Lost Planet has a lot of monsters, and epic encounters, yet it still feels empty.
Lost Planet has a storyline, but due to how unimportant it is, i really don't think its worth mentioning. I was really disappointed by the weak story, it almost seems at times as though the game doesn't even acknowledge the story, whenever it cuts away to a cutscene, most of the time there in a totally different environment, and once you return to gameplay your a couple feet from where you stood, showing no advancement in where you went. The story itself is kinda stupid. I normally look for a great single player campaign since i rarely play online, and aside from actually wanting to beat the game I had no other reason to play. I didn't care about what happened to Wayne (the main character) and his friends, or the antagonist. None of their goals are perfectly clear, and even once you know who the bad guy is, their plan still doesn't seem to be one worth stopping...or dying for.
The gameplay is that of a standard third person shooter. There are some cool weapons, but unfortunetly you can only hold 2 weapons at a time, 3 if you include grenades. Even if you pick up a heavy weapon, like that on a tank, you r restricted to those that and one more weapon, and since you can't switch weapons in that mode, you will be stuck with one weapon once the larger weapon inevitably runs out of ammo, or when the weapon proves ineffective and you switch to a more mobile weapon. The game gives you a grappling hook that is as useful as it should, no more or less. Aside from going up a steep slope you won't be using it for anything else. Wayne moves very slowly too, cause of all the snow, but still he isn't very mobile, and since its very hard to take cover your usually a sitting duck, which is annoying and frustrating under tougher difficulties. The game also has these mech-suits, that all vary in user-friendliness based on the model, most of them are slow, and very hard to manuver. I found myself continuously upset when I was forced to use one. There are some big boss encounters, most of which in the afermentioned mech suits. They can range from fun to frusturating. There are some optional boss fights, but it would help if the game told you that so you can decide to fight them or not, rather than running away thinking you will fight it later...there aren't many standard enemies. There are probably like 7 different types, and some of those are just larger versions of other enemies. All you have to do to defeat these creepy bugs is repeatadly shoot its glowing pouches of life and they freeze and die. From these pouches come thermal energy which is another gameplay gimmick. Fallen enemies are packed with it, and it keeps you alive. Your essentially forced to kill, to keep yourself alive, and you usually wont run out unless you get lost, and can't defeat enough enemies in time.
The graphics in the game are superb, even by todays standards....there aren't very many glitches, and there are some very beautiful outdoor environments. The fire effects are kinda lame though, they don't really fit, but thats a small complaint.
The sound is average. The voice actors are always uninterested, and boring to listen to. The dialogue is kinda' cheesy to probably due to the awful story. There is hardly any music, and whenever there is its not very original or interesting. Usually your running around without music save for a couple of boss fights and some encounters. The sound effects are good, but its your standard explosion sounds, and weapon sound effects. Wayne's grunts are standard, and akrid noises are disturbing.
Like I said before the game is short, I beat it in around 7hours. There isn't any incentive to play again, except on a harder difficulty, or to collect coins. But other than that there is a multiplayer.
Overall, Lost Planet is a game that isn't really that great, but it does have its fun moments. Its a solid rent, a good weekend of shooting aliens, provided you skip the cutscenes, (your not missing much) and get over some of the control issues. And if you want to prepare for the sequel its worth playing I suppose, a solid 7.