One step forward and a couple more back. I prefer the changes to the heat mechanic over how it worked as a Dark Souls poison effect in previous titles. It's been given much more depth now and only needs to be adjusted a bit here and there with heat generation from boosters and such. Missions and Arena are a total downgrade from previous titles, however, being largely uninteresting and easy until the final level but by then the game is already over. The economy also feels like a step back from Silent Line, but that could just be me as I prefer when the end-of-mission payouts are more strict unlike how forgiving they are here. The economy in these games is just as important as the customisation if you ask me, and they tend to synergise best when you feel like you're pressed for cash. It could be that the increase in payout rewards is due to the addition of part-tuning introducing another feature to spend credits on, in which case I can understand as part-tuning is a great new mechanic, so it's nice to have money spare to be able to essentially min-max builds I guess. Honestly, I had a lot more fun with Disc 2, which brought back a whole lot of remade and remixed 1st-gen levels as a celebration of the series so far. Nexus is a fine AC game, but it feels like a mere stepping stone between Silent Line and Last Raven.

Habs letztes Jahr schonmal angespielt und wollte es nun auf dem Weg zu Nine Breakers endlich mal beenden.

Nexus ist... weird. Jeder Schritt vorwärts, kam mit einem Schritt zurück.
Die Steuerung ist besser! Aber auch viel schwammiger.
Die Grafik ist besser! Aber komisch verwaschen.
Die Präsentation in Missionen ist besser! Die Präsentation außerhalb dieser aber so schwach wie noch nie.
Das Spiel ist komplexer! Unter Anderen dadurch, dass nun zwei Statusveränderungen des Vorgängers suuuper nervig wurden.

Leider ist kaum ein anderes AC so un-engaging wie dieses. Die neue Missionsstruktur, Arenastruktur, die Veränderungen im Shop etc sind ganz klar ein downgrade gegenüber 3 und Silent Line.

Allerdings... ist es dadurch nicht unbedingt schlecht. Schlechter, aber nicht schlecht. Bauen, Missionen spielen, überlegen wie man Ziele angeht und wie nicht, ist immer noch pretty nice. Außerdem, uuuuh, der Soundtrack.
AC hatte schon immer mal so ein paar ziemlich coole Tracks, aber ab HIER wurds richtig gut. Ich glaube fast mit 4A und VD ist das hier mein lieblings OST der ganzen Reihe und das heißt schon was.

Tempering expectations for 'Armored Core: Nexus' did not come easy for me. My adoration for how well served I had been by its predecessor 'Silent Line: Armored Core' left me in a position both wanting and not wanting more at the same time. That sounds fucking stupid I know so, please, indulge me.

I didn't get on great with 'Nexus' off the bat. As much as I now understand them to be so obviously superior, I wasn't a fan of the controls and found myself slipping up a lot because of how long it took for me to rewire my muscle memory. I found the missions to be samey and done-before, the UI totally balmy, the heat mechanic overly oppressive—as despite the game having otherwise some of the best customisation and quantity of parts in the whole series, heat can really straddle the selection of certain parts—and the story lacking much in way of a hook. It took me a while to appreciate the detached and unceremonious nature of which the humans had penetrated the Silent Line, the nonchalant emptiness as a feeling is excellently congruent with the aimless ascension-ism they have been characterised with previously. With how much generation 3 built up the location, 3.5 knocking it all down without a flinch is almost nauseating as you are quickly shuttled into the same grove we were just in a game ago. Same systems, same mechanics, same destruction sans ethics and reason, wasn't something supposed to change? Something other than the mission select screen into something for a PC game? There's an understated and yet all consuming nihilism that underpins so much of the first half of 'Armored Core: Nexus', it's not just that the tone is noticeably bleaker, it's the connotation of everything you're doing feeling so similar. I'd whinge about the mission design being hackneyed but that almost feels like the point, culminating in an utterly hopeless ending which some could see from a mile away, because IBIS' remark so clearly means practically nothing now in the face of the systemic issues driving humanity. Of course the corporations dig too far, of course it means an apocalypse, that's not a spoiler, that's me doing your pattern recognition for you.
I respect this bleakness, it's powerful, and I appreciate how the obviousness of the missions aided this feeling in a truly immersive way, but that does not mean some of these missions aren't rushed or just flat out confusing on why they're even in the game. 'Nexus' was made very quickly and you can feel it in a lot of places, like when the same desert mission where you destroy tanks is split into two for some reason? It feels like this is where a normal 'Armored Core' level would just have you resupply, or not even that if we're talking 'Silent Line', and you do them so quickly after the other that it feels the most glaring. Also, on this note, FromSoftware has—for lack of better phrasing—totally fucked up the Arena here. There are maybe 10 encounters with it you have across the story and about four of those fights are memorable, genuinely not sure what they were doing here, it's like the worst interpretation of what 'Master of Arena' was doing in 1999. This sounds harsh, so I'm hasten to remind that 'Nexus' does have its strong sorties that are very much worth playing, particularly its final one which uses the apprehension felt for the impending doom very well alongside a really excellent final encounter with a... potentially familiar face. Top the game off with an excellent final gameplay section which embodies the moment and you have an all time classic here.

