Now, that’s not to say it wants you to avoid playing the game – nor is it requesting that you consider exchanging some of your precious monetary currency for J. J. Abrams hit island humdinger. “You,” in this case, refers to your character, Jim. In Lost Planet 3’s first trailer, he is having the worst day, because the titular Lost Planet’s continent-sized nametag should really read “Hello, my name is Incredible Jerk Planet.” First, some sort of alien plant dog knocks him down a mountain, then his gun jams, then a giant enemy crab crashes the party instead of letting him bleed in peace, and finally – when he and his poor, frail 50-ton mech are trying to catch a breather – a snow tidal wave strikes. That’s probably not even physically possible, but that is the extent to which this planet wants Jim to go far, far away. Sounds delightful, right? Well, I have a bit of bad news for you.
Everyone, this is Spark Unlimited. Say hello, Spark. Oops, Spark just spilled lukewarm games all over your shoes. That’s not how you say hello, you silly goose! Similarly, slapping together Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and Legendary: The Box is pretty much the opposite of how to make RPS readers smile, but Spark did that as well. So that’s a rather unfortunate precedent. But look: a robot punching a bug!
Lost Planet 3’s coming to our largely discovered planet early next year. So, who here actually played the other two? Was the formula getting stale? Is this developer switcheroo a thing that needed to happen? Or has Capcom’s relentless Western push led it straight into a frozen, quality-bereft wasteland?