Giving a thumbs down to LP3 feels painful. It's got a lot of heart. The animations, the graphics, the voice acting, it's all wonderfully cinematic, and it's a loose sci-fi blue collar theme, with space contractors in a space wasteland planet trying to do science in the face of aliens everywhere. Your dude is a bearded contractor who gets messages from his wife and country music plays in his giant robot. Gamers in general don't see much manual labor so it's always nice to see stories that focus on that sort of hard work. That said, thematically, it's a bit of an odd mix since your average mission is to "go fix X, okay, all done? Good, now get back to the robot and march back oh wait there's 400 aliens between you and your robot. And this isn't a problem at all." What was the want ad for this? Space engineer, must be able to perform QTE repairs while shooting 4000 aliens. Still, they want it to work so bad, they fill this story with real heart.

But for all the glitz and polish it's just not that much fun. You walk places and walk some more then get in a robot and walk places with slow robot clomping and FINALLY you get to dive roll and shoot aliens and that part is actually kinda fun in a low budget Red Faction Armageddon sense but then you get to walk back and talk some more and walk and walk and climb and it's all just such a waste of time and then they expect you to go back to earlier locations for some dumb sidequests and there's just no way, no how.

It's clear the man hours went into this game that should, by the book, have created a solid fun, but forgettable AAA game. But the talent somehow didn't make its way to the final product. And it's a shame because so much love went into this but it just was not enough.

I would have watched the movie of this.

Fun little sim about being a typical petroleum extraction engineer in Canada

Preface: I am not judging this game compared to its predecessors, since I did not particularly enjoy LP1 or LP2. That being said...

This game is not good. It certainly starts out well, the story is interesting, the graphics are pretty (especially given how well-optimized it is), the sound design is good, and the voice acting is solid. HOWEVER:

-The game is unbelievably easy (I played 95% of it with just the infinite-ammo pistol) except for random HUGE difficulty spikes
-The game world is incredibly small and stifling
-The "hostile" and "uninhabitable" world poses no threat at all (you can walk around in major storms to your heart's content)
-Controls are lazy and stupid (P is to pick up ammo! Why not the "use" button??)
-The cover system is the epitome of crappily-made. They don't even tell you it's there, which makes sense, since it DOES. NOT. WORK.
-The strategy for killing the akrids (including the bosses) is always the exact same (dodge as they charge, shoot when they're stunned)
-Fighting in the rig is beyond pointless (it's ALWAYS better to get out and fight in-person)
-The boss fights are ridiculously stupid (the one in the rig is mind-bendingly atrocious)
-Bosses are recycled all over the place (you kill the giant crab thing in 3 different boss fights alone)
-The game straight-up lies about button prompts ("W/A/S/D to turn wheel" really means "tap f repeatedly")
-The audio logs are filled with SO MANY juicy, lip-smacky, mouth-poppy sounds that it sounds like the mic is being eaten
-The base only has a few people you can actually interact with, so it feels lifeless
-It is completely arbitrary where/when you can grapple/repel
-There is no visual indicator of health (other than when you're near-death), and your ammo count vanishes and reappears whenever it feels like it (EDIT: I've been informed that your ammo count and the rest of your HUD disappear when you get too far from the mech)
-And so many other little tiny annoyances

If you're a more patient person than I am, you could probably put up with this game, and might even enjoy it. I, however, found it joyless, tedious, and boring. It is a paint-by-numbers, designed-by-committee, heartless blob of checklists, man-hours, and coding. Life is too short to slog through uninteresting crap, and this game didn't make the cut (for me). You may enjoy it, but please don't spend more than $5 on it.

Okay, so here is the deal.
Yes, the gameplay is altered substantially from the previous two, yes the T-Energy mechanic doesn't come into play sadly. I had hoped the game might have had a section as a nod to the old games where Jim's suit gets damaged but alas it did not.
Co-operative play is also not featured anywhere in the single player story.

This said however, while the gameplay is somewhere inbetween extreme condition and the first dead space title, the controls most of the time feel fairly fluid.
The characters, especially Jim Peyton himself are really likable and it kept me immersed in the story. Jim's wife is a very interesting character (as well as Jim himself)and the game has a lot of soul.
Jim isn't a grizzled space marine who can kill an akrid from 300 metres, but he is also not out of his depth.
With a temperament somewhere between a trucker and a cowboy he instantly became (for me) one of my favourite videogame protagonists of all time

When you're out there on your own, with just music you brought from planet earth (the game imports music from your computer files so you can creat your own soundtrack for the cold wastelands) you really feel like there's no-one else you can count on but yourself. You feel isolated and in danger at every second.
This also works in reverse, that when you get a message from your in game wife you feel like you're at home, like you're making a difference and the characters really come to life. The same can be said when you return to coronis and upgrade your rig and weapons, greeting old friends.

