Yesterday I talked to you a bit about the Lost Planet 2 stages we showed at TGS. I left off at the end of the first part of the desert stage demo we had. You can catch up on that here in Part 1 .

The pirates you’re playing as have just fought their way through a bunch of snipers and a couple of huge Akrid (with a knack for trampling you beneath their feet). Once you’ve made your way through them you can steal the train from the middle of the now completely destroyed town, and get home.

Of course, there’s always a problem. But that’s ok, since solving problems in Lost Planet 2 involves guns or other devices of an explosive nature. The train is full of enemies, and you have to work your way from the back to the front main engine and take it over. The main engine is pulling two rows of cars, which means you can move from set to set taking care of the baddies along the way. There are plenty of guns, VS, and explodey goodness along the way to the front.

Read more of what happens in this stage after the jump!

It’s not an easy task to simply shoot and run to the front. You have to team up with your buddies to help take these guys down. There’s going to be a few flying VS shooting at you, as well as dropping off enemies to try and stop you. Oh, and a few cars that are essentially a whole cannon insistent on aiming for you.

With all that going on, you’re more than likely going to fall off the side of the train at least once. That isn’t a pleasant experience, since the train is moving around 300mph or so. When your body hits the ground, it’s as if you can see the bones in your body start crunching into mere dust as you tumble. And by the time the camera makes it back to the front, you’re body is just a lump of inanimate limbs.

There are plenty of things to give you an advantage over the bad guys. Like a VS, a few sets of Battle Armor, lots and lots of disc grenades, and a crap load of wicked guns. Once you take care of most of the enemies and activate all three data posts along the way to the front of the train, the next problem arises (these guys have bad luck, with problem after problem!). Shooting through enemy pirates is nothing compared to what happens next.

The ground starts to shake and something starts rising out of the sand behind the train… It’s moving fast. Fast enough to over take the train. Suddenly, it bursts from the sand and swallows four train cars. It’s an Akrid. A Category G, called the Red Eye. And he wants to eat you and your train. Your objective is to stop him from devouring the train and the tasty innards of you and your friends.

We give you some amazing tools (aka big guns) to get the job done. There are a few ways to approach this, but the best and fastest way to prevent you from getting eaten is the main cannon on top of the engine. This cannon isn’t ordinary, but is actually one of the biggest guns you’ve probably ever taken hold of. It’s so big, in fact, that the shells are the size of your whole body. What better way to kill a giant Akrid than a giant gun?

So now you have this cannon to point/shoot/explodify the Red Eye. But it takes more than just one to use this gun. You’ll need to get your team helping you out. The shells for the cannon are scattered thoughout the train, and you’ll need to grab them and load them into the cannon. There’s even a few types of shells, the Cobalt (standard shell), the Devil’s Roar (shotgun), and the Armor Piercing Shells (armor piercing, duh). Everyone has a role here. You’ll have to take turns if you want the full experience.

Once you see the cannon, there’s a bunch of things you could be doing. Starting from the front of the cannon, on the left and right side there are pumps that can help turn the cannon faster than just using the right stick to aim, behind that there’s the main helm, where you can shoot the cannon and slowly aim, behind that is the area for loading the Cobalt and Devil’s Roar shells, and finally at the very back of the cannon is a crane that can grab the special Armor Piercing Shells from the car behind you. As you can imagine, using this takes communication and real team work. And with a giant Akrid trying to eat you, things get intense really quick.

Oh, and add to all of that, the Red Eye is also slamming himself into the train trying to knock off the tasty morsels that are you and your friends. A giant Akrid smashing into the train doesn’t exactly do wonders to the engine. You’ll notice that with each smash the train’s health bar gets lower, and worse yet, the train will catch fire. Not to worry, there’s a coolant system to help put out those fires and repair the train! Down below in the heart of the engine, you’ll also need to coordinate with each other to activate the coolant system make sure the train stays running.

Now you know how to use the cannon. Aim at those spots on his side and blow out the (you guessed it) bright glowing orange spots! Each shell type does damage differently too. For example, the Devil’s Roar is like a shotgun shell, and tends to blow out massive chunks of flesh, guts, and Akrid juices.

That’s not the only way to take down the Red Eye. We also supply you with an entire train car full to the brim with guns, grenades, rockets, lasers, and just about anything else you can imagine that goes “boom.” Behind that car is one of the new flying VS, which can hold one pilot with two gattling guns, and one gunner with any two VS weapons you want to attach to it. The car over from that is another single man cannon that can do a ton of damage. Plus, lining the sides of the main engine below the big cannon are one man turrets. There are plenty of ways to shoot him down, but how you do is completely up to you and your friends.

Once you finally do enough damage to the Red Eye, he gets fed up and decides he’s going to just swallow you whole! And then… Well, you’ll have to wait to see what happens then later on. =)

Here are a few questions you guys asked to yesterday’s blog:

RagingDemon asks: Does the Battle Armor prevent T-ENG loss or only absorbs the damage? Slows you down? And Occupy a weapon slot?

Answer: The Battle Armor consumes no T-ENG while you’re wearing it. It takes all the incoming damage so you don’t lose any health. It doesn’t slow you down too much, and doesn’t take a weapon spot. It’s all “win” with no side-effects.

Baberific asks: Can you zoom in with the VS rifle on foot?

Answer: Yep. You can. The zoom is very similar to the standard Rifle.

J T AKA HL Detective asks: How long is this game, and is it necessary to play with three other people?

Answer: The game holds even more content than Lost Planet Colonies did. Expect to spending a good deal more time on LP2. And you don’t have to play the campaign with other people. In fact, you have the option of turning on some very helpful AI partners, or just doing the whole game all by yourself. The choice is up to you!

Blastaar asks: Will they keep and include more female characters like they did in colonies?

Answer: We’ve announced that there will be female characters to play and customize. I think you’ll like some of the secksy outfits we have planned. 😉

MPsy asks: Ooooooo…what’s under the green?

Answer: If I told you, the Capcom ninjas would be instantly upon you.

If you have any other questions, ask away in the comments to this blog and I’ll try to answer them tomorrow when I talk about the customization options for your character and the multiplayer.