Glance at a few screenshots of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition, and you may think you're in for a view of nothing but snow and miles of white. But begin playing and you'll notice all sorts of subtle details. Layers of frost and snow cover everything. When you enter a building, you can almost feel the change in warmth, as the icy coating on Wayne instantly makes him stand out. Humid looking subterranean nests where the aliens known as Akrid live are one of many more areas you'll explore. The Akrid, as well as your human enemies, also come in a good variety. So there's not much need to worry about monotony. Lost Planet does a good job of setting the atmosphere of a lonely, harsh world without having everything look the same.

Music and sound effects also do a good job of setting the atmosphere. If this game could just get the story up to the same level, it would make it all the more believable. Unfortunately, it seems the only person who does a good job of voice acting is Wayne's character, and he's also one of the most realistic models among the people in the cinema scenes. This makes him stick out awkwardly (actually, he's based on a real actor, but it doesn't make up for anything), but then again, there isn't much importance placed on story in this game. While you're in the midst of the frantic action here, you may have time to notice things like ground shaking roars and mechanical grinding and whirring from your mech (or VS as this game calls them), but that's a good thing. When you're that deep in the action, Lost Planet doesn't do anything to break you out of it.

If there's one big problem with Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition, it's the story. The game seems to throw in a flashback here and a heartwarming rescue there, but there's no reason or grand plan behind anything. At least if there is, you'll feel like someone forgot to give you the essential Lost Planet guidebook. It's difficult to believe any of the characters have any motivation, and often you're left wondering, "What am I here for again?" There are also times when you're reminded of certain things over and over, to the point where you think they'll be important later in the story, but they turn out to be pretty inconsequential.

It's too bad, because Lost Planet has an interesting concept that had the potential to unfold into a great story to support the action. Basically, humankind had colonized a planet years ago. Things were going good until the native alien species, the Akrid, rose up and started wreaking havoc. Humans wrote off the planet as a lost cause until they discovered a couple of important things. These Akrid stored a valuable thermal energy fuel source within their bodies and people also learned how to fight them, turning the tide of the war in their favor. So in this game, you will run around shooting down Akrid in order to obtain fuel for your life support and even your weapons. But the idea that you can net a surplus of fuel from these creatures is turned on its head if you play the game at anything over the Normal difficulty setting. At those levels, you'll barely be scraping enough thermal energy together to keep yourself alive most of the time.

But story aside, Lost Planet is pretty enjoyable, even if you're not a huge shooter fan. There's strategy involved in figuring out the best way to take down enemies, but it doesn't feel too closed in and linear. The fact that you constantly need to restore your thermal energy tanks means that there is always an incentive to take out an enemy, rather than avoid it. You'll be weighing your options, however, at almost every point in the game. It's almost always a question of "Use valuable ammo and gain more energy, or conserve and improve your chances of getting through the level alive?"

In addition to running around on foot, you'll be able to pilot giant mechanized suits called "VS." Unfortunately, most of the suits in the game feel clunky and slow at first. The great power that comes with them comes at a cost. You'll be given a couple of really great suits in the game, however, that make everything else you've piloted throughout the game feel like rusted-out pieces of junk.

Several new modes of play are introduced in this new version of Lost Planet. The most fun will probably be Unlimited mode, where you play as a faster, powered up Wayne, but you'll have to unlock it.

The multiplayer modes, however, will probably bring the most replay value for the average gamer. It's not without its problems, and if you don't like the pace of the single player game, you probably won't like the online mode either, as they essentially are the same thing. There are some interesting weapons here that you won't find in the single player game, and this edition of the game also gives you the chance to play as an Akrid. Playing as an Akrid isn't as exciting as I would have hoped, as they feel very slow, and it's often hard to pick out the tiny humans on the opposing side. It is still an interesting change of pace.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition doesn't disappoint fans of Capcom's infamous difficulty levels. Play on Easy and you'll practically have an intravenous supply of that golden liquid fuel coming at you at all times. Play on Hard, and you'll wonder why people came back to this cold rock of death at all.

To put it another way, on Hard, you'll have to weigh every decision you make on the fly. Should you go for the energy in that tank or should you conserve ammo? The pace is frantic, and will have you rubbing your eyes after a long session. To top it off, there are some levels with an insane amount of enemies. Often, there's a way to run through it, but again, you've got your constantly draining fuel level to worry about. If you hunger for new challenges even after this, there is the Score Attack mode and the Trial Battle mode, where you can challenge yourself against the rankings of others (though these are offline modes of gameplay.)

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition starts you off with a very good control scheme, so you probably won't feel the need to change it, though you do have options. On the ground, Wayne uses the right trigger to fire weapons, and the left to lob grenades. Clicking in the right control stick is a quick way to reload ammo, and very convenient since your thumb will almost always be on it to control the camera anyway. It also works well when you're in a VS suit, though it will probably take longer to get used to the clunky, slow moving things. Either way, control is just one thing that is well thought out about this game.

One thing you may want after a few hours of play is a "run faster" button. It seems that the fastest mode of travel for Wayne is his roll. It's a minor gripe, and it really only comes into play when you've cleared an area and need to backtrack.

Of course, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition has been out for a while now, and it's hard to say that you need to buy the game again if you already have it. If you haven't, however, this is a pretty good 3rd person shooter with a fair amount of addictive and challenging gameplay. You can now play online with PC players, and you have several new modes of play to deal with. This is, at its new price, definitely a buy for the newcomer to Lost Planet.