This game is jank kino.

Get the fuck out of here with your "analog stick" nonsense. Dpad up and down to move forward and back. Make sense so far? Well alright. Dpad left and right to aim left and right. Wait you want to MOVE left and right? That's what L1 and R1 are for. Oh, and L2 and R2 to aim up and down. Now it's really like you're in the pilot seat of a cannon fodder death trap mech!
For real though, the controls really are something to get used to. The whole reverse grip joke exists for a reason. Most people swear by the original control scheme and use it even well into the later games even after analog support gets introduced (around 7 games in lol), but personally I just took advantage of the wonders of emulation and jury rigged a control scheme that most resembled the twin-stick type configuration they introduced with Nexus. The results are... well, it actually worked pretty well! Now onto the actual game.

Customizing your AC feels fucking phenomenal and I literally spent a whole afternoon just dicking around with the emblem and color scheme editor to get it just right. There are a myriad of parts and weapon types and everything for every single possible playstyle. It's by far my favorite part of the game. I hear the options only get better and better the further into the series you go, which sounds exciting as hell.

Where the game really starts showing its jank is with its level design, though. Some missions are fine, but then you get some of the indoor ones which are just a dreary labyrinth of completely identical hallways and rooms. It is incredibly easy to get lost especially if you don't use a head part that has a mapping option (something I only realized way too late into the game). Some missions, namely the final one also require you to do precise platforming which honestly just does not work at all and can feel extremely frustrating at times. There isn't much in the way of one on one AC combat since this game doesn't have an arena yet, and the duels you do get tied to missions felt fairly few and far between. The ones you DO get though are quite nice, really.

The story is classic FromSoftware cryptic, but I actually like how it kind of comes together. You get to pick "sides" by picking and choosing which missions to accept, gaining the favor of one of the megacorps who in turn want you to fuck up the other. Everyone here is complete scum and you're just trying to make the best of it by playing both sides. You'll spend one mission trying to release a bunch of creatures developed as biological weapons from a secret facility for one client, the immediately spend the next one cleaning up your own mess, this time hired by the research group you JUST got paid to fuck over. It's great.

All in all, it's a pretty solid start to the series, but the kinks and creases really do make themselves known quite a bit. Thankfully, FromSoft really went hard pumping these games the fuck out, improving on the formula each step of the way. This is only the beginning.

Um dos melhores jogos de ps1 que já joguei. Mesmo com toda a limitação do jogo(não da para mover o AC com o analógico, por exemplo), tudo é feito com uma maestria insana.

A coisa que mais diverte e chama atenção é o sistema de customização do AC. Você pode mudar ele completamente a qualquer momento do jogo e cada peça REALMENTE muda o gameplay. Desse modo você se vê testando diversas partes ao longo do jogo, tanto em busca de um AC mais eficiente quanto apenas para se divertir.

Meu único pesar com o jogo é com alguma decisões de level design, sendo a principal delas a de fazer trechos de plataforma dentro de lugares fechados(ainda tenho pesadelos com a última fase :'( ). Apesar disso, os níveis são bem tranquilos e a maioria não vão necessitar nem de 4 retrys pra passar.

Em suma, é um jogo maravilhoso que todo fã de mecha e jogos retro deveria jogar.

I played the PS2 Armored Core games back in the day, but finally went back and played the original. Maybe it was my latent familiarity with the series, but I thought this game held up rather well. It's a bit jank compared to later titles, and the starting Armored Core seems absurdly weak, but after that it was a very playable experience.

The robot customization is rather weak, though I did miss some parts. And I have to mention it, why even have back weapons equippable for bipedal legs without Human-Plus (a cheat item)? But, at the time and frankly ever since the customization hasn't ever been matched. These games are completely unique and there's nothing like them, and what is like them is even jankier than these games and have nothing else going on.

