Lost Planet 2

Should Lost Planet 2 pick up any awards after its release, it'd be incredibly rude of it not to extend its thanks to Monster Hunter in the acceptance speech it can't actually make on account of it being little more than a bunch of data on a disc. Still, Japan's most popular franchise has a hell of a lot to answer for, and elements of the co-operative dino-slaying Yen-printing machine permeate every element of Lost Planet 2. From the four-way teamwork (with players taking on various roles in the team) to the giant boss creatures and their unique loot tables, it's just another example of a franchise looking for direction and finding it in what the public – or, more specifically, the Japanese public – is enjoying right now. But that's not strictly a fair assessment when, amid the glaring similarities to Monster Hunter, Lost Planet 2, like stablemate Dead Rising 2, also showcases a surprising amount of Western sensibilities.

Indeed, Lost Planet's sequel is a bizarre blend of the comfortingly familiar and the comfortingly familiar for different reasons. While the frigid setting of the original gives way to far more varied locales the second time out, controls remain close enough to feel instantly workable, albeit having been significantly tightened up. The result is a third-person action game that stacks up far better alongside the genre's big boys, here joined by a handful of features that the less-adventurous gamer might not have come across so commonly before. Levels initially play out much like those of the original, only for the Akrid-filled corridors and clearings to give way to expansive battlegrounds where the ridiculously oversized boss creatures come out to play.

The horrible giant slug-on-legs featured in the demo is a perfect example of what Lost Planet 2 will offer and, after fighting your way through an overrun jungle to reach him, the entire game mechanic suddenly changes when he emerges from the depths. Working together to bring down gigantic foes is, as we've already established through other titles, a joy in itself, but Capcom's take on co-operation here transcends preconceptions and constantly surprises. In this example, blowing off the legs lets one or more of your number take the somewhat bold move of venturing inside the beast – targeting the weak point inside in turn exposes it on the outside for the rest of your crew to fire enormous guns at as well.

Lost Planet 2 is a brilliant co-op game, but this all makes us wonder just how well it will hold up for a solo player. We noticed that when going it alone, boss monsters are significantly weaker and, to be honest, this somewhat makes a mockery of their gargantuan size. Either way, it's going to be a tough balancing act for Capcom to make single-player action as compelling as the multiplayer stuff, but then again, maybe that's the point – while we'd struggle to name a game that isn't made more entertaining through the addition of co-operative play, this reeks of a game designed to be taken on as a group. That boss creatures also drop Phantasy Star Online-style item boxes full of unique character customisation gear only fuels this fire, and while Capcom's recent catalogue gives us little reason to doubt that greatness will welcome singles and parties alike, Lost Planet's reinvention is a pretty different beast to anything else the Japanese firm has put out on the 360 so far.

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