Lost Planet

Yesterday I covered some basic tips for Lost Planet’s awesome multiplayer mode to help you get ready for the big launch in a few days. Jump to Part 1 here.

This should help you get ahead and maybe even win the giveaway contest.

Today is Part 2 of 3 (Part 3 will be up tomorrow), with some more stuff about the game you may or may not know.

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Gummies, Dummies and Frisbees, oh my!
There are five kinds of grenades – the standard hand grenade, the sticky gum grenade, the green flying disk of death, the dummy grenades, and the shocking plasma grenades.

A technique that you may have already stumbled upon is shooting a grenade to detonate it early. Often the resulting explosion will be much larger than if you let it go off on its own. This can easily be an instant kill combo. Grenades can be much more powerful than even rocket launchers in this game, with devastating amounts of splash damage. So being able to use them all effectively, no matter which kind you spawn with, is key.

A few cool things about some of the grenades:

The gum grenades don’t have as much range as the other grenades, but they will stick to any surface, be it snow, human, or Vital Suit. They even stick to the wall or ceiling, making them perfect for ambushing someone coming around a corner or up a ramp. Sticking someone before you die, then watching them die while you wait to respawn is also extremely satisfying.

The disk grenades are great for long distances, or even just sticking to people. They bounce if they hit almost anything except a human, Vital Suit, or Data Post. It’s also possible to throw one across the map, then shoot it when it gets close enough to a target and take him out with the blast. Although there’s nothing like giving that pesky sniper who is taking your team down one by one a nice green glowing headband or belt and waiting for it to go off so you can watch his body fall from his high-up perch.

Dummy grenades, which release a soldier-shaped balloon that floats around, will also explode on contact with a human or VS, making them perfect for close-range combat. The dummies also appear as red dots on the radar, confusing enemies. Plus the dummies trick the homing energy blasts from the energy gun, making them a great way to save your own skin if someone’s coming after you.

There’s no “I” in “TEAM,” SOLDIER!
Teamwork is key when you’re playing team matches. I cannot stress this enough. You can be with a group of players that are really good, and be handed your collective digital arses by a team of less technically competent players that simply coordinate and work well together.

Try to at least stay in pairs so you never get caught alone against multiple enemies. If it’s a 2-on-1 duel and you have the upper hand, even if one of you goes down in the fight, there’s still one more of you to finish off the other guy and get the points. If you can, stick in groups of 3 or 4. With four on 1, the group of four can probably get by with little to no damage taken and still get the kill. At least try not to venture off on your own into enemy territory, especially their spawn point, unless you’re really confident and/or have some super firepower. But if you die there, you’ve just handed your super firepower over to the enemy.

Another thing to remember is that, even though you don’t die when your Thermal Energy runs out in multiplayer, without any energy you cannot pilot a Vital Suit. If you run out of energy while in a VS, it will kick you out. Also, energy-based weapons like the Plasma Gun or laser cannons have unlimited ammo, but using them takes Thermal Energy. No energy, no shots. So what you can do is coordinate with your teammates to hand-off laser weapons and Vital Suits to a teammate to maintain control over them.

If you take out an opponent, relay back to your team that you just took out 2 guys coming up the beach, or the sniper on the tower, or the guy in the VS.

Plus, if you take an uber-weapon into enemy territory and die and witness them getting their grubby gloves on it, let your teammates know they need to watch out for a sniper or a maniac with a homing laser.

Dude, same team!
Unless you like pissing off teammates by sticking them with grenades or shooting them in the back, you better learn how to tell your teammates apart.

First of all, when you’re playing a team match, you can tell your own team’s color by the color designation of the point bar at the very top in the top left corner.

Secondly, all of your teammates will have their own name above their head in the color of your team. You can see their names through buildings and mountains, so you can always tell where they are.

You can tell what team a person is on by the color of the rings around his tanks, the light on the back of the tanks, his goggles, and other indicators depending on the character model. Similar lights will light up on a Vital Suit, so you can tell which team is controlling the Hardballer and running over everyone in site.

You won’t see an enemy’s name until you are close enough and have them in your sights, and when the name does come up, it will also be in the color of that person’s team.

Don’t get lost! Get it? “Lost”?
The game ships with 8 multiplayer maps, and owners of the Collector’s Edition will get to play on an awesome war-torn city map months and months before the map is available to the general public. Each map has multiple item location configurations, determining the placement of weapons, data posts, Vital Suits, and the destructible elements.

Pirate Fortress is a pretty straight-forward map, although it still has plenty of places to explore and hide. If you pre-ordered the game and have been playing the bonus map, Dilapidation, hopefully you’ve had a chance to explore all the underwater passageways and the pipes that run through the level.

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg as far as level design goes, as you will find out this Thursday. There is a learning curve to a lot of the maps, because they are large and intricate with more nooks and crannies than you can shake a stick at. You need to know where the power weapons and Vital Suits are hidden, where the data posts are, where the best sniping and ambush spots are, how to get to the top of the towers or inside the secret underwater passageways. Heck, I’ve been playing them for a while and I still find new things almost every time I play.

Knowing the maps is also crucial because some spots on the map are more advantageous than others. If you’re in a 4-team match and your team’s spawn area seems like it’s in the worst spot on the map, you need to know all the routes to get away and to the good pick-ups.

Have Anchor, Will Travel
Your aiming reticule will turn green when you’re looking at something that can be latched on to. Plus, it’s not just for jumping up on TOP of things. You can press the X Button again to disengage the line before you reach the end of the wire and the jump animation starts. Use this to escape hairy situations or just travel faster. You can also use it get to a data post or VS quicker by grappling onto it, then disengaging before you jump.

Death from above!
When you anchor onto a ledge and jump up on top of it, you can fire your weapon or reload in the air. So if someone’s on a level above you, you can anchor up and get in a few shots before you land before your opponent even knows you’re there. I’ve even seen people hide out in the ravine on the Pirate Fortress map, and then pop up and ambush anyone who walks by. Not that I condone such cheap tactics. Haha.

Taunt like a pro
The only time I don’t mind dying in Lost Planet is when I’m taunting a kill while he watches me dance on his grave as he waits to respawn.

If you haven’t tried it out yet, you can press the START button and then use the D-pad to execute one of four animations. UP does a “Let’s roll!” gesture, RIGHT does “Yeah, baby!”, DOWN does “I AM THE GREATEST!” and LEFT does a “Thanks for letting me kill you” gesture.

Now, the character model available in the multiplayer demo has a hilarious “watch me spank my arse in your general direction” with a nice sound effect to go along with it. But when you get the full version, you’ll discover that these 4 gesture types have different animations for each character model. The one I’ve been using does a nice bow to honor my fallen opponent (and I try to bow to every one of my many kills unless there’s someone else around trying to shoot me). So as you level up in Ranked play and unlock new character models, you can try them out to see what kinds of animations they feature. Who knows, you may come back to the default character just because of the booty-slap.

Look for Part 3 tomorrow. And jump to Part 1 here.

I’m also working on a Japanese lesson so you can communicate with your Japanese teammates who have been playing the game for a month already, or just talk some trash if you want.

Also in store is a basic Multiplayer FAQ that will be posted in the LP forums, although I will definitely put up a notice here.

EDIT:
Part 3 is up.

—Brian

Official Lost Planet Giveaway!