There's a fair bit of longevity in the upgrades to your rig. Certain upgrades allow you to get to new places you couldn't before, or allow you to scrounge for scrap metal in new places.
The controls when fighting the akrid will feel a little alien at first due to the over the shoulder viewpoint of the camera, but you quickly get used to the contextual-only use of the grappling hook as well as dodging out of the way of enemies.

Fans of the series will be pleased to know that this does actually provide an interesting and very unexplained part of the story of the franchise and while they do retcon one or two things, it really does feel like it's for the better. The plot makes sense and while isn't anything spectacular, it is coherent and well-written. The supporting cast for me, was what really pulled along the plot for me and kept me interested even while trying to hunt down those annoying albino akrid.


The setpieces out in the ice and snow are quite fantastic and this is where the game excels, in the sheer scale of the areas outside. The opposite is unfortunately true in that on the occasional offchances you go into an enclosed space, combat and movement can feel clunky and out of place.
It's a shame likely the repetitive sidequests will put anyone off buying this because the atmosphere is amazing.
You really do feel like a lone contractor out in the middle of nowhere drilling for a precious substance.
I imagine the feeling and atmosphere in this game is not all that disimilar from the feelings of isolation and longing that ice truckers deal with on a day to day bonus.

Which brings us to the Rigs. The rig is not the vital suit (this is a prequel don't forget), it is an entirely different breed of machine, but this isn't a bad thing.
Yes, there are a few mechs in this game and while at first you may lament the loss of having shoulder mounted rockets and gatling guns, you will immediately warm up to the defensive and offensive capabilities of Jim's machine. Admittedly the rig can feel quite slow at times and while this may have been an artistic choice by the devs at Spark it can bog down the pace at times until you access fast travel quite early in the game. The good news is that those who loved the sheer mayhem and carnage of slicing off a limb or two from the large akrid will be right at home. It is just as satisying, maybe moreso to time your grab just right as you hold the creature and helplessly drill into it's cores with the drill arm as their lifeblood (T-energy) spills out.

I should point out that I was only ever interested in the game (and series) for the single player experience and therefore I did not touch multiplayer. My understanding is some of the maps from extreme condition make a reappearance and generally most reviewers say the online is where the strength of the game really lies.
This game did poorly due to the mountain of scathing critiques and generally poor write-ups it received.
I personally enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the series for the story.
In terms of all the bad press and poor scores, I'd advise you to try it for yourself, it's not the most amazing game in terms of graphics or presentation but I sure had fun with it.

A buggy mess, filled with bad and strange gameplay decisions. Dead Space 1-3 are FAR better games, and feel incredibly similar. The Dead Space games actually feature some genuinely creepy and horrific moments, and the atmosphere is top-notch. In comparison, everything here just falls flat.

75% of Lost Planet 3 consists of walking around in a very slow, defenseless Mech / Rig. When you get to where you need to be, you spend 15 minutes turning a valve, and then when that's finished, walk a few more steps and spend another 15 minutes turning another valve. Every single button \ computer you interact with breaks down, leading you to find 'another route' / far away button \ computer. It's just dull, uninspired, tedious game design.

You also have to backtrack for a lot of objectives, and enemies spawn in exactly the same locations; there is no variation, in both the environments or the enemies. When enemies spawn, you can also see them literally appear in front of you most of the time.

The checkpoint system is inconsistent; especially before some of the bosses and harder encounters. After dying, you have to sit through 5-minute unskippable cutscenes again and again. Very annoying on harder difficulties.

I made it about 5 hours in and encountered a game-breaking bug that prevented me from continuing. I'd encountered the bug several times in the game, but they were overcome (eventually). When using the Mech, you have to turn a valve (again) and the controls simply stop working. I tried it on both M+KB and a 360 controller and it just wouldn't let me pass. This is a fairly common bug apparently.

At this point, I'd seen enough of the game and wasn't enjoying it much, so it was the last straw.

The PC controls often don't work, and when the button prompts appear on-screen, they're very often wrong, even using the default control scheme. The game clearly wasn't bug-tested or had much, if any, quality-assurance. Even playing on a 360 controller has some issues with wrong button-prompts and slow interactions.

When very similiar and much better games like Dead Space exist, I find it impossible to recommend this game.

