There always comes a time in a man’s life when he must stand up against the masses and overcome a seemingly never-ending barrage of alien encounters in a hostile frozen wasteland. Maybe not always, but it’s certainly in the cards if you play Capcom’s latest game, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. The game’s protagonist, Wayne, finds himself unconscious in the wastelands of E.D.N III, a planet that thrives under its extreme winter conditions. Luckily, he is rescued by a small group of snow pirates, but his problems don’t end there. Wayne has lost his memory with only two things he can recollect: his name and his father’s death by the claws of an Akrid (that barrage of aliens mentioned earlier). Thus begins Wayne’s journey to survive the dangers of this hostile planet and recover his memories to discover the truth. Soon after Wayne is awakened, he begins helping the small band of snow pirates that rescued him. Mission objectives vary between destroying the akrid and fighting a massive group of snow pirates that want Wayne dead. Both human and aliens pose an ever menacing threat to Wayne, and he will have to survive many encounters with both. Thankfully Capcom has provided Wayne with a healthy abundance of weapons and mechs known as Vital Suits with which to combat his foes. As the player, the machine gun is what you’ll find yourself turning to for most of your battles but coming upon a rocket launcher is always satisfying regardless of the small amount of ammunition.

While exploring E.D.N. III, Wayne must monitor his constantly dropping T-ENG, or thermal energy. T-ENG can heal up any damage taken, but using it carries the risk of freezing to death when the meter hits zero. Destroying enemies, blowing up energy tanks, activating data posts, and more all provide him with the life saving energy he needs. While this could have become cumbersome, you’ll find that there is more then enough energy to go around and you’ll happily have it in abundance when you encounter a boss battle. The boss fights in Lost Planet are quite literally a huge endeavor, pitting Wayne against massive creatures that require all of your patience and skills to bring them down.

A key selling point of Lost Planet is the aforementioned Vital Suit, which comes in a number of different varieties. Some of these wonderful robotic toys are very fast and agile, while others are hulking and slow. Each one has its purpose though, and you’ll always be far happier and protected while calling one of these home. When it comes down to dealing with a gigantic akrid, you’ll be thankful for the occasional suit found nearby. Just make sure that once your energy is entirely depleted from your suit that you eject ASAP before Wayne finds himself becoming another frozen body in E.D.N III wasteland.

While surviving in Lost Planet isn’t easy, it’s made more managable by tight, responsive controls. One feature that highlights how well the controls work is the quick turn, mapped to the left and right bumpers. Tapping a bumper will turn Wayne 90 degrees left or right, making turning fast and efficient. Different but effective, the right analog stick is used for reloading (by clicking the button) in addition to aiming. Once the traditional province of the reload button, X is used to fire Wayne’s anchor. This can be fired at almost any ledge. It doesn’t have much in the way of range, but it succeeds in making you feel like Batman, which is an important aspect, especially in the online multiplayer.

Graphically, Lost Planet turns out to be one of the best looking shooters for the 360. While Rainbow Six Vegas did a wonderful job of creating real life environments, and Gears of War had you terrified of the destroyed cities at the hands of the Locust, Lost Planet does the same for its experience: fighting huge aliens and surviving a barren frozen wasteland. Add in an awesome action packed adrenaline-pumping score by Jamie Christopherson, also responsible for Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, and you couldn’t have asked for a better package than Lost Planet provides.

When you’ve finally completed the single player portion of the title, the multiplayer beckons, and Capcom offers four variations from which to choose: Team Elimination, Elimination, Post Grab, and Fugitive. The first two are your basic elimination battles, amounting to shooting everybody that isn’t on your side, either by yourself or as a team. The last two are the more interesting offerings. Post Grab has you running around finding and activating all the energy posts on a mission map. Fugitive mode, on the other hand, has the host becoming the fugitive as the other players hunt them down. While these are different from the normal modes you might expect like capture the flag, these two modes provide something new and altogether entertaining as well. Just like in Halo 2, as you play and do well your experience mounts. Capcom has implemented an on screen statistics HUD that actually appears as you play and will show you how much experience you earn. At the end of the round the experience is added up and your level increases.

There’s a lot of fun to be had with Lost Planet. It has amazing visuals, fun gameplay, and insane boss battles. The multiplayer is remarkably good as well. There are unfortunately a few blemishes that keep this otherwise high quality title from reaching that near perfect plateau. The cutscenes have great presentation but unfortunately over the span of the game, the story comes off as confusing, disjointed, and ultimately unimportant. In addition, which arguably realistic, the characters themselves run painfully slow, sometimes adding to frustrations – especially during multiplayer. Other nagging issues include points where monotony threatens due to a lack of true variety across the missions, as well as lamebrain AI, especially on the part of the snow pirates. However, in spite of missteps, if you can find yourself enjoying what Lost Planet does well (which is a lot), you’re bound to experience one hell of a ride that at times gets close to perfection, but just happens to miss its mark. So strap on your gear, hop in a VS suit and show these Akrid scum what you’re made of.