Visitors to Capcom’s dedicated Lost Planet stand at the Leipzig GC became the first people in the world to explore this stunning action-shooter’s multiplayer mode. The Four Vs Four team battles pitch Snow Pirates against rogue NEVEC soldiers within the confines of the Snow Pirates’ military stronghold.
(NEVEC forces are under orders to terminate all Snow Pirates, plus bug-like Akrid creatures indigenous to the snowy planet. Alex, the hero of the story, gets caught up in the crossfire, and unfortunately nobody here respects a neutral position.)
Anyone already familiar with the Lost Planet demo (available from Xbox Live Marketplace) will recognise the stronghold facility... but not quite like this! The demo hands you a fair amount of time to perfect your grappling hook technique and hoist yourself onto rooftops, or mischievously take charge of the machine-gun turret, perhaps take pot-shots with a rocket launcher. However the stronghold’s snow drifts, munitions crates and bunkers are transformed in multiplayer mode, providing spur-of-the-moment vantage points for the smartest guys on the terrain.
Of course, everybody – including your frantic, screaming buddies – is out there competing for a ride in one of the game’s trademark Vital Suits (VS). These mechanised armoured suits are built like tanks and walk like… well, tanks cradled between hydraulic legs! Because of their size and strength, Vital Suits can Go Large with an armour-piercing variation of the chain gun, or twin-mounted super shotguns. For your future reference Vital Suits are surprisingly agile despite their bulkiness, so running away is not your best plan…
Speaking of big guns, Lost Planet is being produced by Jun Takeuchi, who handled Onimusha for Capcom and is also working on Resident Evil 5.
