A lot of weird things happened to me while I was in London, but few of my EuroGamer experiences were quite as odd (or as enjoyable) as being attacked by four enemies on the opposing team at the same time. Welcome to online modes, Lost Planet II style.
The online mode in question was the capture the flag mode, but this time the whole mode was available to try in glorious, four-player co-op. It really was special, too. As I observed, this game has arguably the best graphics that Capcom has ever produced. It's visually stunning, and as luck would have it, it's also a good deal of fun to play, even under the somewhat hectic conditions of EuroGamer.
What with this being an online mode, me and my plucky collegues in this online mode were faced with a simple objective: capture four bases and mark them like flags. The best way of doing this, I was told, was to gang up on the opposing team members. Before doing this, however, it was essential to wear them down a bit by continuingly attacking their multiple weak spots. In theory, my fellow journalists and I should have formed a detailed plan for how to fight our enemies, but unsurprisingly we all ran off to do our own thing – exploring the controls and new toys, and generally marvelling at how bloody gorgeous everything was.
At a basic level, Lost Planet 2 looksticketmaster ireland phone and handles like any other third-person shooter. You're limited to carrying two weapons at any given time, but this relatively limited arsenal is complemented by a range of additional gadgets and rides. Foremost among these is your grappling hook – a handy little tool that makes it a cinch to climb the local scenery, zipping up to a cliff-top sniping perch. During the EuroGamer demo, I found that a bit of grapple-exploration was necessary to reach some of the area's hidden armaments and at leats one of the bases – my favourite being a ridiculously large rocket launcher that dwarfed my character as he held it.
More fun and games was to be had with the Vital Suits – the Power Loader-style mechs that are also making a welcome return from last time. Aside from making you feel like a total badass, these robotic mounts offer you a way to dish out some fearsome firepower at the price of slower movement. Once you get in one of these things, you may find it quite hard to get out again, since there's something extremely moreish to the way they stomp about; unfortunately you're not able to move very fast while you're wearing a Vital Suit though, so they could only take me so far in my mission.
After a short period of messing around, my battle group got down to brass tacks. In true Resident 5 style, the enemies vulnerable parts were exposed quite often. Despite the colossal size of the objective in the alloted time, I was surprised to find that it was quite tricky to keep any given target area within my sights for long. My colleagues soon opted for the tactic of grappling to high vantage points around the valley and taking pot shots from there, while I pursued the riskier tactic of running around on the floor like a madman.
Needless to say, this strategy soon resulted in me being attacked and shot to death. You've got to be doubly careful when playing this gamekokeshi vol 23 the graduation of wedding usagi tsukiokastudent loan consolidation californiaconference phone service call in co-op, as everyone uses the same pool of lives. You can supplement your stockpile by activating bases dotted around the map (and in fact it's useful to do this, since they also act as alternative spawn points) but the bottom line is that you'll fail the mission if everyone is careless.
Thankfully things went a bit better following my swift reincarnation. I jumped back into a Vital Suit and headed back into battle with my evasive enormous foes - and this time one of my buddies hitched a lift by clinging on to the side of my mech (a subtle but very cool ability). This time I was a little more careful in my efforts to evade the enemies, and I succeeded in nailing one of them with a clever headshot using a barrage of machine-gun fire. The enemy was in disarray at this point, and a few seconds later one of the other players managed to take out one the the more expert enemy players and then captured the third of their bases. The enemy then set out on the offensive. But it was too late as our team headed off to capture the final base.
This was our chance. The window of opportunity for grabbing the final base was a relatively small task, but somehow three of us managed to get there, then myself and a collegue were gunned down. It was surprisingly spacious in there too, but there wasn't much time to admire the view: as soon as I started to blast the enemies guarding the final base, I was attacked by yet another member of their team. While they weren't particularly easy to hit, they were dangerous, everytime we advanced on their base they respawned to defend it. I soon became overwhelmed and separated from my team-mates. Then I took a wrong turn and wound up slipping around in a fast-moving cliff-side. Moments later, the enemy team successedded in working round us and ended up capturing all of our bases.
Our team never did manage to take down the enemy team. We came very close to winning the online capture the flag mission, but then someone got killed and other got maimed and took the last of our lives. I can't say I minded that much, because the whole scrap had easily been the most fun capture the flag I'd had all year. Yes, the graphical detail in Lost Planet 2 is amazing - but it was the way the enemy moved and felt that made it so memorable. When you get close to the model, you genuinely feel like you're standing next to a living person. It looks heavy. It's detail like this that sells the whole sense of immersion, and I applaud Capcom for getting them so right. My expectations for this game are now bigger than ever, especially since
Lost Planet 2 will be coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3 this winter.
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