The game is helped a fair bit by the fact that certain presentational elements have clearly been mastered by this point. The game looks and sounds great, cutscene animation in particular is much more well done and the music is fantastic. Kota Hoshino is absolutely deserving of his legend status in the fanbase with these thrilling techno and rock tracks. The qualities from the third generation of great sampling and catchy groves are still here but with much richer instrumentation and more impassioned compositions, simply excellent work.

'Nexus' also has a bonus disc which might be worth mentioning, basically containing a selection of remade developer favourite levels from older 'Armored Core' games. It's a fun novelty with some neat B-Sides, but can be a little annoying or bland at points. I would only recommend it if you're a fan but, as that's what I am, I enjoyed it. A sentiment which may be applicable to all of this, but this is still a very strong title which has left the story in a powerful position.

Now here's a (somewhat) black sheep Armored Core game I can get behind.

Nexus is an interesting sort of transitional game; the fundamentals are still what you'd call oldgen--it's even still part of the third generation, built on AC3's engine and mostly its assets--but it was easily the biggest mechanical departure from its direct predecessor the series had seen up to that point, especially for a non-numbered sequel. It was a game with New Ideas. Some of those ideas were. Questionable. But others are huge, and have stuck around for longer than Armored Core had existed when this came out. If you're playing through the older games vaguely in order, Nexus is a huge demarcation point for the series starting to feel more modernized.

The biggest, most noteworthy positive change, the thing you have to be truly deep in the AC sauce (I say this with a nonzero amount of respect) to complain about, is that in the year of our lord two thousand and four, in the fifth Armored Core game developed for the Playstation 2, Fromsoftware noticed that the console's controllers came with two analog sticks, obviating the need to manipulate the camera and targeting box with a combination of shoulder buttons and exactly half of the D-Pad. Standing ovation.

In seriousness, if you're playing these on an emulator in this day and age you can easily patch Nexus's exact control scheme into every earlier game, so its biggest contribution to the evolution of the series is kind of becoming more of a historical fun fact than an actual difference in how a present day player is likely to experience it. But I'm giving it credit, all the same.

But at any rate, that's not the only big shakeup; while they were at it, Fromsoft decided to experiment with how progression is structured. This isn't the first time they've done that--see Master of Arena--but it's arguably a bigger change. And... probably a worse one. I'm ambivalent, really. Missions work mostly the same, but briefings as a long-time fan knows them are gone (asterisk), replaced with a single non-voiced screen listing the employer, location, enemies, objective, and occasionally warnings about tactical conditions like radar interference or impaired visibility. The briefings are traditionally where a lot of Armored Core's storytelling happens, but Nexus doesn't really have less of a narrative than average. It's just been... rearranged. You've always gotten mail between missions, but in Nexus the messages tend to be longer and more frequent, and also include news bulletins summarizing the general world state.

At the same time, actual cutscenes have also been snazzied up considerably (presumably with the budget they saved on all the long, fully voiced briefings); in games older than this, you might get an extremely small number of short FMVs for major, major plot events, but the in-engine cutscenes that conveyed a lot of other plot beats rarely depicted more than an enemy either walking into the room, flying/boosting into the general outdoors area, or in a lot of cases just standing there while the camera pans over them. Bespoke animations were strictly off the table. In Nexus, they're willing to have things move around slightly more than the bare minimum in general, but in a few missions you get full-blown (short, but full-blown) cinematic action sequences, and for cheapo niche franchise PS2 graphics they're honestly pretty kickass. And then there's the ending, which I will not spoil, but... I don't want to overhype it, it's not, like, something that Changed Gaming Forever, but it's very surprising in more ways than you'd think Armored Core can surprise you. It's great.

