Lost Planet: Xbox 360 Hands On

In the run-up to E3, one of the most exciting pieces of news for the Xbox devotee was that MS was going to be doing whatever it could to bring 360 owners the "full" E3 experience. Basically what this meant was that a bunch of videos and game trailers would be made available for free download via Xbox Live.

However, there have been two exceptions to this, both in the form of playable demos. One being the forthcoming, graphically stunning MotoGP 06, and the other being Capcom's rather impressive Lost Planet (especially impressive, SPOnG thinks, when you bear in mind that the game has roughly 18 more months of production to go).

The first thing you will notice upon picking this game up is that it is rather dull looking due to the locations, but still incredibly detailed to look at. Expansive snow-covered mountainous landscapes are the order of the day, complete with a very moody, desolate fog that actually enhances the mood of the game without blatantly obscuring geometry for pop-in sake. Even at this early stage, Capcom has done a fantastic job of making it feel bitterly cold. The character models are all intricately detailed and very fluidly animated. The creatures you fight along the way range from human size flying annoyances to massive, kick-over-your house monsters.

Control-wise, the game’s set up is very natural and easy to pick up and figure out. Movement and aiming are on the analogs while jumping, picking up weapons, switching weapons, and your grappling hook are mapped to the face buttons. The triggers are fire and grenade and the two shoulder bumpers allow for quick 1/4 turns in the corresponding direction, so that aiming can be fairly slow and precise but navigation isn't hindered by it.

While it took a few minutes to get used to the idea of quick turning all the time, once we became used to it, it became mission-critical in our minds. It should be noted that only two weapons can be carried at any one time, a la HALO, so you won't ever have to go scrolling through a huge inventory of military hardware to find the right one.

Oh, and hang on one second - don't worry; we aren't just going to toss out the words ‘grappling hook’ without a little more explanation. If you're thinking this is going to be some sort of arctic sci-fi Tomb Raider type thing, then fear not. The hook is not used for hanging and swinging about like lady Lara. Rather it is just used to quickly navigate vertical objects. Just point and shoot at basically any surface within reach and our hero goes zipping along to the desired location, with a nice little boost at the end to help get up onto any roofs or ledges you may have been aiming for.

While some have compared it to a more action-oriented Resident Evil control scheme, we can think of about 100 other games that it more closely resembles. Just because it's a Capcom game doesn’t mean it plays like other Capcom games. Capcom is a superb games company, more than capable of making something good that has nothing to do with RE4. Sorry, had to get that off our chest.

Another key aspect of the game is its ever-present body-heat meter. Being in such a formidable climate, one must take special care to stay warm. Thankfully, this is implemented without causing the player too much undue stress. Basically, every time you kill anything (and there are plenty of things to kill) they drop little glowing orange orbs of, well, heat we assume, because it warms you up. There are also little egg-like things around that dispense copious amounts of these heat wads, as well as occasional heaters that can be activated to get a quick boost in temp.

Oh, did we mention the mechs? No? Silly us. There are mechs. Not the giant mech warrior sort but rather more like walking tanks. Somewhere between Ed-209 and the power suit from Aliens. Control in these is basically the same as when on foot, minus the grapple of course, and they are small enough that we managed to actually go through an entire level without exiting our ride once (the tricky part is having it not blow up on you). Since these are smaller mechs they are thankfully capable of a decent vertical leap. This makes high-tension battles with fast moving insectoid aliens a bit more manageable.

All in all this game, while over a year away from what we have here, is already looking to be quite a ride and most likely a must-have 360 title upon its release. While we find it odd that one of the biggest name Japanese developers Microsoft has is making a sci-fi shooter for its system, we don’t really care. So what if they don't buy it in the land of the rising sun? Their loss, we suppose, is our gain. So keep your eyes on SPOnG for all things Lost Planet (like a closer release date we hope) and share your feelings (no, not about your fear of rejection!) in the forums below.