It's a decent, if "excuse plot" game with cool mechanics and excellent multiplayer. In fact, the entire game is built entirely for multiplayer, with even the main storyline being a connection of multiplayer-ish levels against AI bots interspersed with fighting Akrid and boss fights.

Gameplay is a bit clunky- the over the shoulder view doesn't always have your character aiming towards your reticle, and soemtimes performign actions will skew the camera - throwing a grenade for example will adjust your view- and also tweak where you're throwing your grenade, making proper aim take practice. The grappling hook, while useful as always, is a bit short, I'd say even shorter than the first game, and timing it's aim is quite the pain the ass- you get a few seconds of movement before the "claw" hits an object, and god help you if anything hits your or happens to you in that time.

The thing you will curse 90% of the time is that you will be attempting to platform or make some precise jumps or move towards an edge to hookshot to a wall, and if you just ever so slightly fall off the platform, your character will make a "safety catch" where they stop whatever they're doing and hookshot back on the ledge you came from. This overrides all other actions, including hookshotting, regardless of whether or not there's safe ground below you. So say, you want to hop down a hole? Gotta have some distance, and JUMP down that hole, because ifyou try to just run off, you "catch" yourself. This action? It is very, very slow, and time consuming,and the only way out of it is to jump or drop, and the jump is more vertical and useless for clearing gaps, forcing you to hop back to the ledge you fell from, and try again. This makes the time trial training levels a sore pain because you'll find yourself running off a ledge just barely, and forced to waste 5 seconds pulling yourself back up, you'll make a jump and slide off the platform you land on, losing another 5 seconds, you'll hookshot a wall but inadvertently step one foot off the platform while doing so and thus lose another 5 seconds plus the time it takes to properly align yourself. In combat, this means thatyou're also completely helpless for 5 seconds because oops! Fell off a short ledge, better catch myself and let everyone shoot me dead.

Add onto this "stunlock", where being shot makes your character stop all other actions for a second- you cannot fire, you cannot run, dodge or hookshot. This makes any open firefight annoying, as you have a good deal of health but will be John Marston'd to death without even being able to dodge roll out of it. Platforming while enemies are nearby is impossible for this very reason, and the harder time trials are all about enemies with aimbot perfect accuracy pinging you with pistols. Naturally, at a few points in the campaign you'll also be asked to platform or navigate a large battlefield quickly while being shot at, making this quite frustrating. Certain inputs also edge out other ones, meaning timing your inputs in battle is important, or finding ways to do two things at once for maximum efficiency. For example, you can only move slowly while reloading, and cannot jump or run, and for a second after running, you can't jump or reload. However by jumping, then reloading, you'll move fairly quickly and perform a shorter reload animation.

Other than that, the gunplay feels natural, the "floaty" jump and hookshot let you pull off mean headshots from midair, with unparalleled freedom of movement while fighting.

Multiplayer is great, but finding people to play with is a bit hard, as GFWL is still on this game, and thus getting everything working takes possibly a degree in computer science, so you'll not see too many people playing this online. The game's also not interested in things like 'safe spawning' - enemies will spawn on top of you, you'll spawn in the same area as other players, and while you get some mercy invincibility until you fire your gun, expect to spawn, open fire on an enemy, have another enemy spawn immediately behind you and kill you.

Unlocks for weapons, skills, and character customizations are all random- you have a lottery adn all the item boxes you find just go into money for this lottery. Most of the time you'll just get nom de guerres- just names for multiplayer. Which are useless, because even if multplayer's scarce, a name isn't as important as getting a good gun- and in multiplayer your starting eqiupment is based on what you unlock! So expect to be curbstomped in even AI multiplayer battles, as they have a ton of equipment you haven't been rewarded with by random chance!

I recommend watching the lets play by "HiIamDan" and LithuanianDad on the LP Archive, as it gives a good look at the trials and travails of Lost Planet 2.

It's a decent, if "excuse plot" game with cool mechanics and excellent multiplayer. In fact, the entire game is built entirely for multiplayer, with even the main storyline being a connection of multiplayer-ish levels against AI bots interspersed with fighting Akrid and boss fights. Gameplay is a bit clunky- the over the shoulder view doesn't always have your character aiming towards your reticle, and soemtimes performign actions will skew the camera - throwing a grenade for example will adjust your view- and also tweak where you're throwing your grenade, making proper aim take practice. The grappling hook, while useful as always, is a bit short, I'd say even shorter than the first game, and timing it's aim is quite the pain the ass- you get a few seconds of movement before the "claw" hits an object, and god help you if anything hits your or happens to you in that time. The thing you will curse 90% of the time is that you will be attempting to platform or make some precise jumps or move towards an edge to hookshot to a wall, and if you just ever so slightly fall off the platform, your character will make a "safety catch" where they stop whatever they're doing and hookshot back on the ledge you came from. This overrides all other actions, including hookshotting, regardless of whether or not there's safe ground below you. So say, you want to hop down a hole? Gotta have some distance, and JUMP down that hole, because ifyou try to just run off, you "catch" yourself. This action? It is very, very slow, and time consuming,and the only way out of it is to jump or drop, and the jump is more vertical and useless for clearing gaps, forcing you to hop back to the ledge you fell from, and try again. This makes the time trial training levels a sore pain because you'll find yourself running off a ledge just barely, and forced to waste 5 seconds pulling yourself back up, you'll make a jump and slide off the platform you land on, losing another 5 seconds, you'll hookshot a wall but inadvertently step one foot off the platform while doing so and thus lose another 5 seconds plus the time it takes to properly align yourself. In combat, this means thatyou're also completely helpless for 5 seconds because oops! Fell off a short ledge, better catch myself and let everyone shoot me dead. Add onto this "stunlock", where being shot makes your character stop all other actions for a second- you cannot fire, you cannot run, dodge or hookshot. This makes any open firefight annoying, as you have a good deal of health but will be John Marston'd to death without even being able to dodge roll out of it. Platforming while enemies are nearby is impossible for this very reason, and the harder time trials are all about enemies with aimbot perfect accuracy pinging you with pistols. Naturally, at a few points in the campaign you'll also be asked to platform or navigate a large battlefield quickly while being shot at, making this quite frustrating. Certain inputs also edge out other ones, meaning timing your inputs in battle is important, or finding ways to do two things at once for maximum efficiency. For example, you can only move slowly while reloading, and cannot jump or run, and for a second after running, you can't jump or reload. However by jumping, then reloading, you'll move fairly quickly and perform a shorter reload animation. Other than that, the gunplay feels natural, the "floaty" jump and hookshot let you pull off mean headshots from midair, with unparalleled freedom of movement while fighting. Multiplayer is great, but finding people to play with is a bit hard, as GFWL is still on this game, and thus getting everything working takes possibly a degree in computer science, so you'll not see too many people playing this online. The game's also not interested in things like 'safe spawning' - enemies will spawn on top of you, you'll spawn in the same area as other players, and while you get some mercy invincibility until you fire your gun, expect to spawn, open fire on an enemy, have another enemy spawn immediately behind you and kill you. Unlocks for weapons, skills, and character customizations are all random- you have a lottery adn all the item boxes you find just go into money for this lottery. Most of the time you'll just get nom de guerres- just names for multiplayer. Which are useless, because even if multplayer's scarce, a name isn't as important as getting a good gun- and in multiplayer your starting eqiupment is based on what you unlock! So expect to be curbstomped in even AI multiplayer battles, as they have a ton of equipment you haven't been rewarded with by random chance! I recommend watching the lets play by "HiIamDan" and LithuanianDad on the LP Archive, as it gives a good look at the trials and travails of Lost Planet 2.