Here there be monsters

You thought it was cold this winter, didn't you? You put on your scarf and the practical hat (instead of the one for looking pretty). The denizens of Capcom's Lost Planet: Extreme Condition mock your coldness! Loudly and with much laughter! Well, they would laugh, but if they open their mouths their tongues freeze.

Yes, 'tis cold indeed on this lost planet. But then again, Capcom isn't looking to make your life easy. In Lost Planet it's going to take everything you've got to keep warm and stay alive. You'll have to deal with freezing conditions, giant monsters and pirates with flying mech-suits. Sounds like a winning formula, right? Well, by and large, it is.

Things kick off with the heroically name Wayne Holden waking after being found frozen into his Vital Suit (VS, or giant robot armour to you and me). Unfortunately for poor old Wayne he's missing a huge chunk of his memory. What he is sure about is the fact that the monstrous Akrid killed his old man. That, and he can trust no one.

It's all very chilling stuff. As you might expect, this is where you enter the fray. First and foremost you'll be concerned with killing the Akrid. They vary in form from spidery-plant-like things to flying, fishy things, but all of them want to hurt you. This brings us onto why you'll want to kill them. The first reason has already been mentioned: they want to hurt you.

The second is one of the things that make this game unique. The big nasty bugs swarming around you carry within them life-giving goo. Capcom has a different name for the stuff, but basically that's what it is. Darwinism has determined that these monsters are able to extract and process a warming mineral from the earth that, conveniently, you can use to survive.

So, shoot one of these aliens in the sweet spot and it'll deposit a puddle of life-giving gooey stuff. Don't shoot them and your heat meter will continue to deplete until the cold starts sucking on your life-energy bar.

It's an interesting feature that offsets Lost Planet from its first-person-shooter peers. No sitting in a corner and taking your time to pop out choice, well-placed shots. Instead, much of the game is frenetic. Players are forced to rattle out shots in rapid-fire succession with little chance to catch a breather.

Fortunately, this matches the baddies of the game quite well. The bog-standard Akrid don't take a lot to kill. One or two shots will do it, and they make little to no attempt to dodge you. What they lack in damage-resistance and guile, however, they make up for in sheer numbers. So firing quickly rather than precisely will serve you well in Lost Planet.

You'll also be forced to fight marauding snow pirates and employees of the sinister NEVEC Corporation. This doesn't work quite so well with trigger-happy rapid-fire techniques. Fortunately, however, they tend to be placed at points where you're well juiced-up with heat, so you'll be better placed to take a more considered approach.

What doesn't go hand-in-hand with the urgency of a rapidly draining heat source, however, is Wayne's speed. Yes, I know, he's up to his kneecaps in snow; and I know he's carrying around heavy weaponry, too. But it gets frustrating at times watching him plough through drifts of snow, especially in open play and sparse Akrid forces.

The control system doesn't make firing at multiple targets in quick succession easy, either. The right thumbstick, which controls targeting, feels a bit ponderous when you're trying to turn round and shoot the blighter eating your back. The shoulder buttons offer the option of a quick 90 degree turn, but this feels too jerky to be comfortable.