While I'm talking about the story I feel like I should note that there's a definite tone shift here. It's subtle, at least at first, but Nexus feels like it wants to be more serious than the games that came before it, in a way that I think presaged the tone of future entries like 4 and 6. (And definitely Last Raven, I'm given to understand, but I haven't played it yet.) Don't get me wrong, Armored Core has always been dark--it's dystopian sci-fi with a big emphasis on the dystopia--but the earlier games are also a bit camp, a bit satirical. Nexus deals with exactly the same kind of subject matter, but the atmosphere is a little more somber, a little more subdued. Even the menus, which are very stylized (and thus not great in terms of usability, though not as bad as in most of the PS3 games), kind of build up that vibe; the general theme color of the UI is a very chilly bluish gray, where you might see retro-futuristic-computer black or harsh oranges in the older games.

Like in 4, there's a sense of fatigue around the fighting in Nexus, bolstered here by explicitly taking place in the same world as AC3 and Silent Line. It's the distant future of those games, some of the worldbuilding seems to suggest, but the same big three corporations from that era are still on their bullshit. It's a sense that nothing ever changes, that capitalism has trapped the whole world in a rut. It's the same assholes fighting the same pointless war over short-term control over and over again. Even the protagonist comes across as more of a passive corporate pawn than usual; in a lot of the classic games your big "rival" is a defender of the status quo, but in Nexus he's a would-be rebel. You're the one who never slips the leash; you're a cog in the machine from beginning to end (god the ending is good though trust me on this).

Anyway. Mechanics changes. These really are a Good Idea, Bad Idea segment.

Good Idea: All around balance changes! That sounds like it could go either way, but I honestly love where a lot of weapons are at in Nexus. I played around with several entire build types for the first time in this game; dual sniper rifles, bazooka and sidearm, I got the hang of rockets for god's sake. It was a lot of fun.

Bad Idea: Heat! Technically every PS2 Armored Core has a heat mechanic, but up until this point overheating was just a status effect that could be inflicted while taking damage. Nexus extended the frankly much more logical idea that, you know, your machine would generate a lot of heat depending on how you built it, and now if you don't work out a good balance with your generator and booster's heat generation stats and your radiator and armor's heat dissipation stats you'll very quickly give yourself that overheated status just by boosting. The formula is both not explained in-game and comedically overcomplicated, so trial-and-erroring your way to a state where you are not on fire can take forever if you want both your generator and booster to be remotely decent. I didn't get as mad about this as a lot of people (the game is pretty infamous for this mechanic), but it was definitely a pain in the ass sometimes.

Good Idea: Reloading! Prior to Nexus, guns in Armored Core could just shoot continuously at their rate of fire until you ran completely out of ammo (or ran out of energy, for energy weapons), which made balancing things like machine guns very difficult; they were sometimes kind of garbage and more often the best weapons in the game. Nexus just gave most guns limited magazine sizes, requiring you to take more pauses in the bullet spam and finally making machine guns a nice, reasonable Pretty Good. It's also just another little dose of (relative) realism, if you're into that kind of thing.

Bad Idea: There is no animation for reloading. There is no button to manually reload. The HUD does not tell you how many rounds you have left in a magazine. I am honestly not sure, having beaten the game, how the mechanic works exactly--I think you'll automatically reload after yea amount of time without firing regardless of current magazine status, so that at least you're always topped off between fights, but I'm not sure. Maybe I was just lucky.

Good Idea: The game comes on two discs. Disc 1 is Nexus's main story in its entirety; Disc 2 contains fifteen remakes of select missions from the PS1 games, plus one or two expanded or alternate scenario missions related to each of them. This is a pretty fun way to put a lot of bonus content in a game, especially because it let them cast a wider net with the difficulty curve--most of Disc 2 is a lot harder than most of 1, so a lot of hardcore fans who value the challenge consider it the main draw of the game.

(asterisk): Disc 2 missions also have traditional-style briefings, I guess because the general idea of the two discs is to have some Old to go with the main game's New.

