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Good: Fantastic visuals, audio, boss fights

Bad: Sluggish control, story, characters

A.K.A.: "Getting Knocked Down: The Game!"

Lost Planet was somewhat lost in the shuffle of last year's E3. I remember walking from booth to booth, getting bombarded by PS3, Wii, and Gears of War at every turn. Somewhere in between all those, I stopped for a moment at Capcom's booth to try out a visually-stunning title set amongst an almost all-snow backdrop. I played through the demo (it's the same one released on XBL around the same time), and thought it had serious potential to be a great title.

It's now over half a year later, and extended time with the final product has turned out to be a disappointment in many ways. It's still a technical wonder, but the gameplay leaves much to be desired.

I'll save any potential Lost Planet players a bunch of time if they follow this simple suggestion skip the cutscenes. It starts out with fairly standard action game fare (father gets killed by giant creature, son seeks out revenge), but turns into a convoluted, uninteresting mess somewhere around the middle of the game. Skip it entirely, and save yourself a bunch of boredom and confusion.

The first thing you'll notice upon taking control of your character is that the default control configuration is far too slow. It's like trying to aim a gun in molasses, and I'd suggest bumping the sensitivity up considerably. It also utilizes the same "bounding box" aiming mechanism used in launch FPS titles for the Wii. This makes absolutely no sense to me, as it's controlled with a standard controller. The LB and RB bumpers will perform a quick 90 degree turn, but that doesn't make up for the awkwardness of the bounding box.

One very unique aspect of the game is the way health is handled. Due to how cold all of the environments are, you have to keep up a "thermal energy" gauge. Thermal energy is found within the bodies of your enemies, the Akrid alien race. Killing these insect-like creatures will cause glowing red gel to come out of their bodies, which will up your TE amount. Once this gauge is depleted, your actual health bar starts running out. It adds a sense of urgency to the title, as it reminded me of collecting air bubbles while underwater in old-school Sonic games.

Much of the environment is very interactive and oftentimes destructible. Cars get torn apart, explosions send debris flying, and ice shatters realistically. While they may be an action game staple, there are simply far too many exploding barrels in Lost Planet. They're in completely arbitrary locations, and absolutely everywhere you turn. They may look pretty when they blow up, but their constant presence doesn't make much sense.

My main gripe with the game is the sluggish control and generally slow feel. Anytime a rocket explodes anywhere near you, your character goes through an entire "get knocked down, recover, and stand back up" animation that gets tiresome very quickly. There were entire shootouts I experienced that were easily 80% "get knocked down, stand back up" animations. It's infuriating, and the dodge move doesn't help nearly enough. Multiplayer is just as flawed, if not moreso. Half the time, I'd get spawned right next to a V.S. mech, and be immediately gunned down.

Despite its issues in the control department, Lost Planet really is a masterpiece when it comes to visuals and audio. You really do get the feel of being on a desolate, frozen planet as you march through the snowy plains. Surround sound is crucial for this title, as the cold wind blowing past your head and explosions booming around you sound amazing. Ice cracks with a realistic sharpness, and everything onscreen is gorgeous. I've seen a lot of games with amazing graphics, but few moments in my memory are as striking as the moment the giant worm bursts out of the ground.

This title had a ton of potential. It had an interesting setting, visually interesting alien creatures, gorgeous graphics, and realistic audio. However, it's obvious that Capcom needed to spend far more time ensuring that the game was actually fun to play.

Graphics: 9.5

Sound: 9.0

First Play: 8.0

Replay Value: 6.5

Gameplay: 7.0

Overall: 7.4