The Post-Game - Lost Planet 3

Lost Planet 3 has a good story, decent action, and some great graphics (for its time). Unfortunately, it takes about fours hours of gameplay before things get interesting, which I think is why there are so many reviews stating the game is boring and slow. This delayed arrival of the “good stuff” means you won't be able to really judge the merits of the game without going past Steam's 2-hour refund limit. If being stuck on an ice-planet with a giant mech and aliens sounds like fun, go ahead and grab Lost Planet 3 when it's on sale.
Total installation size on my hard-drive (with all DLC and HD cutscenes pack): 27 GB.

Jim Peyton is just your ordinary guy out to earn some money for his family back on Earth by taking mining contracts for the NEVEC corporation on a frozen ice-world. This expedition by NEVEC is supposed to be the first to ever set foot on this world, but as Jim finds out, his bosses have been less than truthful about many aspects of the operation. There are several elements that you might expect: strange alien creatures, a frenemy that becomes a friend, a stoic person of wisdom, a cold and windy setting. After about four hours of gameplay, Jim is out on a mission for NEVEC when Lost Planet 3 suddenly goes all Dead Space; he finds himself exploring decrepit structures while strange creatures pop out and attack without warning. Apparent betrayal, a mad scientist, and an evil corporation round out the cast, and while you've probably seen it all before, Lost Planet 3 implements these elements well. Few things about the story surprise, but it is told effectively, and the voice acting is top-notch.

For much of the game, you climb into your giant mech (called the “rig”) and go out into the frozen wastes doing missions for the NEVEC corporation. Some upgrades can be purchased for the rig, but it's not customizeable in the traditional sense. The weapons Jim can wield have decent punch and there are about a dozen to choose from. I stuck mostly to the simple assault rifle; decent damage and a large magazine made up for the twitchy iron sights (which hurts the effectiveness of the sniper rifles). No real weapon customization, just bespoke upgrades that can be purchased at the stores.

Enemies come in two varieties: human and alien. The humans are your standard gun-wielding soldiers who hide behind cover or charge your position with shotguns. Most of the time, though, you'll be fighting the alien Akrid. There is a good variety of Akrid; my favorites were the weird six-legged ones that dive behind cover and just barely peep out at you, before rearing up like a cobra and spitting volleys. In the early part of the game, the boss battles involve fighting several of the larger, tougher Akrid all at once (when in doubt, shoot the glowy bits). Later on, there are some individually unique (and enormous) bosses (still shoot the glowy bits, though). Some of the “lesser” bosses are re-used a few times. The battles are not over quickly, and offer a fair bit of variation and challenge. Be alert for QTEs; they don't form the core of the battles, but they are important for the finishers.

The graphics are Unreal 3, and except for some strangely low-res clouds, are great (I recommend disabling Motion Blur in the Options menu, though). The backdrops are large, ice glistens, and snow blows convincingly. There is a free DLC of the cutscenes in HD (the DLC is a 7.5 GB download), so those also look excellent. The soundtrack (by Jack Wall) is great; instead of going for a big orchestral score, Lost Planet 3 instead goes for a quiet, reflective approach for story moments, and scratchy, screechy strings in the horror moments. Once you're out in the rig looking for resources, though, the mood changes to catchy folk tunes.

A number the reviews of Lost Planet 3 are outright negative, and if you don't play the game for more than four hours, you'll probably agree with them. I stuck with it and was rewarded with a good game that in retrospect has been treated unfairly (perhaps because it was too different from Lost Planet 1 and 2? I haven't played those games at the time of this review). Recommended on sale if fighting aliens on an ice-planet (with real boss battles) sounds like your cup of tea – “on sale” because a truly great game doesn't require “sticking with it.”

Notes:
- Multiplayer is dead. Don't plan on getting 100% of the game's achievements unless you can get some people together to help you out.
- There is a technical issue with the mechanical claw of the Rig. Left mouse-button attaches it to an object; if that object needs to be rotated, the screen prompt is “tap WASD to turn the claw.” THIS IS WRONG. The correct way to turn the claw is to repeatedly tap the F key. This is a common enough issue that a quick forum search revealed the answer, but how the heck does that slip by the QA testing?
- A more minor problem: there is no message if you do not yet have the attachment your rig needs for a specific action. I thought the game was broken at one point, but as it turns out the winch needed an upgrade to throw the grapple further and hit what I wanted it to; the game never flashed a message like, “rig upgrade required for this action.” Just be sure you've got the upgrades you need.