Armored Core 4

NOTE! THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, SO IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO NOT BE SPOILED, READ CAREFULY AND SLOWLY! GOT IT? GOOD! LETS GO!

Opening Statement:

The Armored Core series and I have a love-hate relationship (Just like my real life relationships…), I love blowing s**t up with giant armored robot suits, and I love customizing my mech with tons of weapons and giving it my own custom paint job so it feels like mine. Not unlike that same feeling some people have with cars.

But then this beauty of mine rears its ugly head, usually ugly graphic-wise, horrible soundtrack and voice acting, and a poor story (Which I value a lot in games now-a-days.).

So I kind of gave up on the Armored Core series, but recently I have been thirsting for a mech game, and I could not find Chromehounds anywhere. So instead I, almost fearfully, picked up Armored Core 4 for the Xbox 360. 'Maybe this game will be different,' I said to myself, 'maybe this will be a great game!'

So what is my final opinion on the game? Well, see for yourself.

Game Play:

In my research there are two completely differently genres of Mech Combat Simulator games; WMCSG (Western Mech Combat Simulator Game) and JMCSG (Japanese Mech Combat Simulator Game), which is a lot like the RPG genre right now (NOTE: This is just something I dub them, that is not the official title of the sub-genres.).

WMCSG's play more like the Mechwarrior series, or Chromehounds. Usually slow moving battle robots, which the battles are usually more tactical based. While JMCSG's are more about fast-paced, frantic battles, much like watching the Gundam series (Mostly Gundam Wing).

For awhile now the Armored Core series has been in the gray area between these two genres I created. It tries to be fast, but fails, so the result of its gray spot; a 'try and fails' situation.

But it seems like the series has grown out of teenager indecision to become an adult, and finally picks a side. It chooses to fully embrace the JMCSG genre, allowing you to fly around at a common 500 KPH, with loads of enemies and lasers flying both ways. And believe me; the result of its soul searching has made this a very good MCSG.

This is probably the most approachable Armored Core game of the lot, most of the garage options have been toned down. Less parts, simpler options, so newcomers to the game will not feel too overwhelmed, and the game does a good job of slowly introducing game elements.

One of the drawback's is that this game series garage feature worked much like building, upgrading, and tuning your own car so you fully made it your own. But now the customization is much more streamlined so you can only make so many different combinations, which sort of takes part of the fun out of the game my making your own unbeatable warmachine.

The controls in this game have also been highly improved, making much simpler to switch weapons on the fly, changing directions in mid-air, and to shooting your weapons. The controls may be awkward to get use too if you haven't ever played a MCSG before, but it has a most helpful tutorial which will make everything much easier.

Overall many improvements have been made to the games game play, improved controls and a simpler customization option will make the game easier for newcomers, though may disappoint veterans of the series. The rush of the fast paced combat can be compared to that too many popular FPS's on the market now-a-days, and are a pure joy to play.

Art:

Graphically this game got the overhaul it desperately needed. The ruined cities, flooded capitals, giant buildings, and fearsome robots all have a surreal feel to them, almost as if what you are all seeing is a dream, but it is a damn pretty dream at that.

All of the explosions are properly explode-y; all of the particle effects are gorgeous, and the lighting when you for example fly in a night mission, or shoot a barrage of machine gun fire is some of the best lighting effects I have seen in a long time.

Down side, some of the textures are ugly close up, there is some tearing (Tearing is where objects collide, but instead of bumping off, go through each other.) especially with large mechs, and there can be frame rate drops when the large amounts of lead, plasma, and missiles start flying around.

Overall this game does a lot of things right with the art, but some things keep it from truly being a art masterpiece.

Audio:

Japanese games have a long tradition of sucky voice acting; but fortunately the English voice work is extraordinary. Some of my favorite VO (Voice Over) actors are in this game, and instead of the empty emotion, and too much emotion that go in most Japanese titles, you will find none of that here. Replacing it is high-quality voice acting.

All of the weapons sound great; missiles have the nice 'VROOM!' when they are flying through mid-air, plasma, pulse, and laser weapons all sound great as well with their air-ripping like quality to them. And machine guns sound nice and shooty.

The mechs all have that oily squeak, and roar of thrusters and engines like what you would imagine mechs of their size, and equipment, to sound like.

One thing that I found disappointing audio-wise was that the game is usually either WAY too quiet, or WAY to loud, so you might have a hard time adjusting your speaker system and volume level to that just right level.

Content:

This, unfortunately, is where Armored Core takes a sky dive of failure.

You have about a total of 35 missions, which is actually quite a lot, and they all offer different and interesting challenges so it never feels old. But Armored Core 4 steals two horrible trait from its older brothers. First, the missions are WAY too short, so while you get many of them, the most you will get out of longest one is about 2-5 minutes, and the average mission lasts about 1-2 minutes. Second, the missions can be ungodly hard even on normal. Sometimes you'll need to completely retune your mech for that mission, and that mission alone.

Story-wise the game is sort of a mess. It usually expects you to know stuff in advance, or expects you to understand the most obscure parts of dialogue that refers to important events they never go into. You play as a mute uber-powerful mech pilot known as a Raven (You get to name your own character.), while you work as a merchanary who fights for the highest bidder, which are mostly one of the big corporations that have over-thrown the nations of today to rule the ruined world of the future.

The game offers a fun offline spilt screen option, and an online eight player multiplayer, but there is not that many different levels and they are usually boring, and very few game type options. While it is great to have 8 other mechs flying in the same space as you, you will quickly find it boring with its limited choices and move back to the single player. Other bad thing about the multiplayer is that most fun of the weapons in the game are completely useless online, which takes the enjoyment of it a bit.

So what is back for you after you beat the single player the first time? Well, you can replay all of the missions on the inhumanly difficult Hard Mode, and get all of the achievements and fiddle with your mech and different designs.

There is also a fun battle arena mode where you can fight AI driven powerful mechs which can make a good challenge, but doesn't last very long either. So overall this game will not stay in your disc tray for weeks to come.

Closing Statement:

Overall this new Armored Core game does a lot of things differently, and does them very well. But some things many turn off more experienced players, like lack of parts, and the simple garage mode. But this game does try to reach out to gamers new to the series by being more user friendly.

With strong game play, art work, and audio work behind it, Armored Core 4 is probably the best mech game on the market. But the short campaign and limited replay ability may disappoint. Of course this game is only 30 USD new, so it is well worth the price.

In a way this game is a dirty tease. Hinting at all of the wonders and great new possibilities that lay within it's fast passed action, great control scheme, and wonderful game play. But before you can really start to dig into this great meal, the plate and food is taken away from you just as quickly as it is put in front of you.

If you are someone who loves anime series like Gundam, or a fan or MCSG's, or are interested in getting into this genre, you owe it to yourself to pick this game up. You won't be disappointed in this best installment of the Armored Core series yet, and here's to hoping for a sequel that will take all the promises the game made, and does it the justice it deserves.