We had a chance to get some hands-on time with Capcom’s Lost Planet 3 a prequel starring scruffy hero Jim Peyton.  From what we saw early on – the game is very stylized, slow paced and is a mix between third person shooter and rig/mech combat and navigation.

Lost Planet 3 is much like watching a science fiction movie come to life – there’s plenty of attention to detail with the snow and ice elements and loading/cut scenes full of juicy dynamic flavor.  Even this early in development you can see the attention to detail in the lighting and storm effects.

Melee and combat has been revamped as well – Jim can swipe at enemies attacking him but there’s lots of melee combat to master where you have to tap the ‘A’ button repetitively while aiming with a target retina before pushing another button on your controller for the final kill.  This combat/melee interface was our least favorite part of Lost Planet 3 and we’re HOPING it will be revamped or even scrapped in the final version.  When a beast is upon you and attacking ferociously the last thing you wanna do is worry about aiming something on screen while tapping buttons.

Large enemies and boss battles in Lost Planet 3 are from ‘standard’ old-school design in which baddies have a weak-spot that is generally glowing and has to be shot over and over again with a sprinkle of variety here and there.  Keep in mind we only saw a short portion of the game and look forward to seeing more.  We came away thinking Lost Planet 3 was like playing Dead Space with less gore/mood and Gears of War with slower pacing and less polish.

What Lost Planet 3 offers outside of most other games currently on the market is the action once you are inside the rig/mech – we’re intrigued at the possibilities of playing multiplayer online rigs versus rigs or even armored rigs versus humans……. let’s hope the development team is going to take some risks with this game in order for it to stand out!