Lost Planet

By: Dusty Stokes

Platform: Xbox 360

Publisher: Capcom Developer: Capcom

ESRB Rating: Rating Pending Genre: Action

In the absence of certain marquee next-gen games like Devil May Cry 4 and Resident Evil 5 at Capcom's Gamers Day press event yesterday, the company put Lost Planet front and center as the big game of the event. If you're thinking, "Why did Capcom put on an event centered on a mech game," you're not alone in your skepticism. According to Capcom's Keiji Inafune, "It's always been an uphill battle to convince people this is not a mech game, even internally."

The reason for the confusion is that you'll spend plenty of time in mechs (called "Vital Suits," or "VSs") in Lost Planet, but you'll spend just as much if not more time on your own two feet. In essence, it's like Grand Theft Auto, but the mechs are your cars. You can enter or exit them at any time, take them joyriding and blowing up stuff around you -- even use a grappling cord to pull yourself on top of an occupied one, plant a bomb to take out the driver, and then commandeer his mech once he's out.

But though there are a variety of ways to approach your attack plan, the actual game structure is nothing like GTA. You play through a series of around 12 predefined missions along a traditional story path and don't have much freedom in that respect. "We wanted to create a cinematic game that felt like a movie," says Inafune, describing the game's approach as something that could happen in a close-to-modern day timeframe if technology evolved in a certain way.

He describes this concept as trying to blend Japanese and American tastes, by combining the mechs of Japan with first-person shooter style controls that are popular in America.

For the specifics of the control scheme, Inafune's translator Ben Judd describes the development team as "very proud" of what it has accomplished. The structure is similar to first-person shooter dual analog "Halo-style" controls from a third-person perspective, but the main difference to a game like Max Payne is a small invisible window of space directly in front of the character where the player can move the aiming reticule without moving the main character at all. So if you only want to shoot directly in front of yourself, you can make small aiming adjustments without actually moving your character. You can also zoom in over your character's shoulder -- ala Resident Evil 4 -- for more accurate aiming. It's all designed to make the controls easy for players.

Because of this unique setup, players who want to turn around to face enemies behind them will take slightly longer than in a traditional first-person shooter. So, the developers have also added a quick 180 degree turn move to help keep players from getting frustrated while taking too long to look behind themselves.

The controls should be especially interesting in the game's multiplayer component, which we don't know too much about at this point beyond that there will be competitive play for at least 16 players (Capcom is aiming for 32 but isn't sure if that's practical yet) and that there will be some missions players can tackle online together.

16 players online, however, seems like more than enough when you factor in the enormity of each of the Vital Suits in the game. If you get 16 of those together with the impressive graphics engine the game is pushing, this could be one of the prettiest and most chaotic experiences yet on the 360. It'll be interesting to see how the battles are balanced, however, as we spotted heavy use of the grappling hook and vertical gameplay in the single-player game when on foot, so how that will mix in with the pure destruction of the Vital Suits in a multiplayer setting will be very interesting indeed.

We don't have an exact release date for Lost Planet just yet, but the game is scheduled to hit North American 360s in the first quarter of 2007, and Inafune says Capcom is hoping to have the game playable at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Additionally, Capcom is planning a mobile phone Lost Planet game to tie in with the 360 version and help establish the franchise.