I don’t know about you, but watching my father get crushed by a slug the size of a building would really piss me off. Definitely not enough to send me endlessly exploring frozen tundras hunting down the damned beast, but pretty unsettled regardless. Luckily for the video game playing world, Lost Planet’s protagonist, tragically named Wayne, takes these sorts of things a bit more personally than I do.

So off we go, Starship Troopers style, on a space age bug exterminating mission. Your fight will take you all across the snow covered landscape of E.D.N III, a desolate planet that humans are attempting to colonize in a last ditch effort to save their race. Unfortunately for us, the planet already serves as home to a variety of insect like aliens known as the Akrid, and they don’t appear to welcome unexpected guests kindly. Let’s face it, the story here isn’t exactly Shakespeare, in fact I’ve read more finely crafted tales on bathroom walls, but Lost Planet makes up for it with hours of old school inspired shootouts in some of the most modern trappings around. Capcom may not have the greatest writers going, but they sure know how to design a cinematic monster of a game in every other respect. Once your eyes start glazing over at the visual orgasm of explosions and bug juice, you’ll forget about the B-list anime dialogue altogether.

All of the action here is presented from a third person perspective, providing a much needed change of pace from the all too standard first person route. And while the controls have taken on a fair amount of criticism, the wide variety of settings should suit all but the most hopeless of gamers. In actuality, Capcom kept most of the interface pretty straightforward. Even the Bionic Commando style grappling hook felt intuitive and natural. While I wouldn’t say it’s without flaws, chances are if you die in Lost Planet, it has more to do with you than the interface.

And you will die. While some of the more lowly forms of life on E.D.N III attack in swarms that prove to be nothing more than cannon fodder (this includes a majority of the brain dead humans roaming about), these mostly serve as roadbumps between screen filling monstrosities and Mechs (or VS suits, as they’ve been dubbed here) that are armed to the teeth. Even some of the standard Akrid will literally dwarf poor Wayne, and they aren’t afraid to gang up on you either. It truly feels like one man against an army, and the scale of the conflicts become even more impressive as the game progresses.

Fortunately for us, Wayne has ready access to a large variety of bug exploding weaponry. Best of all are the formidable VS suits, which range from swift and light, to lumbering and devastatingly powerful. Trying out the impressive selection proves to be one of the most exciting aspects of the game, and these mechanical powerhouses become instrumental in surviving the latter half of the adventure. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of rocketing a VS into the air, as you rain death down upon your enemies below.

And did I mention this game looks great? Aside from the masterful Gears of War, it’s hard to think of a title that trumps Lost Planet visually. You wouldn’t think so much damn snow could possibly look good, but the graphic artists at Capcom did an exceptional job of breathing life into such a barren wasteland. Even better, the creature design is literally unmatched. The Akrid are vile, revolting beasts that make you want to blast them off the screen just by looking at them. I honestly haven’t felt that way since The Facts of Life got cancelled.

Once you’re done with the single player campaign, you can try out the online multiplayer options. I am not the sort of player who feels every new game must have multiplayer tacked on, but in this case it worked out well. While the game type options are pretty standard fare, the enormous levels, and access to VS suits provide a fair bit more depth than your standard online shooter. Teamwork is fairly essential, as a well managed group can easily run through any less than unified opponents. I don’t necessarily see this eclipsing the current Xbox Live leaders, but it’s a worthy addition to the multiplayer lineup.

Suffice it to say, if you’re a fan shooters, particularly the classic variety, this is a no brainer. In a gaming world where new IPs are becoming more and more uncommon, it’s nice to see that a major publisher such as Capcom is still willing to take some risks. Anyone not looking to be drowned in an endless sea of rehashed sequels needs to support the cause by putting their money where their mouth is. Hopefully we’ll all be rewarded with plenty of other original releases in the future, but either way, you’ll get to shoot a hell of a lot of giant bugs right now.