10 Things That Set "Lost Planet 3" Apart From the Series

Lost Planet 3 may be the third numbered entry in the series, but it's not the third Lost Planet game chronologically. Going back in time to before the first Lost Planet has given Capcom lots of opportunities to amend the game to be some things that the last two weren't.

I spent almost an hour playing Lost Planet 3 at Comic-Con, and spoke with Capcom's Brand Marketing Manager Robert Tunick about all the things that set Lost Planet 3 apart from the rest of the series. Read on to find out what they are.

The most obvious change is that Lost Planet 3, despite its name, is actually a prequel to the first Lost Planet game. The not-so-subtly named world of E.D.N. III and its denizens—human, beast and mechanical—transformed quite a bit over the previous games in the series, and making Lost Planet 3 into a prequel gave Capcom an opportunity to explore a new chapter in the series without worrying about all the baggage that's been developed so far.

LP 3 concerns one Jim Peyton, a contractor of sorts who takes a job with the NEVEC corporation to send cash home to his wife and newborn. But he soon discovers that NEVEC isn't as benign as he had hoped. "He's discovering as he plays through this game that what they told him isn't really accurate to what he's seeing, Tunick said. "And as the game unfolds, you start seeing decisions have to be made on where he aligns himself."

Since Lost Planet 3 is set before certain events in the series, the planet's surface hasn't yet been stripped of its arctic climate, and the game's environments are wracked with violent blizzards and covered in rock-solid ice.

This is a huge departure, especially from the second game, which put a tropical spin on E.D.N. III. Trudging through the jungle was great, but I was honestly glad to get back to the snow in Lost Planet 3.

Jim isn't alone in all that snow, though. The Comic-Con demo introduced me to Jim's Rig, a bipedal mech that'll play a much more integral role than the destructive upright vehicles of other Lost Planet games.

The Rigs of Lost Planet 3 have yet to be mechanized due to some out-of-touch regulation (I mean, come on, what could go wrong?), so when Jim sets out to mine the planet's precious thermal energy where a colleague recently failed, it's no wonder he asks for double the pay before he takes the job. Something big out there thrashed the last guy's Rig, and Jim is worried the same thing could happen to his.

It's not like the Rig is just some tool to be discarded like the mechs in LP 1 and 2. No, it's much more important than that: it's Jim's home-away-from-home (and he's very far away from home indeed). "She's my Rig," Jim proclaims protectively when he finds a mechanic making modifications on her (adding a device to help Jim launch up to the cockpit, which comes in quite handy later on).

Tunick described Jim's relationship with his Rig as "akin to how a truck driver owns his own truck."

"It's his comfort zone," he said. "He's much more powerful in there."

"He cares very much for it. You're going to be upgrading it, taking care of it, it's going to be—you know, you're going to feel at home within that," he added.

But Jim doesn't always get to stay with his Rig, much to his chagrin. And when he gets too far away, he loses his HUD, and you'll have to look for more subtle clues as to how much ammo and how many grenades he's got left.

Jim heads out on his mission with little trepidation, despite the obvious danger, and he eventually comes upon a cave that forces him to (albeit reluctantly) abandon his Rig. In the tunnels, he's a lot less powerful.

"We want to bring in a certain sort of claustrophobic—not claustrophobic, but a sort of uncomfortable feel," Tunick told me.

I'm not being original by pointing out the similarities that Lost Planet 3 shares with Dead Space, but I will say that they're limited to the on-foot portions when Jim is without his Rig. That's when the UI and HUD are integrated into Peyton's body itself.

"You know how many grenades he has just by looking at his body. He has a nice projected HUD that shows him his missions," Tunick said.

"The feeling is much more isolated, kind of riveting, edge-of-your-seat type stuff. Not to say we're survival horror. We're not a survival horror game," he emphasized.

Although Lost Planet 3 does force you to explore without your Rig, more often you're simply given the option to hop out and explore or fight on foot if you want to. Down in the tunnels, Jim encounters an enormous Crab Akrid that took me several minutes and tries to take down. Later on, he fights another one, and though he's got his Rig this time, he still has to fight parts of the battle on foot when the damn thing overheats from taking too much damage.

Tunick said you'll often get to choose how to approach situations. The Rig has drill and swing attacks on its right arm, and a grab function on its left that lets you hold enemies in place or pick them up (if they're small enough). "It's slower, it's more cumbersome, but as you upgrade it it becomes much more like the back of your hand," Tunick said. "And you can approach almost all the enemies, in most situations, whichever way you feel like."

Fighting that Crab Akrid underground was a real challenge. Its weak spots were mostly on its back, and you have to dodge its strikes (not easy) and break off the ice with shotgun and assault rifle fire. You can also shoot its giant claws off by targeting its joints. But the next one presents a much different fight when you're reunited with your Rig.

"This guy aligns really nicely with the size of your utility Rig," Tunick told me as the second giant crab emerged from underground. "It becomes a very different battle when you're kind of picking on someone your own size."

Instead of dodging and shooting, you're pinning it with the Rig's left arm and drilling its weak spots with its right appendage.

That brings up the game's rather unique version of the now-tired gaming trope, the Quick Time Event (QTE). You know, when you press the buttons that pop up on the screen and your character performs actions that are much more awesome than anything he or she could normally do.

LP 3's QTEs proved slightly more skill-based, as they require you to maneuver the cursor over an enemy's weak points before pulling the trigger. This was fun during the boss fight, but admittedly proved irritating during battles with normal enemies, who overwhelmed me multiple times and forced me into lengthy QTEs over and over. Maybe this will prove less annoying in the final game.

Finally, there's the multiplayer, which Capcom has yet to officially reveal. But Tunick did reaffirm that it's in there, and that it'll be different from the multiplayer in past games.

"The second one really went multiplayer, and on this one we wanted to be cinematic, really engrossing, single-player experience," he said, adding, "with a bunch of multiplayer modes we'll talk about later."

Whether that means co-op, deathmatches or something else is anyone's guess. What do you think? Do you have any more questions about Lost Planet 3 still? Tell us in the comments or on Twitter.