Turning alien bugs and space nasties into virtual guacamole under a hale of bullet fire and protagonist boots have given developers plenty of material to work with over the years. Without it we may never have seen the likes of the Duke Nukem, Halo, or Resistance: Fall of Man series to name but a few. While some may argue that it's a bit of a stretch to put Lost Planet in the same league as these seminal shooters, the well received Capcom space opera has certainly done its bit towards carrying the grub smashing torch.

We recently got some hands-on time with a work-in-progress Xbox 360 version of Lost Planet 2 to test our mettle by blasting holes in a giant alien salamander. This was our second look at the code in the space of a month, having seen it at E3. Previously, we played it as part of a multiplayer affair; this time around we went at it alone with the console-controlled AI at our side.

Cut this giant lizard's professional ice skating career short with a few well-placed bullets to the knee.

The level starts in a muddy valley wedged between two high rock cliff faces and surrounded by spawn point markers. Armed with just the basic machinegun, we followed the path to where the natural corridor opened up to reveal a huge open space marked by various levels of elevation. Water covered the lowest points and the landscape was dotted with the odd small dirt hill covered in grass. Stomping around in the middle of the basin was a gigantic lizard creature with a Resident Evil-style segmented mouth and lashing tongue.

Like the original Lost Planet, despite stacking your odds by pitting your frail human body against huge enemies, you shouldn't ever be unsure of what you need to do since weak points are clearly marked with glowing orange hit zones. In this case we needed to focus our fire on the beast's joints using the assortment of weapons lying scattered about the place to shoot our target in the knees. Successfully dealing damage is accompanied by a rewarding squishing sound as black oozing blood seeps from the wounds. Doing enough damage caused the entire leg to break away, slowing the target's movement slightly and if you choose, to attack it from the inside of its body.

Putting yourself in the path of its rampage will get you one of two things: your face stomped on, or your body scooped up into its mouth and swallowed whole. Being eaten isn't the end of the adventure though, and after a few seconds you'll find yourself inside the belly of the beast. That said, just because you're in and alive doesn't mean you're safe. Inside we found ourselves surrounded by smaller winged creatures and weeping sores, both of which will try and deplete your health bar with their attacks.


You can try and go it alone, but you'll need to work as a team to take down this beast.

Not surprisingly for a sequel, Lost Planet 2 borrows heavily on the visuals and control systems of the original. While the snowy mountain ranges of the first game have been replaced with moodier tropical environments, the overall character style and monster presentation has very much been retained. Likewise, this is still a dual-stick third-person shooter with the left analog used to move, the right to aim, and the controller triggers connected to grenades and primary weapon fire.

If you were suitably impressed by the first gmae and have a hankering for more of the same, or you're looking to dip your toes into the murky waters of bug smooshing for the first time, then you may want to keep this in mind when the game ships in the last quarter of this year on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.