What it seems like to me is that the reviewers don't like LP2 because they suck at it.
When i got to playing the game, I was even more disappointed at the reviewers because i thought the game was more deserving of a 9.5 or 9.75. So i finished the game, and watched the review to see what they found wrong with it. Then i was even more deeply horrified to learn that they hated it so much simply because they suck balls at it.
That is why I decided to write this review, and get a valid opinion out there among the many questionable ones. I don't review a game often unless it gets a review that the game didn't deserve.
So now, on with the actual review. I heard that this game was better with friends so i teamed up with a friend of mine who already had gathered 2 more people to play through it with him. For the prologue i was put into a somewhat disappointing helicopter gunner rail-shooter sequence, but it was made cooler when i realized that the prologue was split into two parts, and my friend had gotten the better half where he walked a Vital suit through hordes of akrid to get the the LZ where he was meeting my helicopter. That is my first complaint, which most about half of you probably will never encounter: the helicopter sequence.
from then on, the game was much more dynamic, with the option to go on foot with various weapons to fight with, man a VS and go in guns blazing, stay back and snipe, etc. The key to being good at this game is perception. A lot happens on screen at any given moment, and to be good you have no notice that you are in the line of fire of an enemy turret, or that the giant akrid's huge claw is about to come down on you.
The customization system is by far my favorite part of this game. Allowing you to choose from 5 factions, with tons of different customization options for each. Another thing about the customization screen, which is the most important is the slot machine. While i don't like not knowing what upgrade comes next, i do like that at any try of the slot machine you can get one of the best weapons and in an instant, be equal with the people who have played the game since it came out.
The emote system is another great feature of lost planet 2 and is a product of the LP2 slot machine, which can unlock more emotes, and you assign emotes through the customization screen. The emotes vary from simple commands like "move forward", "come here", etc. to more recreational emotes like dancing, taunting, and cheering.
manual aiming can be a pain some times, but it is remedied by a sort of sticky aiming system where there can be two reticules on the screen, the manual aiming, and the auto aiming which automatically aims for the torso of whatever target is closest to the manual aiming reticule, but to score a head shot (which is far more effective than a torso shot), you need to aim manually, and extremely carefully, at the target's head, with emphasis on carefully, as it can be hard to score a headshot with an unscoped weapon. Luckily for pros, the auto aim doesn't affect the manual aiming, since the bullets for go for the manual aim over the auto aim if the former is aimed to hit something other than a wall.
I didn't realize this until much later, but in the cutscenes, anyone using a female character will still have a man's voice, and if anyone uses one of the special characters like Frank West or Albert Wesker their mouths wont move when their characters talk. Fortunately, in order to use female characters or bonus characters, you will already have beaten the game and will most likely skip the cutscenes you have already watched.
The game really shines in its epic boss fights, where you fight giant Category-G Akrids, experimental underwater tanks, etc. while some of these fights are funner than others, this adds variety to the fights, making sure every boss isn't the same fight.
Other fun parts are the 0-Gravity and underwater segments, which allow you to fly or swim around all over the place and encounter threats from behind, ahead, left, right, above, and below. I really loved using the VSs, especially around the end, where you find really awesome transforming VSs with awesome weapons and features, which made the last level of the game disappointing since there were no VSs available to use.
The game loses points for some of the cutscene glitches, bad AI, and the helicopter prologue. but still earns a solid 9.0
One more thing. The gun sword is awesome.