PC gamers are generally very biased when it comes to console ports. No surprises here, as the vast majority of ports end up being stinking piles of dog doodoo. Because of that even the games that would deserve the attention often get overlooked or worse, criticized regardless of their quality. Lost Planet aims to break this tradition, as it not only is a port of a next-gen game that has been optimized for the PC, but instead raises the graphical bar a few notches higher. If you played the game on the Xbox360 you will know that it can look amazing. Now imagine what happens when the DX9 level graphics get some additional make up in the form of DX10 support. Brain melting graphics coupled with some decent gameplay would be nice, wouldn’t you say so?

Apocalyptic battles between mankind and aliens

There is something about frozen landscapes that just calls for apocalyptic battles between mankind and aliens - remember The Thing? Now imagine that the conflict isn’t between a band of explorers and a mutating alien, but between a guy named Wayne and an entire planet of insect-like aliens (called the Akrid). Sure, Wayne isn’t the only one having the time of his life, but you’ll often feel like the entire planet has turned against you. To top it off, Wayne has some memory problems and the only thing he is sure about is that he wants to avenge his father, who died at the hands of one of the aliens. As far as the story goes that’s all the player really needs to know and frankly, all the player will really care about in the end. The cutscenes that play before the missions try hard to make Wayne’s ongoing war look like a Sci-Fi adventure, but the poor voice acting and some very strange story turns make it fall short.

But who cares about the story when you can recreate Starship Troopers on a frozen planet, right? Not so fast, buster! Surviving on the harsh surface of E.D.N.III is no simple matter. The constant blizzards and extremely low temperatures make the living conditions horrible at the least, so human inhabitants require the aid of thermal energy to keep them alive. They are not the only ones that use it though, as the aliens obviously stay alive because of it as well. The catch here is that Wayne’s supply of T-Eng (short for thermal energy) is constantly dwindling, so he’ll have to work hard to supply his suit with extra energy. This is where the killing starts. Every foe that Wayne kills leaves behind a lump of thermal energy. This includes human pirates, soldiers, huge mech suits (VSes), aliens and several other environmental objects such as alien eggs or spawn pools.

T-Eng defines the very nature of gameplay. Unlike most shooters where you can get rid of enemies at your own pace, Lost Planet forces you to constantly stay on the move. To keep your T-Eng levels high you must keep moving at all times, doing your best to keep the downtime between battles as low as possible. Because of that the battles usually never really stop, as you enter a new one right after if not even before finishing the previous one. Whether you will like that or not is up to you, but know that the fast tempo makes this game stand out, mainly in a good way.

Machine games, shotguns and plasma rifles

We covered the survival part of combat, now to deal with the killing part. Throughout the game you are limited to two weapons at the same time, so you’ll have to plan ahead. Machine games, shotguns and plasma rifles will be your standard companions, as they are universally effective against most opponents, something that can’t be said for rocket launchers for example. On the other hand, having a heavy weapon locked and loaded when a huge alien appears makes the encounter substantially easier than it would be otherwise. Best of all, humanoid weapons are not Wayne’s only available firearms. The mech suits I mentioned earlier aren’t as tough as they look at first, but the human pilot whose head usually sticks out is even more vulnerable to weapons fire. Once dealt with, Wayne has two choices. He can either jump into the suit himself, or rip off one of the huge weapons off the mech and use them as a regular sidearm (well, a very big regular sidearm). Each approach has its downside – when in a suit Wayne is virtually invincible and can fire not one, but two heavy weapons at the same time. The amount of damage the mech suits can cause is mind blowing, and you’ll often have the urge to shoot at random objects, just to see how far you can take your rampage. There is one huge shortcoming though. When in a suit, the T-Eng drops at a vastly faster rate, so you will never really be able to stay in one of the suits for very long. Not all the mech suits are the same however, so you will sometimes need to rely on a certain suit to progress. While some of the suits can’t do much more than walk around and rain bullets on your opponents, some of the allow you to hover or double jump.