The presentation in this is maybe the best in the series. I may have glossed over details when I was a kid, but wow this game has incredible atmosphere and vision. The visuals are styled like high quality 90s anime, the particle effects and UI in particular, and I think they nailed it in low fidelity 5th generation graphics. It has aged well. The soundtrack is also pretty nice, very sci-fi techno. What else impressed me is the (albeit periodic) sound design in certain missions. The mission you go find the Human-Plus details has this Silent Hill-esque soundscape, loud banging noises, human voices repeating, all with specific cues in a large spooky mission, enhancing the sense of mystery and grandeur.

Another terrific moment is wiping out the Chrome side (that's the path I took) you fight the remnants in a large somewhat abandoned facility. The enemies are the same as the beginning, weak and go down instantly, and not that many, sporadically spread out in the area. There's a lot of darkness, and the draw distance is cut back very strongly, and there are gigantic massive rotating fans with a stark sound. It is otherwise completely silent. All this makes this mission a very strong punctuation point right before the end of the game.

The story also impressed me, the cynical hyper capitalist dystopian set up is right there at the beginning. The first two missions you can accept are "Eliminate Strikers" and "Eliminate Squatters" which communicates the setting about as quick as possible lol. But the main story, about men becoming machines, people being willing pawns in greater schemes and more than anything else a deep deep paranoia that is an undercurrent to every single thing. With later plot revelations about being manipulated, there's a subtle implication that every other figure in the story was similarly turned into a paranoid mess. Factions attack each other out of the fear that the other will, that doing nothing is considered a grave threat to all of mankind no less! It's a story that has aged incredibly, and more relevant today than ever before.

I do have to dock the game a bit for that insane final mission. Legit what were they thinking how are you even meant to do that without save states or banging your head against a wall for 15 hours. I only failed maybe twice in the game up to the end, but I flatly gave up at the end and just used save states. I do like that it is a big finale, big reveals, lots of stuff being thrown at you.

Overall, it's a landmark game that is more influential than realized. I'm looking forward to 6.

"Unlike other Mecha series, this one is about the machines"

It's Jank kino, a game while not being the best technical, once you look past that you get a very good and rewarding experience. If you know about the armored core series you may have heard of the inverted controller meme, making fun of the controls of the AC series and while YES, these controllers are kinda fucking weird and wonky, the moment you get used to them you are able to enjoy it (or change the controllers on an emulator but c'mom...)

Another great thing about AC is the customization of the mech, as someone who likes gunpla a lot, it makes me so joyful that I can build my own mechs and use them in battle, seeing how well they perform and such. Half of the fun from this game comes from replaying levels you failed and buying different mech parts to see if it will work this time or not and seeing what works and what doesn't.

One thing I don't see mentioned all that much is the story and while yes, the main focus of the game isn't the story, what there is of it is pretty great. Honestly, it reminded me of games like Farcry 2 and the STALKER series, where you are just merch who takes odd jobs from different warring factions and said odd jobs are mostly dirty work. This is reflected in how the first two missions you are able to do are either killing strike workers or squatters. No hero complex or villain complex, you are just mech wanting to be paid kinda vibe which I enjoy a lot.

One thing I disliked about this game is the unholy amount of the time you are in the menu changing up your mech for a mission, my god. I wouldn't have minded it so much if you didn't need to fucking open 5 fucking menus to buy a weapon and 6 fucking menus to equip it.

Also, some of the missions suck, but you can't win them all I guess.

Oh! And before I forget, I never got debut so I never had the chance to use the human plus thing but the concept of the game becoming easier the more you suck at it is actually kinda cool, I like it.

Overall, you should watch ZETA Gundam.

carenar
Del lat. carināre 'poner en forma de quilla'.

1. tr. Añadir accesorios ornamentales, aerodinámicos o funcionales a una motocicleta o a un coche de carreras.

