Over at Wondercon 2013 I came across the Capcom booth with the Lost Planet 3 demo. I mainly wanted to play it to get a Lost Planet 2 toy for free, but the game turned out very interesting, different and fun.

The style felt a bit less anime like the previous games. Some sequences in the first game made me feel like I was playing something like Metal Gear or a random anime style Capcom game. Lost Planet 3 has a more realistic art style this time. Transitioning from  Lost Planet to the sequel, I really didn't feel like it was a whole new experience, because it kept a lot of the same features. However this new and improved Lost Planet didn't feel like a sequel at all, which is what I love.

This isn't just the third installment to the Lost Planet series, they changed a few huge features. The main one that had me stumped was the giant drivable mechs.  Lost Planet 1 and 2 were small, maneuverable little things you controlled from the comfort of your third person perspective. This time you play with larger mechs in first person from the cockpit view. They are also much slower than how they were. I kind of like the new style, but I do miss the old Armored Core style robots.

The mission objective in the demo is to repair damaged machinery caused by the wildlife of the planet. Your objective is to repair a satellite dish. On the way to the core of the dish, you find yourself battling a giant crab like Akrid. Your mech is frozen solid so you have to battle on foot. After doing the repairs, you leave and the exact same type of Akrid pops up again, but this time you can use your mech. Your mech has a grabbing arm and a drill arm. So in order to defeat the foul beast, you grab one arm drill the heck out of it's spine! After the demo was over, the ending cinematic showed 20 more of the exact same Akrids burst out of the ground.

 The game should be called "Attack of the giant crab Akrid" rather than Lost Planet 3. Overall the newly stylized Lost Planet 3 is a good start. The new feel of it is fresh and I'm looking forward to seeing more. Lost Planet 3 will be released June 25, 2013 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.