Using one of the mech weapons when on foot really brings forward one of the issues the game has. The controls, while responsive never really feel perfect. It is hard to describe, but when you’ll miss a huge alien standing in front of you for the second time in a row, you’ll know what I’m speaking off.  When in a suit the issue doesn’t go away magically, but you would somehow expect a mech suit to lag a bit. It’s not that we like it, but with all the damage the suits can do we understand the decision. At times things can get really hectic, and you’ll notice that the aiming isn’t the only thing slowing you down. Some of the animations, such as the flying around after being hit, are uninterruptable so you will have to wait a few seconds before you regain control. Unfortunately you sometimes won’t have the luxury of waiting that long, as the rockets that sent you spiraling in the first place will still be after you. At times like this your health bar will plummet down and as a result so will your T-Eng reserve.

Substantially easier

Other than the lagging issues mentioned earlier the controls are pretty tight. The keyboard and mouse combination works well, perhaps too well sometimes. Some of the bosses which were big, mean and almost unbeatable on the Xbox360, are now just mean and big. Don’t get this wrong, the game still offers a fair challenge, but one that is substantially easier than the one on the console. You could always use the Microsoft 360 controller to even things up.

Now we have seen some screenshots of Lost Planet running, let us quickly analyse performance. Our sister site DRIVER HEAVEN will be including LOST PLANET in future graphics card reviews, however we can give you some frame rates from budget/mid range cards as well as some high end systems. We have seen some graphic issues with ATI X2900 Crossfire and Lost Planet running via DX10. The best way to currently experience Lost Planet in full DX10 is with the latest Nvidia drivers and a 8800 video card.

All benchmarks from Windows Vista Ultimate Edition:

1280x720 - E6700 CPU, Vista, 2GB DDR2 High Settings No AA/8AF	Snow	Cave
DX10 BFG 8600GTS	34	45
DX10 ATI X2600XT	16	18
DX9 BFG 8600GTS	35	48
DX9 ATI X2600XT	31	40

1920x1200 - Intel Quad EE 6700, 2gb DDR2 High Settings No AA/16AF	Snow	Cave
DX10 XFX XXX 8800GTX	35	45
DX9 XFX XXX 8800GTX	35	44

1920x1200 - Intel Xeon V5365 x2, 8gb DDR2 High Settings No AA/16AF	Snow	Cave
DX10 XFX XXX 8800GTX - 675/2000	44	53
DX9 XFX XXX 8800GTX - 675/2000	42	51

 

The singleplayer campaign is hardly long and its replayability is limited, so the multiplayer modes help. Elimination and Team Elimination are the counterparts of your regular deathmatch game types. Post Grab is what most of you know as domination from the Unreal Tournament series. Last comes Fugitive, which has one player fighting for his life while the rest of the players try to hunt the said player down and kill him. Those of you who like everything you do recorded will be glad to know that the game offers extensive stat tracking, similar to the one found in Xbox360 games. Unfortunately online play can be a bit quirky, as it is sometimes impossible to find a match. Whether this is because of the lack of a player base or because of a bug in the online interface remains to be seen.

Conclusion

Microsoft has been singing praises to the XNA interface for a long time now. We haven’t really seen much come of it so far, but at least Microsoft kept their word when it comes to the ease of porting Xbox360 games to the PC (and vice versa). Lost Planet is the perfect example of an excellent port. Truth be told, if the interface wasn’t designed around the use of the Xbox controller (“Press B to go back”) you could hardly tell that this is not a PC only title.

So, who would we recommend the game to? Everybody who enjoys action games. There are a few catches though. Having a fast rig is a must, as the game can get quite demanding. Being able to withstand a good ten minutes or more of nonstop action helps as well. But that would be about it. Sure, the game has its fair amount of flaws such as quirky controls, bad storytelling and a certain lack of depth. But for all the issues it remains enjoyable and fun to play, something that can’t be said for most titles out there.