We’ve seen plenty of Lost Planet 2’s campaign by now, but what of the multiplayer? Capcom has kept it under wraps until just yesterday, when I got to check it out at Capcom’s San Mateo offices.
Lost Planet 2’s mutliplayer isn’t just a simple addition to the overall package. It will be easy to jump right in, but there’s also a level of depth that players can master, which they’ll have to do if they hope to kick some serious ass online. As Capcom’s Seth “I play way too much Street Fighter” Killian put it, Lost Planet 2 is “the Street Fighter of shooters.”
Follow on after the break to see what Lost Planet 2’s multiplayer is all about.
Lost Planet 2 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
To be released: May 11, 2010
So what does “Street Fighter of shooters” actually mean? Well there are two types of Street Fighter players: Those that just know the basics and those that know how to read a character’s frames and counter appropriately. Lost Planet 2 is like that as well.
In LP2 players are able to perform, for example, a dive roll to evade attacks. During the first half of the dive roll animation, the player will be invulnerable. The final half of the dive roll, however, leaves you just as vulnerable as you are standing still. Expert players will be able to time the roll to survive a direct hit from a rocket or sniper attacks.
We’re getting way ahead of ourselves, though. There’s plenty of time for you to learn the advanced stuff, so let’s just stick to the basics. The multiplayer is big on customization and you’ll be able to change everything from your characters’ looks to which weapons appear on the map. There’s dozens upon dozens of weapons you’ll be getting your hands on, but you’ll have to unlock them to use them. The more you kick ass in the multiplayer, the more stuff you unlock.
Players will also be able to equip abilities. Some examples of abilities include starting a match with more Thermal energy, being able to activate Data Posts faster, and not losing any Thermal energy while piloting a mech. You can only equip two abilities at a time, but some of them — like no-Thermal-loss ability — will take up both of your slots.
The weapons and abilities are similar to Modern Warfare 2’s system. What Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t have, however, are giant freakin’ mechs. There are tons of mechs that players can use now, ranging from the very small to the giant Akrid-sized. Each mech has some type of weapon and there are a ton of variations that will let you stomp around or take to the sky. Most of the mechs have an alt. attacking configuration, too.
There will be plenty of maps — both old and new — for you to wage 16-player warfare, as well as a number of modes. On top of your standard multiplayer modes — such as deathmatch, Capture the Flag (or giant Akrid egg in this case) and King of the Hill — are a couple of fun tug of war style modes, called Battlegauge and Points.
In Battlegauge, each team has a gauge which depletes every time someone dies. The gauge also fills up whenever a Data Post is activated. The team with the most points at the end, or the team that kills all its opponents enough times, will be victorious.
In Points, every person in the match starts off with one point. Every time a player kills someone, they will gain however many points the player that just died had. It’s a really hectic gametype and could be over in a blink of an eye.
I love the big focus on the customization for Lost Planet 2 and it’ll be hard for a player to get bored thanks to all the settings you can mess with for matches. My main concern for the game are the controls: there are more commands than there are buttons on the controller and it will be pretty confusing to get the hang of at first.
I was also a little sad that there are no true Akrid battles. There are plans for DLC packs, so maybe we’ll see Akrid fights in the future. Players will be able to go up against the Akrids in the campaign through co-op at the very least.
All in all, fans of the original will definitely dig Lost Planet 2.