First of all I want to say that I didnt played the first Lost Planet game but I played the second one. I like Lost Planet 2 because it has its own style. Lost Planet 2 was "crazy" and I enjoyed the journey through the singleplayer campaign. I hoped Lost Planet 3 would have the same style but I got greatly disappointed.



Controls
- The assignment of keys was horrible in Lost Planet 2 but this time they really wrecked it. I changed the sh*tty layout but after that the most keys just didnt work correctly anymore. I changed the key layout to default because of that but I also had to start a new game cause nothing worked properly after I used a different layout.
- Default layout also dont work as well as it should.. Great work!

Controls (again)
- I raged a lot because the game says at some quicktime events things like "Hold w/s/a/d" but in reality I have to press "F" several times. It really p*ssed me off.

Cover System
- The cover system works horribly. I even stopped using it because 1) It doesnt work well and 2) You dont need it.

HUD
- I dont like the HUD. It doesnt show me the things I need in a acceptable way. And if you are too far away from your mech you will lose important things like the mini map.

Enemies
- Sometimes enemys just appeared in front (sometimes even inside) of me
- The variety of enemys is a joke
- Grabbing enemys with the mech is so buggy
- Enemies often just stuck in something (especially the flying ones)

Boss Enemies
- "Boss Enemies" - or should I say "Boss Enemy"? Really you have to fight the same typ of Boss enemy for uhm 3 times I think. Well maybe the crab looks a little bit different every time but it is the same stupid "crab thing" over and over again.
- One time the boss crab was invincible.. wasted 30 minutes.

Weapons
- Boring weapons like shotgun, pistol or assault rifle. No crazy "Holy sh*t" weapons here..
- There are also just a few weapons for you. No fun!

Map/World
- They call it "Open World".. I call it "Path between 2 loading zones"
- Loading zones.. so much loading...even with a strong PC

Price & DLC
- Overpriced DLCs
- Got the game during a sale and I am happy that I didnt pay the full price (40 euros - 1 year after release) because it is way too much for this game.

Bugs
- There are some bugs in the game which can make you rage a lot (game breaking bugs like not triggering something are §/"§&$(%&$!!!)
- Other bugs are for example: Explosive weapons shell just explode after you shot for no reason so you hurt yourself a lot / cant shoot (only aim) with weapons / invisible walls (no I didnt reach the end of the map because I walked there 5 minutes ago without problems)

Steam Connection
- You lost connection to steam for about 2 seconds? Well no connection to steam = playing not possible. The game will stop and throw you back to the main menu. Will the game saving the progress? Nope. Seriously why cant I play the game in singleplayer without a connection to steam?

Windows Live
- Dont worry GFWL died and Lost Planet 3 uses Steamworks now. I still blame every studio which have chosen this GFWL sh*t!

Multiplayer
- Is nearly dead. You will find some players in Team Deathmatch but the other modes are dead. Maybe you will find some players which are playing for achievements but normally you will not find anyone in a other game mode than Team Deathmacht
- Lost all my stats. Just got reseted and after that happend the new stats dont work correctly. Well I dont care that much because I dont got much after 4 hours MP
- Now I am in the "Top 1000" from the MP leaderboard again.. with 4 kills. Nuff said.

Savegame
- Only 1 save slot
- Savegame got wrong date (I dont think this is the year 2013..)

Other problems
- Subtitles (german) are sometimes incorrect
- Lip sync is so bad
- The jokes which are made by the characters are really bad the most time
- You liked the mechs in Lost Planet 2? Yes? Well forget them you only get 1 boring mech with no third person view!




Graphics
- The game graphics are ok (not good for release 2013 but also not the worst).

Story
- I have to say that I didnt follow the Lost Planet 3 story that much cause it bored me very quickly.




Characters
- I like Jim, his wife and the other women you will meet, I dont want to spoiler too much. You will know which one (psst I dont mean the annoying black b*tch) just in case you still want to play this game.

Well I just tried to find something positive... actually I hate more characters in Lost Planet 3 than I like.



At the end I have to say: Dont buy this game for more than 5 euros! It is a boring game with so many problems. You can feel that this game was made for consols and not for the PC. Lost Planet 2 had a lot of problems too but it was much more fun than Lost Planet 3. The style of Lost Planet 3 reminds me a little bit at Dead Space 3. Also Lost Planet 3 failed as sequel just like Dead Space 3 did. Maybe the number "3" is cursed in the gaming industry and Gabe know it? Would explain why we will never see Half Life 3..

Back to topic: Do not buy this game. If you really want to buy it do not pay more than 5 euros and do not buy the DLCs!

