Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Videogame blockbuster makes global warming sound attractive

In the comment section accompanying a particular blog post about Capcom’s epic third-person shooter, Lost Planet, a U.K.-based gamer quips, “Adverts for Lost Planet are on TV a lot and my very narrow-minded father had this response: ‘Ever since films like this came along, the world is going to hell!’”

While our planet’s moral trajectory is certainly debatable, one thing is not: contemporary videogame shops are increasingly taking their cues from Hollywood film studios in both their marketing strategies—Capcom reportedly spent in the neighborhood of $40 million to develop and create awareness for Lost Planet—and creative execution (“I like what you’ve done here, but can we have a red-leather-clad she-hero leaping off that futuristic skyscraper when the base charges detonate?”). Due to the stunning graphical horsepower of next-gen consoles, it’s hardly surprising that someone might confuse the trailer for a blockbuster game with Michael Bay’s newest fictional documentary on exploding helicopters.

Lost Planet, the brainchild of Keiji Inafune (famous for creating the Onimusha and Mega Man franchises), takes place on a snow-swept planet called E.D.N. III. You control the hero, Wayne, whose father has been killed by one of the many ferocious bug-like Akrid inhabiting the planet. These critters burst through the snowy terrain unexpectedly, eager to devour you and your precious thermal energy. I’m not particularly high-strung, and I flinched more than once when Akrid exploded into view at my feet.

The game could not have created a more hostile environment for Wayne to navigate. Your thermal-energy gauge is constantly depleting due to the frigid weather and you must replenish lost energy by soaking up the orange puddles of energy left behind after putting a rocket-launcher shell between the eyes of a screeching, five-story praying-mantis-like Akrid. There are malevolent snow pirates on the prowl as well, fixing their cross-hairs on your chapped forehead.

The snow pirates also have mechanized VS’s (Vital Suits)—heavily armored robotic suits equipped with rocket launchers and gatling guns—that they can pilot. It’s not hard to understand Japan’s preoccupation with mecha in its anime, comics and video-game culture; it’s a fantasy of humanity’s next evolutionary leap coming from the mechanical—as opposed to the natural—realm. And who feels like waiting on nature anyway?

Luckily for you, the enemy forces have conveniently (and, yes, a tad foolishly) left empty VS’s lying around and Wayne doesn’t need a key to hop in the cockpit and crank their jet-fueled engines. The most enjoyable moments in the game are spent controlling a Transformers-like VS, rocketing loudly through the air while enemy missiles weave trails all around you, exploding into the sides of cliffs and covering you in clouds of black smoke and raining debris. It’s a completely immersive adrenaline rush. The Akrid bosses are similarly a wonder to behold, all claws and writhing tentacles and orange-glowing joints that explode messily when you sink enough bullets into them.

If only the game’s story and dialogue approached the torque of its adrenalized action sequences; instead, you get dorky, overwrought voiceovers where characters sound like they’re auditioning for a daytime-TV pilot while speaking English as a second language. Then again, it’s hard to be too critical of a person going to the trouble of avenging his father’s murder. Face it, you’d probably just get really angry and cry a lot.