Lost Planet 2

[spagmasterswift]

Where are the comments about it being absolute ****e and what are their reasons? All I've heard are people complaining about the save system (which is valid to a point).

[Jebus]

Clunkyness is one of the major things I've read...and I must admit, of what I've seen I can understand that point of view.

[spagmasterswift]

"Clunkyness"?

[hudson]

"Clunkiness" is a feature. Gives a good sense of weight. You go around carrying big arse guns and drive clunky mechs. It's a Japanese thang and it's not to everyone's tastes. See RE4/5 or Monster Hunter. Yeah camera control and maneuvering may seem clunky at first, but grapple on and you'll master it and grow to appreciate it. That's what I think anyway. I think it's designed this way. You become skillful. You become one with game.

[Eight Rooks]

Where are the comments about it being absolute ****e and what are their reasons? All I've heard are people complaining about the save system (which is valid to a point).

The Giant Bomb review is one of the worst. Complete 'It's not Modern Warfare 2, ergo it's awful' material. Tycho from Penny Arcade liked the game, but was basically saying

I need to stress at a fundamental level that there is nothing factually wrong with Brad Shoemaker's excellent review over at Giant Bomb. I strongly suspect that this game's "idiosyncrasies" are sufficient for huge swaths of the population to relegate it to the Bull**** File

Yeah, no, it's not excellent, and it pretty much gets as close to factually wrong as is possible.

It's too bad that the action in the multiplayer shares the same basic clunkiness of the campaign, though. The core controls just feel awkward, slow, and unresponsive compared to the better shooters on the market. You have to stop moving to change weapons. It takes what feels like forever to get up after getting knocked down. The sprint move feels slower than the regular movement speed. The grappling hook only works on a few surfaces, you can't use it in the air, and it takes way too long to get you on top of a ledge. The list goes on. The aiming and shooting are serviceable, but the movement isn't nearly as streamlined and accessible as it should be to make Lost Planet 2 feel as playable as other contemporary shooters. It's almost as if the game prioritizes long, flashy animations over basic playability.

This just screams, to me, 'I can't race around the map with double shotguns popping everyone in sight it must be crap'. I appreciate there's a fine line to tread, and that you can get a game where the mechanics just don't click, but you can't simply put out a blanket statement of 'Oh, this doesn't work the same way as every other shooter I'm used to, therefore into the bin it goes'. You can take apart pretty much everything he says as either factually incorrect (I'm pretty sure the grappling hook works on most surfaces as long as they're on or below the horizontal) or just, just... God knows I think the game's got quite a few things wrong with it, but I'd still call it one of the most 'playable' shooters I've ever spent time with.

[elaniel]

I'm loving playing this with other people. Really so much fun. Um... Riskbreaker and Chimp, I'm sure you're both quite mistaken. I definitely took down the boss myself.

I'll be on LIVE all day today/tonight so if you guys up for playing some more, I'm game.

[spagmasterswift]

Oh I see now, its a case of people wanting a game to be something else instead of getting down with what it actually is.

[Jebus]

So if people don't like it, it's their fault?

[Eight Rooks]

Oh I see now, its a case of people wanting a game to be something else instead of getting down with what it actually is.

I think Lost Planet gets that reaction more than anything else I've ever seen. And unfairly. I know there's a lot of ****ty games people defend with 'Oh, if only you'd just appreciate what it's doing and stop complaining', but this... Christ, whatever problems it does have are absolutely nothing to do with the basic gameplay - move, point, shoot.

So if people don't like it, it's their fault?

No. People are allowed to not get on with it. If they say 'It's crap because it doesn't play like all the other games I enjoy', that's wrong. I don't play CoD, but I have no problem with the basic way it's designed; I just can't stand this mentality that apparently every single competitive online multiplayer game has to follow in its footsteps exactly.

[spagmasterswift]

So if people don't like it, it's their fault?

I'm guess that this is not the right answer?

[hudson]

If people don't like it, then they don't like it. The game has its fans and nerfing it or adapting it to western levels of Ratchet & Clank would kill the game. It just wouldn't be Lost Planet anymore.

Let games have their original identity and quirks that distinguish it. If the mechanics work, don't change it. The control mechanics and the way it all moves has been one of its main successful ingredients.

[Spatial]

As someone who was too late to cancel his order once I read the reviews, and then had the chance of sending it back for a refund but decided not to, I'm going to chip in and say I'm glad I kept my copy as I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

It's one of those games where the criticisms sound much worse on paper than they do when you're playing it. In fact, if you played the first game and liked it, then you're going to like this too because in terms of how it plays not a lot has actually changed. It's Lost Planet with a much bigger sense of scale, but minus the main characters who make you want to slap them until the bleed.

I fully expected to hate it, but I've been pleasantly surprised - and that's with playing it through the campaign solo. I'm sure some people will find the friendly AI piss boiling (and it has it's moments of stupidity) but I'm playing on Normal and, after now doing four of the campaign sections, have only ever managed to die once on 3-3.

[Dirty Sanchez]

I'll not be picking it up for most of the reasons already mentioned. I enjoyed the first one but it irratated me to the point I haven't played it again since completing it.

In fact most Eastern titles are potential GOTY titles yet manage to miss the spot on the finer details.

[Jebus]

If people don't like it, then they don't like it. The game has its fans and nerfing it or adapting it to western levels of Ratchet & Clank would kill the game. It just wouldn't be Lost Planet anymore.

Let games have their original identity and quirks that distinguish it. If the mechanics work, don't change it. The control mechanics and the way it all moves has been one of its main successful ingredients.

I agree with this Hools (though Ratchet & Clank are fine games also) and I'm not saying anything to the contrary.

Just because LP2 has an original identity and is quirky doesn't make it immune to criticism. Every game will be compared to every other game, that's just how it is and most other third person shooters aren't as "clunky" as this one!

I actually didn't mind LP2 (played a bit round a friends house) but I knew that I wouldn't love it enough to go it alone and I knew that if I went for my format of choice (mainly 360, where my friends are) it'd get dumped in a fortnight like every other game on the system that isn't Halo or Call of Duty does. Likewise, if I'd gone PS3, well, I just don't enjoy the way the PS3 works with online full stop.

[hudson]

True. Like you said, it's gaming marmite I suppose. I think I must prefer these "clunky" games. Socom Confrontation, another third person shooter is a game I've been loving since it came out a couple of years ago. I play this with my friends as a clan 2 nights a week until the early hours. It's not for everyone though.