akrid variety would have been nice and you can find yourself fighting the same enemies a bit too frequently. Multiplayer on PC also uses Gamespy which blows my mind. Awful, awful decision.

But yeah LP3 is so different I completely understand why fans of LP1 and 2 would especially hate it. I just think that overall it's a very underrated game and despite being from Spark Unlimited they did a great job, had a particular vision for their game and stuck with it. So yeah I guess I did like it a lot :)

However I firmly blame Capcom for the death of franchise over anyone else.
 
Yeah, the thing that surprised me out of all of this was how much I loved Lost Planet 3. I'll try and explain why to the best of my ability (I apologise in advance as I'm not a good writer)

Anyway the big thing for Lost Planet 3 is that it takes a much more storytelling approach at its core. The main writer of LP3 being the same guy who wrote the underrated Anachronox was especially surprisingly, a very dialogue heavy RPG with great writing. This straight away makes it very different from any of the others in the series. Lost Planet 1 and 2 are all about the action, they both tell stories but they are action games that want you in the action as soon as possible.

The big thing that jumps out with Lost Planet 3 is how different it is in pace, it's veeeeeeeeery slow to get into its story, as in surprisingly so. It's overall a very low key game and I can completely see why some folk just found it boring. When you first start the game you are new on the planet and have just started your job. You are a guy looking to earn some payola to send back to your wife and kid back home. The game starts off introducing the character Bill, and hence the player, to the world via basically doing Bills job. Planting energy posts, helping out other members of your team etc. You are essentially doing mundane things to start the game off with and dealing with the local Akrids is just another part of the job. Even Bills RIG ties into the story. With LP1 and 2 they are purely a gameplay mechanic, completely disposable and there to used, destroyed and another one grabbed from somewhere else. In LP3 it has a history, Bill built his RIG himself and it's a very clunky, slow machine made especially for contruction/engineering which Bill himself needs for his job. None of the upgrades for it are completely over the top, you don't all of a sudden get a chain gun, and it fits within the world they have built.

None of this would mean shit if it had terrible writing and voice performances but thankfully I thought the game excelled here. One big component of the game is that you get messages/and send messages back home to your wife. This would be soooooo easy to fuck up, like REALLY easy to mess up. But they didn't. I came to really like Bill and I felt the relationship between him and wife was genuinely touching and even realistic to an extent. I came to really like Bill the further the game went on and that drew me in and made me want to play more. I found none of the cast to be incredibly cliche an/or badly done. Their is one guy with a french accent who could have been so badly handled but thankfully wasn't.

Now from a gameplay perspective it's also different from Lost Planet 1 and 2, both inside and outside the RIG. LP1 and 2 as you have said have much more weight to them. They feel different to play. I enjoyed Lost Planet 3s on foot combat and it's fun but it doesn't really standout from any other third person shooter. It's much lighter than 1 and 2's combat and you can't just use your grapple anywhere, I was admittedly disappointed with this and did feel it was a bit of a step back. The number of weapons seemed pretty limited as well - shotgun, pistol, assault rifle, explosives. Nothing out of the ordinary really. The weapons feel good to use and sound great too, especially the shotgun which I used for a lot of the game so it's not a horrible game to play at all. But it's safe to say that it could have done with a bigger variety/arsenal of weapons.

The biggest change with LP3 is the RIG. As I've said you only have one RIG which you upgrade throughout the whole game and you control this from a first person perspective. The combat is from a first person as well and it's very slow and weighty. You have no guns and it's all about hitting Akrids across the head, grabbing their arms with your rig, squashing them etc. A fight with just a couple of them can get intense at times, at least when you're new to them and not sure how to take them on. The RIG is VERY slow and doesn't move fast at all (though you unlock fast travel later on in the game), they basically stay very dedicated to how limited/slow this RIG is. I also love the little touches such as the music in Bills cab. Your wife sends you music tapes which you can play and later on when it unlocks you can even play your own music. Something most people wouldn't even give a shit about but fighting an Akrid with 'We Fight For Love' from Commando blasting in the background is a very unique experience :p

I also found it to be an incredibly atmospheric game as well, I've read it described as almost Aliens like and I can see that. It's a very hostile planet, it FEELS hostile. The glistening ice, the atmosphere storms when you are walking outside in your rig and the crunching and breaking of ice all really drum this home. The game is set before LP1 and 2 and it feels like it. It's not a friendly place at all to be in.

It's not perfect of course. It has its flaws. It could have done with more weapon variety, the grapple not being able to shoot anywhere was disappointing and sometimes, during a few boss fights, it didn't really feel as polished as it should have. A bit more Akrid variety would have been nice and you can find yourself fighting the same enemies a bit too frequently. Multiplayer on PC also uses Gamespy which blows my mind. Awful, awful decision.

But yeah LP3 is so different I completely understand why fans of LP1 and 2 would especially hate it. I just think that overall it's a very underrated game and despite being from Spark Unlimited they did a great job, had a particular vision for their game and stuck with it. So yeah I guess I did like it a lot :)

However I firmly blame Capcom for the death of franchise over anyone else.

Actually, this post is what I expected from the game. Like my dislike towards LP3 is due to it being a threat towards the things I loved about the series, but overall it seems solid, average to possibly good, and I wouldn't mind it's existence if it had been a spinoff entry or just some unrelated game. When it was the next entry in the franchise it was kinda heartbreaking, also I'm not a fan of later prequels.

I really appreciate you for taking the time to write this up Al, much love man. I totally agree, I've grown to have so many beefs with Capcom for this gen after 2009 it's ridiculous. I really wonder what the hell happened to them. I'll let the fighting games slide, people still like SFIV and MVC3, it's to be accepted, but other choices in directions for other games, DmC, LP3, and BOF. Like you really have to wonder. The only thing Capcom does now that makes me happy outside of Monster Hunter and revisions, is Zack and Wiki, and Gundam Vs Gundam. Did Inafune really strike that big of a blow? It's like being a Sonic fan 2004-2007 all over again.

Also I thought his name was Jim? They changed it?
 

Coxy

Member
Just another franchise to the pile of "It could have been amazing but capcom happened so it's dead"
 
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