Lost Planet 2 Review

Lost Planet 2 is a strange sequel, while I get people having their fair share of issues with it and it being a coop game probably felt like a jarring change compared to the first game's single player focus, I really had a good time with this game even when playing solo, I think out of all the coop games that I have played, this is one of the better games to play in single player.

I'll start with the good, due it being a coop game, the sense of scale is dramtically larger than how it was in Lost Planet 1, there is just so much carnage and so many things happening on screen, there's lots of enemies, lots of VSes, lots of guns you can pick up and so many smaller things happening on screen, it's impressive what Capcom managed to pull off here. It's one of the most hectic if not the most hectic third person shooter released that gen. The guns all feel solid and satisfying enough to shoot, and the death animations feel adequte enough. I also like about this and by extension the first game is the health system and the grappling hook, the health system feels completely different from a lot of the shooters released in the 7th gen is that it's not really regenerating health but more you finding health pickups that you can store and then use for later, it's rather underrated and I prefer this is over the regen health system so many of the games that gen adopted. The grappling hook is also impressive for the fact that it's one of the few grappling hooks in games up there with Just Cause, Tenchu, and Halo Infinite where it's not contextual. I did wish the grapple had more reach and you can use it horizontally like in Just Cause but other than that, it adds a nice vertical layer to the levels. Taking down multiple VSes on foot without dying can also feel really pleasing too. The level in space was a nice change of pace with low gravity and I wished it was a bit longer since chaining thrusts and landing on a platform can give you a surprising sense of freedom. The cutscenes despite lacking in a lot of plot are also well produced but that is to be expected from Capcom.

So what are the negatives, in spite of me saying it's a coop game and one of the better ones, it's still better off being played with other people, don't get me wrong you can still play it along but coop was still the intent at end of the day, and it's a far better single player experience than Capcom's other efforts like Resident Evil 5, but try to find people if you can, if you can't it's not a big deal. Other issues is that there is just so much stuff happening on screen that it can be hard to keep track of it all, and it's easy to get randomly one shotted by some enemies which can occasionally add to frustration. Episode 3 and 5 can both be kind of dull and it felt like Capcom was trying to avoid spending too much money creating new levels so they decided to make two desert levels on a big tram twice. Episode 5 really felt like it dragged. That and the biggest issue while you can also view as a stregnth depending on how you view is the Battle Guage, on normal difficulty for the most part you will never run out and get a game over, the only time you will is possibly during Episode 3 and 5. I got one on the final boss but that is because I was overthinking it and couldn't pause the game. So the Battle Guage kind of feels like a red herring, and while it fits the coop nature, a better system could've been used. Final issue is that the save system is weird in that you can't redo specific areas which can be annoying if you randomly get disconnected especially when playing online. Also, while the cutscenes are well produced, the story could be better, I like the idea but it could be better executed, it won't get in the way too much since heavy story in a coop game wouldn't make much sense.

Overall, despite LP2 being the same game visually and mechancially from the first one and having a coop focus, it's still worth trying out, it's easier than your usual coop games as far as single player is concerned and it's worth giving a shot despite some issues I have with it.