Bad Idea?: That's because Disc 1 is like. Really easy. Really easy. There are a small number of jarring spikes but otherwise Nexus is a HUGE departure in difficulty from every previous game, with both very short and basic missions and an in-game economy that, for the first time, makes it extremely rare to actually lose money. I put the question mark there because I don't always mind a game being a little easy, and especially in the context of my Armored Core marathon I found the break very pleasant. But like, I do acknowledge also that there's a mission where you shoot down one small helicopter that is not shooting back and that's the whole thing. Honestly I kind of love that mission too because I got to it minutes after telling some friends that I was enjoying the game and it wasn't that easy, and laughed my ass off. But I can certainly see why it would rankle if you're here for more Silent Line-level action.

I talked for a while, huh. That's because the question of whether Nexus is good or bad is a pretty complicated one; it's the definition of a mixed bag. But in this case I'm pretty firmly in the You Guys Are Just Mean camp. I don't love everything about it, but I had a ton of fun with it. Its charm points are very different from those of the other oldgen games, so if you're putting together an Armored Core Sample Platter, I definitely think Nexus deserves a spot.

this game is hit or miss, while is not bad out of all the ac games this game has the most repetitive level design like destroy enemy mts or defend this area for x amount of time, that's 90% of the missions in this game, and not only that but this game has no challenge to offer, i steamrolled this game in like 4 hours, all the enemy acs either melt you in 5 seconds or you melt them in 5 seconds, and those missions where u had to use nightvision added nothing to the gameplay only making it harder where to go next. And this game has the most disappointing ending so far and i thought silent line's ending sucked. But you fight nineball for the millionth time in this game but since this is nexus bro dies in like 15 seconds which is kinda a shame coming from the nineball fight of master of arena, and then you just see a swarm of mech flies and hit you and then the game ends. Disc 2 looks alright but kinda bummed out from disc 1 but maybe i'll try it out someday

fucking awesome. doubles as a really solid entry in its own right and an incredible love letter to the rest of the series by this point. top it off with an absolutely killer soundtrack and you've got one for the ages - the agetec, if you will

not every mission is a banger (some, like 'eliminate vip' are downright hilarious in how worthless they are) but the biggest point of controversy - the cooling system - in spite of everything is:

A. not a problem
B. turbo filtration at its finest

actually needing to be somewhat concerned about heat is a completely reasonable handicap to balance out the new controls. tuning is a great addition as well and allows for a decent amount of build customization. ammo capacities are slim, but weapon hangers are a fun remedy for that and most missions are brief and focused enough to not be too restrictive anyway. additionally, they're much more cinematic this time around and the cutscenes go insanely hard

also - one of the best openings and endings of any game ever. i was really confused by a review below talking about this game's finale being more impactful than "all of ac6's endings". but uh, yeah. wow. holy SHIT

I can definitely understand why this is the black sheep of the franchise. It's an okay game in a series of incredible ones. I'll shotgun my thoughts.

- The addition of analog controls is much appreciated, but also oh my god they feel so alien after playing with the default controls for so long. Two out of 4 face buttons and the dpad being disabled, for some reason the left stick still activates extensions unless you rebind and is really sensitive to activating, the right stick having strafe instead of the left which shouldn't be an issue but is one for some reason, everything being backloaded onto the shoulder and triggers. It just doesn't feel as good as sticking with the tank controls I've used for 2 games now, at least in my opinion. Thank god for control rebinding. A properly rebound analog setup works like a dream, but still.

- The game is significantly slower than it's predecessors, which is fine, but I feel like it's slower pace doesn't help it. It just feels like AC3 in half speed with the thruster and movement changes exaggerating the issue. I personally don't like the thruster change like a lot of people coming from AC3/AC3:SL but I think it's a necessity due to how in a lot of builds in AC3 you could just fly forever with tapping the thruster without consequence. The real problem is it's also stacked on top of a general movement change where every set of legs is slower moving compared to their AC3 counterparts. This wouldn't be a problem if the thruster change wasn't like that.

- I don't care too much for some of how some of the parts are rebalanced and the fact that Human Plus/OP-Intensify traits are in the game but not given to the player even as separate optional parts I think is really, really dumb. I'm fine with them removing OP-I/H+ but some traits like moving with cannons is like, why not bring this back as a standalone optional part??? And then they give the strongest OP-I traits to enemies while you never get the chance to?????

- I'm actually kinda a fan of tuning. Having the ability to adjust items prevents the problem in AC3/SL where certain parts look good on paper but are completely useless compared to much cheaper parts that do it's job better. Tuning helps comfort this problem and helps squeeze some extra use out of parts you like aesthetically.

