Lost Planet 3: Preview
Large Japanese publishers, as you know, love to involve Western studios in the development of sequels to their games. And rarely anything good comes out of it. Suffice it to remember how I almost ruined the series Silent Hill Californian Double Helix Games (we’re talking about Silent Hill: Homecoming). Therefore, when it was announced that the third part Lost Planet will do again Californian Spark Unlimited, previously noted for the very mediocre action games Legendary and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, many hastened to finally bury this series. However, today, a couple of months before the release, it seems that exactly Lost Planet 3 will be the best game in the series.
The first Lost Planet, released in December 2006, turned out to be not ideal, but quite an original and interesting action game. The usual Japanese battles with bad megacorporations and huge monsters, as well as shooting battles with combat robots, were supplemented by the need to constantly take into account unpleasant natural conditions: all the action took place on the snowy planet E.D.N. III, where the player constantly had to monitor the level of his thermal energy. In the sequel, for some reason the developers decided to melt away the harsh atmosphere, and the game turned into a mediocre cooperative action game in the jungle. After this, even Nostradamus could not predict in which direction the third part will go and whether it will go at all.
Snow, blood and minerals
What do we have in the end?? First of all, the authors deliberately lower the degree of heroism, dynamics and pomp: instead of the memoryless soldier from the first part or the brave mercenaries from the second, now the main character is a simple-looking hard-working miner Jim Peyton. He goes to planet E.D.N. III, just to make money and help my family. The action of the third part takes place before the events of the first, the NEVEC corporation is still conducting geological exploration work, building thermal generators and mines for the extraction of minerals containing valuable energy.
Jim works for NEVEC, he https://eucasinoonline.co.uk/ has no time for politics or a pretentious fight against corporations. Every day he climbs into the cabin of a huge mech and leaves the warm bunker on the surface of an ice-bound planet shrouded in snow storms to do his hard work: drill, mine, clear passages, repair frozen mechanisms. Therefore, many tasks come down to, for example, grabbing the hydraulics of jammed doors with a robot’s hand and vigorously shaking it.
Naturally, in the process, Jim will still encounter aggressive locusts, insect-like monsters that drank a lot of our blood in the first part. But Jim is not a super soldier, and his mech is not yet equipped with weapons. Therefore, the battles in the third part will be completely different. In the dark corridors of scientific stations, mines and bases hidden under the ice, the gameplay will be more reminiscent of Dead Space: we carefully explore locations, periodically get scared when we hear unpleasant rustling noises, nervously shoot monsters jumping out at us, and press hard on some key to prevent the creature from getting to Jim’s throat. And on the surface, while controlling the robot, you will have to grab huge locusts by their claws and tear off their limbs with a drill.
Live and Explore
All this is emphasized by a more precise survival atmosphere and attention to detail. We’ll spend half the game in the robot’s cockpit, where, in addition to realistic instrument panels, you can see a video letter from Jim’s wife – she complains that her son is growing up without a father. From time to time you will have to get out of the frozen fur and shoot the ice from its mechanisms. And one of the main dangers will not be locusts at all, but frightening snow storms that fall on us like an avalanche.
The authors themselves say that they want to make the main character and his environment as alive and realistic as possible. At any time you can communicate with different characters at the base, and after completing key missions the dialogues and mood of the interlocutors will change – they react flexibly to Jim and what is happening.
The structure of the game will also change. Lost Planet 3 emphasizes freedom and exploration. By talking with NPCs, you can take on side quests and return to already open locations to get new materials – they will be needed when purchasing upgrades for weapons and fur.
Despite the increased focus on story and atmosphere, multiplayer, which has always been an important part of the series, is here to stay. Moreover, there will be a new Scenario mode: here players, divided into NEVEC fighters and “snow pirates”, complete related tasks. For example, some must lead a drill to the target, while others try to prevent this. During breaks, players will be able to customize character classes, choosing weapons and perks for them.
In the end Spark Unlimited And Capcom It seems like we chose the right decision. If Double Helix Games in Silent Hill: Homecoming decided to add action and dynamics to the horror, here everything turns out exactly the opposite: from a cooperative action movie Lost Planet turns almost into survival horror with a thick atmosphere, reminiscent at the same time of Dead Space, "Aliens" and "The Thing".
