Going into the one-day event on Tuesday, I had a sort of bad aftertaste about Lost Planet. When it originally came out I felt like it was unfinished. It certainly did some really neat things with environments and enormous enemies. There were so many effects, so many neat things you could do with weaponry (including going Bionic Commando) and the multiplayer was generally the same way.
So when Lost Planet 2 was announced I was skeptical. Thanks to a great showing at E3 this past year and this event that Capcom put on Tuesday, I can now safely say that my skepticism is fading fast. Good times are about to erupt faster than the belly of an Akrid.
More Weapons:
The weapons I ran into during the game were quite interesting and unique. None more unique than the ability to use a robotic Akrid. You get to control a scorpion akrid, which is quick-quick-quick. You also get to control a gigantic spider-like akrid that can be run by multiple players (one player controlling it, while the others are sporting weapons). The spider akrid is insanely huge. Picture, if you want to go back to this horrible movie, the spider robot in Wild, Wild West and you get the picture of it (sorry for mentioning that awful ass film). Speaking of multiple people, there are some VS that require you to have multiple players in them for full gun power capabilities. One in particular takes three players to run. Two players man the arm guns, while one player sits in the middle and controls it. It was damn cool and really quite powerful. You also get some neat tanks to play with, some other VS that resemble the Invid from Robotech.
As for handheld weapons, they have some new ones such as a more powerful laser (not as accurate, but still powerful), a mini-missile launcher (it fires up to four missiles towards a locked target. That’s right, a ‘locked’ target) and various other neat weapons of fun mass destruction. Don’t forget to check out the electrical shield too. That sucker is a great disruptor and protects you from missiles/rockets.
More ways to play:
You’ve got your typical deathmatch, but you’ve also got modes such as ‘point’ based play, team play and fugitive (which is just wrong).
The point based play is probably one of the more interesting games in the multiplayer matches we played. It was explained like this:
Person A kills person B. Person A gets one point. If Person A goes on a streak of kills (say three kills) then they have three points. Should Person B kill Person A then Person B gets the three points that Person A had. Should Person B become the leader in points during that exchange then every kill after that is only one point. Should Person A want revenge and end up killing Person B then Person A gets all three points. Every time you are killed your points go to zero.
It’s like playing ‘tips’ in basketball, except easier and meaner.
As for another interesting mode we got to experience it was called Fugitive. This is probably a downright nasty way of doing things, if you’re looking at it from a distance, but strangely enough it works.
Fugitive mode works like this. It’s one person against everyone else. As one editor put it, “Someone gets to be the bitch!” A little harsh, especially since they had their ass handed to them by the ‘bitch’ many times. The ‘fugitive’ is sent out to take out everyone else. The fugitive is stronger than the rest of the guys and can take far more damage than the other players. This allows for some sort of balance and derails any thoughts of ganging up on the fugitive. Anyway, the right setting and this game could last a long time. The right fugitive and this game could be quicker than everyone thinks.
The final mode that we played (or at least I got to play) was the capture the ‘egg’ mode. I’m not sure if that is the official name, but the object in question resembles an egg out of the movie Aliens. Basically, you’re given a time limit to retrieve eggs from the other team. Whoever ends up with the most eggs wins. It’s capture the flag with eggs….. instead of flags. It was awkward and cool at the same time.
I know I didn’t get to play other modes during the short session we had with the game, so there is far more to LP2 then what I have here.
Shifting gears a bit, let’s talk about the maps.
Bigger Maps:
The big part of this session Capcom put on for us lucky-duck press folk was the maps. The four maps they were toting are as follows:
Turbulent Jungle: The jungle map was probably tied with the snow map for second best in the group (if I was ranking them). It contained ruins and abandoned buildings. There were plenty of places to hide in and to snipe people. There weren’t too many VS spots to maneuver through, but there is enough here to keep multiplayer addicts happy. There were some stationary guns available for taking out loads and loads of people. I think, outside of the next map described below, this map offered many different hiding spots and more importantly really high rise structures to sit down and spot enemies. It’s definitely rifle friendly, but it’s more fun to hunt people down predator style in this map. You will use the hook quite a bit.
Structure over water (see video below): The best way to describe this level is that it’s the Helix map except on top of the water and very spread out. For me this is one of the deeper, if not deepest, maps that we got ot play at the event. It’s a three to four level structure that players battle on. Much like the island, there is a watery grave below, but there’s less of a chance that you’ll meet that with a slip up. You can climb on almost anything and everything in the structure (rafters, buildings, etc.) and is one helluva place to use the rifle on. If you set up this stage with nothing but rifles (we did that in a few games) then it would be game on. This was my favorite map to play on and it offered a lot of ways to fight. There were giant VS all over the place and they worked just as well in this environment as they did in the jungle environment.
{hwdvs-player}1009{/hwdvs-player}
Snow: If you’re familiar with the snow base from the first LP, the base before the giant worm, then you’ll be familiar immediately with what this map contains. It’s the exact same map from the original. It does allow you to go into the facility, which the original didn’t, and it has some really good high points to it. It’s probably one of the shorter, more evenly balanced maps out of the four. While the island is probably the shortest, mainly because it offers no variety, the snow map allows you to hide inside of complexes or up high on giant gates. There are plenty of trenches to hunker down in, but you’ll always be in sight of some sort of gigantic weapon if you stay too long. For me, it’s one of the more fun maps. It’s restrictive and it forces you to fight. This was the map where we tried the ‘fugitive’ game; imagine trapping a dangerous person in a small area.
Island: Between all of these maps the Island was by far my least favorite. Hoping to bank on the rain effects and the stormy atmosphere that the map was created around, the island was by far the most restrictive map of them all. It was bland, basically donut shaped and it had little ‘awesome’ feel to it in comparison to the others. There were limitations to how much you could move the VS on this map. One wrong step, or one missile to the chest, and you’ve fallen off the side into your watery grave. The level is put together
Details, details, details:
With all of this said, the amount of details that Capcom has added to Lost Planet 2 in comparison to the first is like comparing the details of Star Wars: A New Hope versus Avatar. With the extra time they’ve put into it they’ve managed to severely trump the original game, at least in terms of multiplayer detail. They offer a deeper, richer gameplay environment. They put together some many fine details that are very customizable that you won’t get bored with the same shit you’re use to on other multiplayer games. Having more weapons available, more maps, and more ways to use VS only heightens the experience for this editor. Add all of these details to an incredibly balanced multiplayer game all around and this is a mixture for success. Capcom has clearly listened to what the community wanted when it demanded an upgrade.
The demo for the multiplayer mode comes out on March 31st (today) on XBL and tomorrow on PSN. Download it, you won’t be sad.