- The story's pretty aggressively okay and definitely way, way further in the background than the last 2 games. Then the last 3 missions hit which are absolutely amazing. The ending is phenomenal and the cutscenes are a treat. Probably my favorite part of the game.

- Whoever decided the blur should be so aggressive, constant and should affect the HUD needs to have their head checked.

Nexus is okay. It's not bad but it has iffy changes I really don't see eye to eye with. I hear Last Raven is MUCH better, with this game basically being a warm up - but after being mildly disappointed by Silent Line outside of its boss fights I'm not gonna hold LR up to a super high expectation. I'll probably going to loop back around to it after another non-AC game and a playthrough of 6 - I can't wait any longer.

Disc 1, Evolution:

In short, game sucks major ding-dong, but if you want to play Last Raven, sadly, you should play it. Worst mission design of the series by far, repetitive and peculiarly easy. At least it's very short.

Random notes:

-Why does the menu use a mouse? Lmao. It's not like the game released on pc.
-Maybe that's Fromsoft way of flexing the new and innovate analogue stick? (fifth game and 4 years into the PS2 era, btw).
-Soundtrack is the best one in the series so far... even if the menu song sounds straight out of a Barbie dressing flash game.
-Graphics are also better, and overall more immersive. So... why ruin them with a blurry filter I wonder?
-Even if there's questionable balance changes regarding movement, the new controls make the game play so much better. And you don't have to do a Mortal Kombat combo to drop a weapon anymore!
-They overcompensated too much for analogue aiming. Heat mechanic and ECM's are way over tuned.
-Why can't I sell parts from my inventory? Such a weird downgrade.
-I love to have a constant high pitch TRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR sound in my ear for the duration of the mission because of ECM abuse.
-Cutscenes don't make sense. Why is your AC watching while your allies get killed?
-Why is the loading screen longer than some of these missions?
-Lol, there was a mission that was literally to kill a single helicopter. It died in two shots.
-This game would be perfect for Silent Line's style of missions with enemy spam, but nope, very few mobs here. Why give us so much arsenal to use now with the addition of Left-hand weapons and hanger units then?
-Oh look, a new worse version of a memorable and much harder AC boss! And... it's dead in seconds.
-Ending this shitty game with that fantastic finale feels like an insult. Specially with how memorable the final theme is.

★½ – Unplayable ❌

Update:

Changed my rating to 4 after playing Disc 2

At a glance Nexus looks like just another PS2 Armored Core game, but beneath the surface it's probably the most willing to change things up that any AC game has done since the PS1. This is a fact that speaks more to just how conservative these games have been to this point rather than positing Nexus as some grand revolution. It's still ultimately a very similar game to its predecessors, but the winds of change are starting to blow for Armored Core.

The mission structure has changed and with it the voiced mission briefings from previous games are gone. You get only a brief summary of the mission objective before being thrown in. In their place the emails you receive are more detailed and alongside them there's a news bulletin where you can follow the events of the world happening, including how the results of your missions alter them. While some may miss the lavish production of previous games I thought this very thematically fitting. As a mercenary you feel more detached from the missions than you did before and it's only by carefully paying attention to world events that you can truly get a grasp on just what kind of impact your decisions are having, and maybe in doing so choose which jobs you want to take or not. Or you can be like me and just reject all defensive missions and accept anything else.

In place of the voiced mission briefings missions now feature considerably more elaborate in-engine cutscenes. These were extremely rare in prior titles but now feature frequently and while they're not incredible or anything some of them feature some pretty cool camera shots and even unique animations for the intros. This probably sounds pretty standard to anyone not familiar with the franchise, but rest assured that From Software have been extremely frugal about this sort of thing up to now, so seeing them in action actually shocked me the first time it happened. It's a real nice update to add some liveliness to the story sequences in game.

I've been pretty lax when it comes to discussing soundtracks in these titles as I don't consider myself very skilled at criticizing music. I do however know what sounds good to my ears and Nexus easily has the best soundtrack featured in any Armored Core game yet. Beyond that though it also features the best use of music in-game, with great track selection and variety throughout the missions.

