Lost Planet is a game I should have played a long time ago.
I'm happy to say that I was not let down in any way. In fact I was surprized at how much VS action there was and how easy they were to control. You can switch in and out of VS' with ease, change the VS weapons and stomp about laying waste to the enemies.
As you play the game you need to constantly collect a resource called T-Eng (short for Therman Energy). The premise is that you are on a distance ice planet and the only way to survive the cold is to collect the T-Eng from fallen alien bugs and pump it through your suit. What this amounts to is that you just need to pick up the red ooze that's left buy dead bugs or in tanks or at way stations. It forces you to keep moving because if you linger too long in one place you might just run out of the T-Eng as your suit slowly consumes it. The reality is there is so much around I rarely found myself feeling pressured to find some.
On this planet you battle hordes of Akrid (bugs) that live here and some NEVEC troops that stand in your way of completing your missions. The bug designs are excellent and extremely varied. It seems like you find different species all through the game. They put up a decent fight but all have a weakness of some kind that you can exploit to defeat. That goes also for the HUGE Akrid boss creatures at the end of most levels. The boss battles are the icing on the cake for the this game because you will battle a lot of them and they are all different. They all require a specific strategy to defeat and some are down right tough.
The gameplay on the middle (normal) difficulty level was almost a bit too challenging for me at times. Some of the bosses are very tough and the battles can last 10-20 minutes some times. But once you've defeated one the satisfaction is tremendous and you walk away thinking "That was COOL!" The gameplay between boss battles is typically quite easy so the tough boss battles balance it out to make the normal difficulty a good challenge.
Most levels consist of a trek through some part of the planet during which you'll use the VS suits you find lying around to fight off the Akrid and NEVEC troops in your way. Most levels are fairly short and you find yourself getting to the boss stage wishing there were more to do before you got there. And that is the big downfall of the game. It's very short. Because you need to keep up a decent pace to avoid running out of T-Eng you end up burning through the levels fairly quickly.
Graphically this game does not look like an older title. The textures, effects and HDR make this look as good as any game. Even though the world is covered in snow and you actually see some maps twice it always feels fresh. The huge Akrid bosses are fantastic and some are so big you can't see them all at once.
The sound is superb. The VS suits make a ton of appropriate noises as you stomp about and it really adds to the feel that you are piloting a Mech.
The story is a little Total Recallish but very captivating and well told with some long cutscenes. There are a few twists and turns as well to keep you wondering how it will end.
The achievments are heavily weighted toward the multiplayer and I only grabbed a couple hundred playing through the campaign. You can replay the campaign to collect items in the levels which will net you a another hundred points but you'll need to get into the multiplayer to get most of them. The multiplayer is still active to a degree so that could be possible.
Bottom line is this game is a very well crafted game with engaging story, very accessible gameplay and lots of memorable boss battles. It's criminally short and will take most people 10 hours or so to complete all 11 levels. If you can find this in the bargain bin you should definitely check it out.