I have absolutely no experience with the Lost Planet series, but from my understanding it's sure been a bumpy road for this Capcom IP in recent years. The first game was supposedly a near-launch Xbox 360 graphical showcase with some stupid fun sci-fi action in it, whereas the second game unexpectedly turned out to be a very Japanese take on the multiplayer-oriented shooter (i.e. impenetrable and clunky and totally unappealing to a Western audience) which most reviewers seemed to loathe. For some reason, Lost Planet 3 represents another sudden change of direction with American developer Spark Unlimited (of Legendary "fame") churning out a much more conventional linear third-personer shooter with a comparatively stronger focus on story and character than both LP1 and LP2. The reviews so far have been lukewarm at best, but as far as space trucker fiction goes there appears to be a bit more work put into the dialogue and characterization than in many games with similar themes and settings (Starcraft 2 comes to mind). As someone who had no trouble enjoying generic and flawed shooters such as Dead Space 3 and Red Faction: Armageddon it will take a lot of missteps for LP3 to completely bore me, but I guess it's still difficult to understand just why Capcom insists on keeping this increasingly schizophrenic franchise alive.

• published: 30 Aug 2013
• views: 39