As a long time Lost Planet player and huge fan of the series since the beginning, I can say that this game is not for us.
The canon is broken from the first ten minutes of gameplay, and broken moreso at every single bend, turning the Akrdi threat into, well, not a real threat at all, VSs somehow sprouting from mechs three times their size, and the entire setting being....just ignored.
The game seems to set up it's own canon and it very much shows through gameplay, environments and design choices, that the development team either developed this as a standalone title because they wanted to show their own style, or that they completely have no clue about what the series is based upon, as the only design elements left from the original two titles, are the designs for some of the Akrid, and glowy bits on your armour. TE no longer works like it used to, grappling hooks went from fun to just a means of getting to exactly placed points and can't be used elsewhere. While the combat on foot is par for the previous games, the combat in the RIG is sluggish, slow, unreactive, and while the QTE-like moments while battling larger Akrid is sort of fun, the windows for counters are so tiny that you need to be quite good at the game to survive, and it is often better to simply combat the Akrid on foot.
The game does a good job at creating it's own world, however, and when viewed as its own title, rather than a sequel, it is honestly not bad. I could see myself really, really enjoying this game due to the beautiful, awe inspiring graphics, colour and environments, and while some of the designs are pants on head (Ie: not a single main character covers their face in the -50C weather), they often come off as their own product with it's own feel. The models are very much unlike game characters, and feel more like watching a live action series or movie.
The mechs, as a fan of the genre however, are garbage. The design team laxed back on huge, impossible to balance, utilitarian piles. The desperate attempt to seem believable and realistic is overshadowed by things like a giant, breakable cockpit window that constantly suffers damage, has complete ice overs, and serves as nothing more but face recognition that is impossible to see, as you're locked in first person view. VSs do exist, but the fact that these bloody things in no way resemble them but are somehow developed from them, and look not a thing like the original VSs, is a bit of a kick in the balls to fans of the mecha genre and fans of this series, the two of which often overlap. Instead of quick sliding and manouvering, we get CLANK CLANK CLANK. LP1 and 2 did the utilitarian mecha well, with it being reasonably sized, and with enough variety to suit anyone from the average anime fan to hardcore fans of old style mecha, and even to fans of western styles such as Battletech. However, this is mostly one bitter robot fans lament, and this is really up to personal opinion.

All in all, solid gameplay with a few problems and quirks. Beautiful graphics and design and a relatively believeable story, if not hindered by very poor dialogue at some points.
But, this all has to be ignored to some degree, as this is a title in an ongoing series, and indeed by that logic, must follow in the steps of its predecessors. The game fails on almost every level in this, and is something akin to an insult to long time fans of the series, and with Capcom's standard "It was your fault" schpiel to us for not demanding another game like Lost Planet 2, this game feels more like an insult than a new addition. This is a game for casual fans of the TPS genre, fans of sci-fi and sci-fi horror, but not a game for fans of Lost Planet.

LOST PLANET® 3 is one of a kind, it's a game that sucks at being a successor of the Lost Planet franchise with its totally different type of story, speed, gameplay, BUT I do think it's one of the most interesting games I played in a while, here's why I think this way:

The game puts you in the role of Jim Peyton, husband and father who's trying to earn some money with working for NEVEC.
What I liked particularly about the game is its way of making you believe you really work on E.D.N. III, because the game is not trying to be make some things simple in order to make it more fun or faster.

That of course may be why most of the fans of the series won't like it though, because it's as different as it can be considering the first two games were fast arcade shooters.

I'ts been a long time since I played Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, but this game makes me wanna pick it up again
and I do recommend getting this game if anything I wrote above appeals to you, but I don't think it's worth the full price though.

Score: 7/10

8,5/10

+ great production values , some fantastic graphics
+ great voice acting, you can customise your music when travelling
+ good story
+ fps gameplay is good, satisfying
+ some interesting side quests

- seems they try to make a lost planet game based on dead space success, lp3 feels more like a dead space than a lost planet game, especially in design
- dont really like the main character (but then it might be just me)
- more variety in enemies would be welcome

as a single game it's certainly worth it, didn't expect it to be that good, sometimes i wonder what the reviewers think when they write such negative reviews for a game like this and giving positive reviews to retro crap, at least this is an AAA game and it shows.

DO NOT BUY IF YOU ARE EXPECTING GAMEPLAY SIMILAR TO THE LAST TWO GAMES!

the game mechanics have completely changed from the last two titles and I would HIGHLY recommend making sure you watch actual gameplay before buying.