Lost Planet 2

When I broke my ankle, stairs became my nemesis.

When faced with the vertical climbing feature of the damned, I invariably tried to find a nearby lift to get me to my destination instead, rather than have to deal with throbbing pain for a few hours afterwards.

If Lost Planet 2 had a broken ankle, it wouldn't just take the stairs, but try hopping up them in an attempt to do even more damage to the complex joint, such is the extent it tries to revel in its weaknesses.

From the first glance, Lost Planet 2 looks like another well-polished side-scrolling action adventure from Gameloft’s reliable production stable.

Well detailed environments that have small, incidental animations like crawling rats, a good range of interesting looking creatures, and some fairly smooth animations help to reinforce this impression.

Don’t be fooled, though - Capcom Mobile is in charge of development, and the differences between this and the likes of Splinter Cell: Conviction become apparent as soon as you take control of your character.

While the running animation is fine, the jumping mechanic is awkward and stiff, causing your character to barrel aimlessly up before shuddering back down at an alarmingly quick rate.

As there’s no safety net like the ability to grab onto a ledge, this invariably leads to missed jumps, especially during the start of the game.

If you’re lucky, you’ll fall to your death, returning the character to the most recently activated checkpoint. If you’re unlucky, though, you’ll find yourself a few minutes back in the level, forced to repeat the same clunky jumping routine all over again.

This is because the levels are almost all designed vertically, playing into possibly the weakest aspect of Lost Planet 2.

The auto-aimed firing reticule plays its part, often waiting until the enemy is basically upon you before bothering to register, but the practically infinite health makes this issue fairly painless (not to mention pointless).

That’s at least until you reach the first boss battle between two VS suits.

Easily surpassing the already horrid boss battles of Predators, this confrontation is memorable purely because of how frustrating and unfair it is, with the enemy capable of spewing out hundreds of shots without warning to suddenly kill your character.

While the explosions may look fantastic, and the environments varied and attractive, Lost Planet 2’s gameplay is missing in action.