Last Winter we caught our first glimpse of Lost Planet, a demo off Xbox Live Marketplace. The third person shooter is set on a desolate snow world, not dissimilar to the ice planet Hoth. But, unlike most other third person shooters, the player also had access to some mechs. Whilst only small, they did increase your firepower substantially.

Fast forward to Spring, and after seeing nothing else on Xbox Live Marketplace, the multiplayer demo surfaces. As yours truly was wrapped up in Gears of War, I downloaded the demo but never played it.

Here we are now in February, and the fully fledged retail version has been available now for just over three weeks.

Lost Planet is set on the planet E.D.N. III, a snowbound world where the human race has set up a new colony. Not long after settling on E.D.N. III an alien threat, the Akrid, started to attack. Humans who were defenceless against this threat were forced to leave. Not all left, though, and those that remained were to become snow pirates. The humans also found that when they killed the Akrid their corpses released thermal energy, the same substance that made it possible to live in such an inhospitable environment. So the humans returned with a new bit of kit, the Vital Suit. This allows us to carry more firepower to defeat the Akrid.

The game starts with a brief intro explaining the above, and introduces you to the game's central character, Wayne Holden (really - ed), and his father, Gale (yes, really - ed). Soon after the intro you are given your first task. After getting acquainted with the game's basic controls, you end up against a big old boss Akrid, Green Eye.

Here your father tells you too leave, so you do. I tried to kill Green Eye a few times, but with only a standard machine gun, and no VS you can’t. A few minutes later, you get into a room with VS, and drop back into battling Green Eye. Only to watch your father get killed. Then the games opening credits start.

The main premise of Lost Planet is to find thermal energy (T-Eng), the power that supports human life on this arid planet. By killing your enemies, you take theirs. T-Eng also supplies power to your Harmonizer life support system that replenishes your health. Without T-Eng, you die, simple as that.

Throughout the levels there are data posts; these can either be inactive, or belonging to your enemies. By activating these you not only top up on T-Eng, but activate your PDA map. The data post also shows your current destination.

There are three different types of enemies you battle. The first, Akrid, come in varying sizes; the smaller spawn from volcano looking nests. They keep on coming until the nest has been dealt with, so killing the nest is a high priority. The larger Akrid come up from underground, and have noticeable weak points. These weak points are kept well protected so every Akrid requires a different strategy to be defeated: some need to have T-Eng pockets destroyed whilst others require limbs removed. Some of these larger Akrid also start of as boss characters (the strategy doesn’t change from boss to standard enemy).

The second lot of enemies are the snow pirates. Being human characters, they can either be in human form or shrouded in a Vital Suit. VS’ can be taken down using your machine gun, but as they usually have rockets equipped, you will likely be taken out before they get significantly damaged. Snow pirates will usually have rudimentary mechanical type weapons, machine guns, rocket launchers, rifles, and incindiary grenades. The grenades are very cool, ranging from the bog standard hand grenade, to disk grenades that will embed themselves into your enemy, and gum grenades that stick to anything. All grenades can be shot at to detonate them before the fuse goes off.

The last enemies are the Nevec (Neo Venus Construction) soldiers. Their weapons are more advanced, so it is necessary to use primarily energy based ammo. The energy for this ammo comes from your T-Eng store - so if you run out of T-Eng, you have effectively run out of ammo.

On the subject of T-Eng useage, your VS also uses your store of T-Eng, although at a faster rate. If your T-Eng runs out, you get ejected from the VS; it’s still useable, but you need to replenish your T-Eng first.

There is a large array of VS’ you can use with differing attributes. Some, for example, have a double jump feature keeping you in the air longer. Others can let you skate around, and some will do both. Other VS’ will transform into a tank or a speeder bike.

For the VS, you have at your disposal various weapons, which range from a Gatling gun to shotguns, rocket launchers and grenade launchers. There are also more advanced energy weapons that can be picked up, which again sap T-Eng. Most of the VS' have two weapon slots for mixing and matching your armament. Some have fixed weapons, like the tank which has a drilling attachment which can be used to attack or to drill through walls.

A handy feature with the VS weapons is that they can be carried equipped by Mr Holden in person - yes, you can pick up the VS shotgun, and take down your mates in multiplayer. This is probably the coolest laugh-out-loud moment in the game.

The single player game is very short. It took about three days playing in the evenings and half of a weekend to complete on normal mode. But Hard, and the unlockable Extreme mode, do get suitably more difficult, especially with the bosses. We also found that the AI gets very predictable, so once you have learned their tricks, they aren’t that hard to beat.

In multiplayer, Lost Planet, despite only having a few game types, is a very refreshing game, and is best played in a team type match. In team matches if your opposition gains a VS, you can with your team mates gun for the VS, or hunt them down in your own VS.

In multiplayer the data posts have two reasons for being a target: they power up your PDA and activate your map, letting you know where both your squad and enemies are, and whether or not they are in a VS or on foot. The data posts still top up your T-Eng, so keeping the data posts makes a change in the game's priorities. It’s not just about gunning down the other players; it’s also about keeping control of the map. With the recently announced updates for Lost Planet, multiplayer will only improve.

Another thing we should mention about multiplayer play is lag, or seemingly lack of. We had a number of player matches with six or so players from different countries, mainly the US, and lag was barely noticeable. One major difference between single-player and multiplayer is that the Harmonizer doesn’t work in multiplayer: the more you get hit, the quicker you die.

The game isn’t without its problems, though. For example, even with an HDD fitted to the console, you have to tell the game to look for it. This, after the first time of playing, gets annoying. Another annoyance is when you get into a battle with a VS and you don’t have one, as the AI can easily get you pinned. Once you have had a direct hit, you get knocked over, and by the time you recover enough to stand up, your opponent has reloaded and hit you again.

But probably the biggest gripe we have isn’t with the game itself but Microsoft, the distributors of the game in New Zealand thanks to a special deal with Capcom. We have been denied the limited edition in NZ, which comes with a bonus map which is not available as a download. Why should we, the gamers, be punished by not having access to a map when our distributor chooses to only bring the standard version of the game? At the very least, Microsoft should make the map available through Xbox Live Marketplace.