Enjoying the Lost Planet 2 demo to death

Sequel to one of the 360s launch titles, Lost Planet, Lost Planet 2 was announced earlier this year as Capcom's surprise for 2009. I played the first one and it was good, but I never expected it to have the go ahead for a sequel. However, the demo proved me wrong, as the sequel looks like it's going to be upping the fun factor (if not sacrificing a big story).

Lost Planet 2 is takes place years after the first. The icy, frigid climate of E.D.N. III has thawed thanks to the hero of the first game and more suitable, temperate lands begin to appear. You play as a soldier in the NEVEC corporation who's still waging a war against the native insectoid monsters. Full details are sparse now, but the demo gives me this one basic feeling: Keep the combat of the first Lost Planet, add four player co-op and throw in big boss battles. As this is Capcom, I could only think of one thing while I was firing heavy ordinance at the giant salamander in the demo: Monster Hunter. The salamander has even been touted as a monster who isn't even the biggest in the game, and this one can still swallow you up and let you start shooting its guts.

The controls are still familiar from the first game. Third-person viewpoint, anchor grappling to higher land, and an awesome variety of mechs with cool weapons you can also tear off and use on foot (and re-attach as well). As the game is in 3rd person view, you develop less of a feeling for the power your weapons are putting out compared to Call of Duty and seeing the gritty details up close and feeling the force feedback, but the movement in Lost Planet makes up for this. After you move forward a bit, you're introduced to the lovely giant salamander.

I've only played with A.I. bots so far since the online pool of players for this demo is somewhat unreliable, but you still get a sense for the intensity you're in for by yourself. Monster design from the original is still present, so glowing spots are pretty much the "shoot here" signal, but by yourself, your small arms probably aren't gonna put much of a dent in the monster (it should be different if you work together with someone).

How you combat the monster gets pretty interesting. When you daze it after a inflicting enough damage, you can grapple onto its back and unload on the glowing spot on its back. You can also crawl into its agape mouth and go to town on its internal organs (though you get the same chance if you get swallowed against your will, which will hurt more).

As I haven't played online, I haven't been able to fully explore a lot of the things that are going to set this apart from the first. Riding shotgun on a friend's mech, using the injection gun to buff team mates, and overall team work to split up targets on huge enemy Akrid monsters. But if you download this game (currently only for gold members) I'm sure it'll at least provide a passing interest on Lost Planet 2.