Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Cat-G Tune [Lost Planet 2 Impressions]

Though it hasn't popped up on Killa Blog Featured Products, I have been playing Lost Planet 2. Whilst the housemates Keif and Lego had recently acquired L4D2 for the 360, and I do enjoy a good Versus splitscreen session, I have had about 290 hours of experience in the game, so I reckoned I could use a new shooter to keep my trigger finger in shape.

I'm on the penultimate episode of LP2 now, and I've been mostly happy with the game. I'm very rarely surprised by a game I purchase, as I am a well-informed gaming consumer, and as you can see here I'm no stranger to doing my homework (and everyone else's). LP2 had mixed review scores, most citing strong action and multiplayer, but a technically frustrating campaign. Delving deeper, it seemed that this was mostly due to the saving structure, and to the worthlessness of the AI bots that can accompany you in singleplayer.

I can't really find fault with the gameplay partitioning, as I've played my share of Megaman games and can appreciate Capcom's use of spacing save points. It is a confusing system that involves a pool of Thermal Energy your whole team shares for healing, respawning, and opening certain chests. Additional thermal energy (T-ENG) is acquired through felling foes and activating data posts which serve as respawn points. A big chunk of the game is: Find the next data post, activate it, repeat. So get used to it.

And, yeah, those AI bots are dumb as hell. I can see why it is such a widespread complaint. I've made it up this far on normal difficulty with three AI bots, so it's no dealbreaker, but I'm looking forward to playing through again with Keif watching my 6.

Not quite so Plushie in person...
As I haven't completed the campaign yet, expect more impressions later on. So far, though, I've felt a little let down by the Category G Akrid battles. A little. At this point LP2 is not going on the featured list, but at $40, it's not a bad buy.

Let this be a lesson, though. Nothing goes on the Killa Blog Featured Products list unless I personally guarantee it to be a fun, quality title.

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