Lost Planet captures the essence of a cinematic sci-fi action flick, from the dazzling environmental effects to blinding snow, bloom lighting and a laundry list of other cutting-edge graphical techno-babble terminology. Devastating explosions shake the ground, sending Wayne stumbling in a sweet-looking cinematic motion, and slow his already painfully slow "run" to a near crawl.
All this graphical goodness requires an extreme rig to run. Even with all the available horses under our test rig's hood (see our impression's of the demo for those specs), including a GeForce 7950 GX2 video card, we couldn't get the game to run above a resolution of 1360x760 without sliding to a halt. This game also requires a Shader3.0 capable video card, so anything below a GeForce 6600 (as well as the 7300 model, which isn't supported) simply will not work.
The game comes with a multiplayer component; but something prevented us from connecting and getting the opportunity to throw snowballs at other players. The multiplayer contains four game modes that accomodate up to 16 players each. Stay tuned for a complete multiplayer review when we get it working.
Lost Planet flies under the Games for Windows banner, but isn't part of Games for Windows Live, and doesn't allow for achievements or cross-platform play. It may be a direct port of the X360 version (and can be played with a 360 controller), but thankfully doesn't look or play like one. It supports both DirectX9 and DirectX10 and runs on both Windows XP and Vista. At a paltry $39.99, Lost Planet is a fun and worthwhile game that shouldn't get lost in the bargain bin.
Final Score: (8 out of 10)
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