Gameplay has been changed up in both subtle and more overt ways. This is easily the largest number of parts we've seen in a non-expansion AC game, though it did have the foundation of 3 and Silent Line to build from. Everything has been rebalanced however, for better or worse. The movement mechanics have also been changed up leaving Nexus feeling just a bit slower than either AC3 game. The heat mechanic has been changed too to require the player to more carefully manage their heat as just about everything generates it now.

I expected to dislike this going in, but ultimately found it to be a pretty enjoyable system, choosing your radiator and parts based on cooling is actually something I paid close attention to when I never had before and in general I felt like I was more mindful of my build in this game than previous entries in which I would just slap on whatever parts sounded good and jump in. Your mileage may vary though about whether this is good or bad.

Everything sounds pretty good so far right? What's the catch? Probably the biggest one is that this game is the easiest title in the series yet, but more than that has the biggest disparity in quality between missions. I ultimately didn't mind Nexus being on the easy side as it's not like every previous game was super-difficult. AC3 was only a little harder than this game and I didn't mind it. The missions are more of an issue however. While there's plenty that are fun and worth playing there's also a notably high number of extremely short levels offering little or no challenge here. Missions where you shoot down a small handful of weak MTs, and most notoriously of all the huge abundance of 'test' missions in which you do some lab work for what is basically a free payout with no risk.

Speaking of risk From seems to have given up balancing the economy at all anymore. It was never much of a factor since the introduction of the arena in Project Phantasma, but at least it was still possible to lose money during missions so you could pretend you were trying to go for high payouts if you ignored the absurd arena bonuses. Now though mission payouts are so generous you'll usually make a profit even if you fail a sortie. And as far as the previously mentioned arena goes this is definitely the worst implementation of it yet. I was personally never a big fan of the arena so this bothered me relatively little, but it could be a big sticking point for those who loved that feature.

Ultimately the good still outweighs the bad as there are plenty of missions worth playing here, but it's easily the game's biggest failing and the one that prevents it from being an incredible game instead of merely a very good one. Of course this is all in reference to Disc 1: Evolution. But what really elevates Nexus is the presence of Disc 2: Revolution.

Nexus' second disc features a remake of a large assortment of missions from Armored Core 1, Project Phantasma and Master of Arena. These are lovingly recreated with fully voiced mission briefings and play great in the new engine. It's strange how the production quality on these can often feel higher budget than those of the supposed 'main game.' If anything the exception selection of old missions highlights just how uneven disc 1's quality could be.

It doesn't stop at just remaking sorties though, as they also feature optional extensions of these missions as well as the opportunity to play them from the opposite side. These were fantastic additions that build upon the stories of these old levels by adding in new background details. It's always a risk to add in new story elements to old works, but I always found these to be respectful and fitting in tone with the source material. On top of that there's a ton of remixes of classic Armored Core tracks all throughout, taking what was already the best soundtrack in the series and elevating so far above everything else it's not even a contest anymore.

You can feel the love for these classic games pouring out in every single aspect of the Revolution Disc. AC1 was 7 years old by the time Nexus had released and From Software treat it with the utmost respect and adoration here. As someone who loved the PS1 Armored Core games this was a huge treat and the quality of these missions (amounting to nearly 40 total sorties when including the original missions and their extensions) injected some much-needed oomph into Nexus. It's a labor of love that emphasizes Nexus' as a marriage of new and old ideas and when combined with the uniqueness of Disc 1 leaves it as the most refreshing title AC has had in a long while.

The fact that I hate this game is a meme, I don't actually hate it. Ok maybe I do? Nah. It's just that Armored Core: Nexus is a game filled with ok or bad missions, everything sucks (tank legs are good though), the new controls are great but the arena is ass, the game is easy but sometimes frustrating for the wrong reasons (the bridge mission was conceived by a sadist). There's much to say on this game, the ending is one of the best in the series and the second disc starts great and finishes in a good way but the middle PP missions with the flying flowers could have stayed in that game and no one would have missed them.

feels like a game you'd have to be really plugged into armored core to get a lot out of. nothing about the game felt particularly thought through in a way that was far less forgivable since it's apparently the seventh or eighth entry. i'm really hoping the next couple games i try feel more compelling, as nothing in this one sold me on itself. i'll grant that at least part of that is probably because i didn't already go through silent line (assuming that's particularly good), but i was recommended this game and last raven as a duology of sorts. it gives me a bit of pause on the next set of ac games i was recommended on the road to 6.

