henke on 24/10/2013 at 20:13
I’m not one of those guys who decries professional reviewers of all being full of shit. They’re guys (and gals) who play videogames all day long after all, so I do believe they know what they’re talking about. But as I look at the metacritic or gamerankings.com pages for Lost Planet 3, and see a medium score of 60/100, I can only come to one conclusion: this time, the critics have gotten it
wrong. Sure, Lost Planet 3 barely has anything to do with the previous entries, and sure it borrows way too much from Dead Space. The gameplay is perhaps mostly middle-of-the-road fare, and certainly the checkpoints are atrociously placed! The character animations have none of the natural physicality of the characters in the old LPs, and the game has more than it’s share of animation- and clipping-bugs. And, yes… the game was developed by Spark, purveyors of such shoddy fare as Turning Point and Legendary.
Inline Image:
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/864982006144483063/3D79D010D189A6548C26D4CB5492FB99E3D99A54/1024x576.resizedimageBut if you can bring yourself to look past all that, you’ll find one of the best sci fi stories and some of the greatest written and acted characters of recent times. There is a low-key tone to this game, none of the over-the-top spectacle of the previous entries. Your mech for instance, is nothing like the fast heavily armored mechs of the other games, instead this is a slow lumbering work-machine. It's built for hauling T-Energy, repairing pipelines, and transporting you safely around a harsh environment. It even has a built-in musicplayer where you can play your own playlists, or the soundtrack's (excellent) twangy country tunes! It's not built for fighting with, which makes it all the more exciting when you
do have to fight monsters with it (think "final actionscene in Aliens").
Inline Image:
http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/864982006114303637/F76C63F37F8FAF35B94933C0B2F4F142BE9B3DDA/1024x576.resizedimageI've been trying to think of a way to explain what I like about the characters, but I can't seem to find the words, so better yet I'll show a video and you can make up your own mind. One of the main characters is Bonnie Roman, she was the station doctor but after a falling out with her boss, Braddock, she has retreated to a self-imposed exile at a small outpost some distance away from the main base. At one point in the game you're on your way out there to meet her, and before the mission starts you see (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRgLbGaFLMs&list=SPlB6V0ByiabKg3C8ukrqBEnyQaLYTml1A) this video log. "Talking head" segments like these are spread throughout the game in the form of messages, logs and psych evaluations. I especially enjoy the messages between main character Jim and his wife Grace. They share a certain kind of sarcastic humor, and while it's not hilarious or anything, you get the sense that these two really get a kick out of eachother. They feel like
a real couple. There's an effortless naturality to the acting.
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http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/864982006170123058/188814CCBA36189304F917998EC56F4B4C31B55A/1024x576.resizedimageI was enjoying the writing in this so much I had to look up who had penned it, and I was positively delighted by what I found. The Lead Designer and Head Writer on this game is none other than Richard Zangrande Gaubert! Name doesn’t ring a bell? This is the guy who wrote
Anachronox! The Game Director and Co-writer also got their start in the industry on Anox. All 3 of them seem to be recent additions to the Spark team, Lost Planet 3 being their first game there. This certainly has me interested in what this studio will release in the future.
Inline Image:
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/864982006114309838/3DF8823C54B6F90A2B1160DC364CC5E671C0DC1E/1024x576.resizedimagePlay this one, folks! Don't worry about not having played LP1 and 2, this is a prequel and requires no previous knowledge of the series. I suggest you play it on Normal to avoid getting too frustrated with the most annoying bits. (I played it on Hard and it caused many exasperated sighs and curses) Also don’t watch the trailers, they give away too much. The one trailer you
can watch is the "Frozen to death" one, because it doesn't give away anything of the story, and also it's hilariously morbid. :D
[video=youtube;cqtdA3qZLaY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqtdA3qZLaY[/video]
Shadowcat on 25/10/2013 at 23:44
Are you playing this on PC henke? And if so, is it a good port?
henke on 26/10/2013 at 06:35
I'm playing PC, and it's an ok port. Looks and runs good, tho there are a few graphical glitches here and there. The keyboard is kind of a mess though. You know how a lot of games these days have a bunch of different actions on the same button? Lost Planet 3 is the opposite, Lost Planet 3 has a different keyboard button for everything. E is use, F is grapple, T is plant T-Eng post, X is cancel planting T-Eng Post. All of these actions could easily be the SAME GODDAMN BUTTON! But you can't bind them all to the same button. The keyboard listings list P as the button for Pick up weapon, Pick up Item, and Pick up T-Eng. Don't want all that stuff on P? WHO WOULD!? Well you can rebind those 3 things, but you can't bind them all to the same button. So you can't move them all to Q for instance, instead you gotta move them to Q, Z, and C. Or keep them on P. Crazy shit. I just stuck with the gamepad.
EvaUnit02 on 27/10/2013 at 19:55
Is it a better Dead Space successor than Dead Space 3?
henke on 27/10/2013 at 20:17
I'm currently playing DS3 in co-op with Sulphur actually. Enjoying it more than I did DS2.
Anyway, LP3 is only like DS in a few design choices and the feel of the on-foot gameplay, the only time it really tries going for the same tone as DS is one of the missions about halfway through. Overall it's a lot less grim than the DS games.
