A solid mix between on-foot and ri- based third-person action

Aug 21, 2012 08:08 GMT  ·  By

I’ve never been a fan of the Lost Planet franchise but Capcom seems to believe that there’s some quality to the ice planet setting and they are getting ready to launch another game in the series, the third full one, which I managed to get to play during Gamescom 2012.

Lost Planet 3 takes place before the events of the first two titles in the series and the player is an operator in the early days of exploration on E.D.N. III, when no one was prepared for the troubles that humanity would encounter.

The gameplay demo that Capcom offered introduced both some on-foot sections and one extended rig sequence and, as long as developer Spark concentrates on the mech aspect, it could have a cool game on its hands.

The rig is suitably powerful and rigid and taking out aliens with its mechanical arms, by either drilling them into oblivion or just hitting them with a wide, lazy swing is a pleasure.

Unfortunately, main character Jim also has to go on foot and use traditional weapons to battle the aliens, which can be both exhilarating and frustrating because the Akrid have speed to spare and even the evade move seems to slow to get out of their way when they attack.

It’s even worse when one of them pins the player down and Lost Planet 3 is forced to use a complex Quick Time Event, which relies on X presses, some sluggish aiming with the right thumbstick and then a final R2 click to attack.

The boss battle that closes the playable Lost Planet 3 demo is quite a challenge, and although I tried three times, I was unable to dodge its attacks long enough to pierce his ice carapace and get down to the glowy bits in order to hurt him.

Lost Planet 3 will be out during 2013.