Lost Planet 3 Wiki

Lost Planet is a franchise that does not have high recognition. It was a new IP created by Capcom this generation and was first released on the Xbox 360, and then later came to the PS3.

The game was first revealed at a Capcom Captivate Event back in 2012 and was unveiled with a trailer. [reference]

The game is being developed by Spark Unlimited.

The enemies are Akrid and the game is set on an alien planet where you can use exoskeletons and other machinery to take them down.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Story
• 4. Rig Battles

Development

Capcom’s goal was to speed up development times. They revealed this when Lost Planet 3 was officially announced by them. [reference]

“Speeding up development will probably raise the cost. But creating quality content will be vital to Capcom’s ability to survive by overcoming intense global competition. We will make substantial investments to develop this content,” Tsujimoto said.

“For example, we may have five titles for which we can launch sequels over the next two and a half years. In this case, we can even out the introduction dates in order to launch major titles on a regular basis.”

“For Lost Planet 3, we are using an alliance with an overseas development company with the goal of launching this title 2.5 years after the previous title in this series.

“So we have succeeded in greatly reducing the development time compared with prior titles. Overall, we believe that we are making steady progress in shortening development times by efficiently utilizing our own workforce and making effective use of external development companies.”

Dead Space and Lost Planet 3 might look similar but they have a lot of differences. Capcom producer Andrew Szymanski and Spark Unlimited game director Matt Sophos, who’s currently working on Lost Planet 3, revealed what makes these games different. [reference]

“All of a sudden, we see Dead Space 3 come in with the ice planet setting, and it’s kind of like, ‘OK, well, thanks for the nod!’ You know, that’s cool. And in an interesting case of parallel evolution, we’re trying to be more nuanced with our gameplay, instead of just the old school third-person shooters with the Vital Suits,” Szymanski said.

“Sophos agrees, and talks about how the similarity of the ice settings. “Yeah, I can’t speak for the Dead Space crew or anything like that, but like Andrew said, the similarities are at the superficial level.

“The hallmark of their franchise for a long time has been the survival-horror aspect of the game, and they’re incorporating the ice planet and things like that. But our focus is on creating this level of variety of gameplay for the player, so you aren’t stuck doing this one thing for any specific length of time.”

Gameplay

There will be only one giant mech playable in the game, which is a good decision, according to Capcom. The game is a third person shooter just like the previous Lost Planet games. There will be vehicles which you can use. [reference]

The reason for Jim having access to only one rig was given below:

“For the single-player campaign, Jim – and the player – will only be using one Rig. This is important as that Rig is Jim’s personal property and it factors in very heavily to the narrative. That is not to say that other mechs won’t appear piloted by other characters, however,” Producer and Project Lead at Capcom Andrew Szymanski revealed.

“In terms of handling the Rig is deliberately designed to be a huge, lumbering, tough, durable piece of machinery that is built to take the harsh conditions of the planet and keep on going and thus its abilities, upgrades, and attachments all keep that in mind.

“So far we’ve shown the Claw Arm on the left side of the Rig that can be upgraded with a Winch to allow the claw to be shot out like a projectile, as well as the Drill Arm on the right side of the Rig that is, of course, used to destroy chunks of ice as well as fight Akrid. There are many more upgrades and attachments to be discovered.”

Story

The game puts you in the shoes of Jim Peyton who is a rig pilot and has to leave Earth to take on a contract on E.D.N. III. He works for Neo-Venus Construction, a company that is preparing the planet for colonisation.

Jim has to survey the terrian using his rig and on foot to obtain Thermal Energy, which is the planet’s energy supply. The company he is working for has reduced Thermal Energy reserves and Jim needs to find another source.

He then has to face the Akrids, which are the inhabitants of the planet and also the main enemy in the game.

Rig Battles

As to the Rig Battles, Sophos talked about the influence of “Punch-Out” on the game’s mech combat. [reference]

“We talked about Punch-Out, we talked a little about Chronicles of Riddick. Looking at what games have done with first-person melee in the past, it looks like they’ve only gone so far because it’s kind of a difficult thing to do, to judge distances and things like that. Our game is about aiming and pulling the trigger, whether you’re on foot in third-person shooter mechanics or even inside the Rig.

“So, our melee combat kind of breaks down to, you aim at something, and you grab it, and you pick it up, and you have to aim and pull the trigger to drill.

“And keeping the controls feeling intuitive—all the functions for the left of the Rig are on the left controls, all the functions for the right are on the right controls. So, we’re always making sure that the play experience is intuitive but that we try to expand what has been done in first-person melee.”