back to this, though, i found that nexus overstayed its welcome after a while and got to a point where i'd acquired so much money with nothing of note to spend it on that it felt like the gameplay loop had just... slumped. i barely felt like i was upgrading anything after a while and experimenting with all kinds of parts became dull as a lot of what the game had to offer didn't feel too distinct. what had felt like being a kid in a candy store early on eventually became a sad sigh as nothing seemed to change quickly enough to satisfy that lust for experimentation these games seem to want to foster.

the missions weren't nearly as enjoyable as they could have been, feeling too similar without an excuse, and the music got grating during my least favorites of them (i'd imagine there's a correlation). the fights against other acs never really clicked, either, and while they weren't particularly brutal until a bit later it still just seemed like there was a level of non-flow with the (many many) weapons i'd experimented with that was unfortunately unavoidable compared to what i'd previously played (that being the first game). at the very least the base movement and some of the new systems that'd premiered since my previous experience were nice, though. it all felt like an evolution of some sort. i think.

it was nice feeling the general quality of life improvements that had come in the many games since the previous one i'd played, but that alone didn't feel like enough to make the game particularly enjoyable to the point of wanting to finish it. still, since i was kinda playing through it in long bursts i might just come back to it later in case i was just getting fatigued. it wasn't like it felt too bad to play, it just had no pull. regardless of specifics, i did feel like this entry was a lot more sloppy than i'd hope for for something so far into a franchise. i can only hope this is not an omen for anything to come.

Disc 1 (Evolution) is kinda terrible. They added a new control scheme where you can finally use your right stick for camera control but i'm so used to the old controls i reverted to them after one mission. They also rebalanced everything. Those balances changes are mostly ass, like for example machine guns now have to reload every X shots which is stupid. The game's easy overall, but it never felt satisfying to play in the sense that unlike previous games i never really got to a point where my machine was an unstoppable behemoth, which is fun! the heat mechanic is now HORRIBLE, boosting now heats your mech and a lot of powerful boosters just melt your radiator it's no fun

The game also has changed the entire economy. Now selling parts doesn't give you back as much money as buying them, which is a stupid change because that means you can't just try out a new part for free now! But don't worry, it doesn't matter because every mission gives you 10 times more money than the repair/ammo cost, and so you're virtually never gonna run out of money. At this point why even have a shop, when you can virtually buy a brand new mech in like 5 missions (even without selling your current parts). They also made the shop UI worse than in AC3/SL which is really funny

They also got rid of the arena, now you just sometimes have missions that are 1v1 AC fights and that's it. The other missions are as uninteresting as ever, but i feel overall they're even shorter than ever. the last boss is somehow even funnier than the AC2 another age last boss in the category of "wait why is this dude the final boss"

Disc 2 (Revolution) is kinda cute but also eh? you play remakes of missions from Armored Core, Project Phantasma and Master of Arena, and they all have a reverse side (play for the opposite camp) and/or and extended side (a followup to the og mission) that adds more lore to them. It's cool conceptually, but since the mission design never really evolved it's not as cool as it could have been, even if there's some really cool fanservices for fan of the PS1 games. Had this disc not been here i would probably only have given 2.5 stars to the game, but even with this i still wouldn't recommend Nexus tbh

Disc 2, Revolution:

So, this game comes with 2 discs, Evolution, which is the main campaign, and Revolution, which is a remaster of some of the most iconic missions from AC1, Project Phantasma, and Master of Arena. I didn't have a really positive opinion of Nexus' Evolution, but I think Revolution completely justifies playing Nexus. While in the main campaign missions are lackluster in terms of creativity and difficulty, here it's the complete opposite. And it makes me wish I wouldn't have skipped Project Phantasma, because its missions here were some of my favorites. Surprisingly, the older missions play wonderfully on the new engine, featuring new parts, collectibles, updated music and cutscenes, and of course the updated gameplay of Nexus. It also features reverse side missions, and some tricky 1o1 AC fights, really fun figuring them out again. I think the only complaint I have is that some missions end kind of awkwardly, and they probably should've been updated in that regard. But in general, it's just a lot of fun.

Overall, great addition to Nexus, and the most (or only) enjoyable part. In opposite contrast to Evolution, it's clear Fromsoft put a lot of effort in this. I'm bumping my rating to 4 from a 3, and changing it to recommended (✅). I know Last Raven is tempting, but don't skip this disc!

★★ – Bad, but playable ✅