Preview: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Multiplayer)

When the singleplayer demo of Lost Planet came out earlier this year during E3, many described it as 'a truely next-gen 3rd person shooter.' With glorious graphics, smooth gameplay, and the fluidity of animation- the game looked really quite promising, even though the full game wasn't due for release for another 7 months. Capcom have said that they have made this game to appeal to both Japanese gamers and Western gamers alike, and with that said- we now have a chance to play the multiplayer section of this game over Xbox Live.

Firstly, you'll be pleased to know that Capcom have improved some of the issues that were apparent in the earlier singleplayer demo. Controls have been tweaked slightly (though I recommend changing the default controls to 'fixed 3.') and offer a slightly different layout to what the singleplayer demo did (Now it's Y to change weapon, and X to grappel hook.) Another welcome feature is the addition of a melee attack, which I thought was a must after playing the singleplayer. Graphically it maintains the high level of detail in multiplayer as the singleplayer, and I can tell you that fur coats never looked this good...until now!

The multiplayer itself takes a while to get used to. At first I thought it would be a standard shoot 'em up online experience, but in actual fact it requires more tactics that you first might think. You must make use of cover (which is also fully destructable) and take full advantage of the different weapons, depending on the situation. The weapons are great to use, though balancing could possibly be a tad better- ranging from the standard machine gun and sniper rifle, to your not-so-standard 'huge' shotgun and dummy grenades. Certain maps also offer mechs which carry either slow firing rockets, or a fast firing chain gun. What is nice to see however is that these mechs never rule online thanks to the fact that they aren't overwelmingly strong and that there are the right weapons available to take them out. The demo map was varied and played really well, with no slowdown or lag whatsoever- even with 16 players.

Overall the game is heading in all the right directions and may well be the first great Xbox 360 title of 2007. Offering a intriguing singleplayer campaign, and a solid online mode- I recommend that you definately check this game out when it's released on January 12th.