2. tr. Mar. Reparar o componer el casco de la nave.

where I stopped this game: on the Kill Struggle Leader mission (~25 missions in I think), there's a part a little over halfway through where you will almost certainly fall down a very large pit and are forced to climb up by doing precision platforming, on platforms you cannot see without pausing and looking at a very finicky map based on line of sight. I don't believe this mission is optional so I just gave up; this mission was probably the most cruel I played in the game by far. perhaps the platforms are visible when not played on a small-ish CRT running popstarter on a ps2 but it still was completely ridiculous

+rather deep mech design tools with many configurations possible. shockingly enough each part you buy can be resold for the same price, a very user-friendly move that makes experimentation very feasible
+failing a mission will deduct money from your account but in many cases will not significantly impede you (except on that Kill Struggle Leader mission... I now wonder if I had died rather than aborting the mission whether it would allow me to pass). you can even go into debt a certain amount without any penalty, and if you get to -$50k you'll restart the game but with stat perks, which can be stacked if multiple failures occur
+yea it's tank controls but thanks to the strafe options it actually feels pretty good. bunny hopping around or even just strafing with the four-legged mech variation will almost always do the trick for you
+the outside scenes are actually rendered rather convincingly for a '97 game, with some cool locales and only infrequent environment reuse
+mission objectives range wildly, and often unexpected twists can occur, forcing you to prepare your loadout for any outcome
+I first experienced this in spiritual successor daemon x machina: the emails you get both from your handler and the corporatiosn you work for. I find these so novel lol

-the interior missions suck most of the time, with long missions, copy-pasted layouts, and usually only a single enemy type throughout an entire level. these make up about half of the missions (out of what I played) and are never fun
-combat really struggles to get more interesting than "strafe and shoot", with maybe some hand-to-hand combat if you can get close without taking missiles to the face
-the menus for the shops and such are extremely beginner-unfriendly, and I had to use a guide for much of it until I learned the ropes. so many options, and it's so overwhelming when you first look at it
-even though I'm glad that the game doesn't punish you too harshly for failing a mission and moving on, I still wish there as a "mission retry" option. the alternative is just reloading a save, which takes a significant amount of time and is rather annoying
-the camera controls really would've benefitted from a second joystick, rather than using the triggers to move it up and down
-the lock-on feature seems to not really work in many cases? at least while strafing. if I lock-on to an enemy with heat-seeking missiles I would expect the missiles to hit the target and not veer off wildly

I admire this game in some respects for its depth of play and interesting difficulty mechanics, but it's way too ambitious for a game on the psx. I may try later entries down the road to see if they feel better and have more interesting level design. this game certainly has cult appeal and I do think they actually accomplished much of what they set out to do, but overall I didn't feel like most of it was very fun at all beyond the feeling of progressing in a difficult game.

The start of the best mech franchise ever. It's only the first game but already they defined the course for the entire series.
Features god-tier customization even by today's standards. Less of a simulation than MechWarrior and more blasty-blasty action, but you still have to take your time going through the (fairly ugly) levels.
This game is BRUTAL. There is an invisible timer that ticks down for missions before they expire and each one you choose advances that, and in some cases picking certain missions cancels another. This happens regardless of whether you pass or fail the mission, and any money lost from ammo or mech repairs is permanent. It is extremely easy to fuck yourself over when starting out and constant saving/loading becomes the name of the game. Beating most missions made me sigh out loud in relief.
Despite the harsh design sometimes getting in the way and making things more cumbersome, and the lack of decent comparisons with current parts when buying new ones, this game absolutely rules and manages to somehow sneak in a compelling narrative that becomes more prevalent as it goes on.
A must-play if you have any interest in mechs, just be prepared for a learning curve. I haven't even mentioned the controls.

Cool game. Building and customizing your own mech is pretty fun. Control scheme is a bit rough, but you'll get somewhat used to it surprisingly quickly, except L2/R2 to look up and down; even at the end of the game I was still fucking it up. Speaking of end of the game, the final mission is as diabolical as people say. Fucked up platforming and TWO Nineballs, that was a trial. The biggest surprise was the OST though. My biggest motivation for getting into this series is piloting mechs with Kota Hoshino bangers in the background, but he doesn't start composing until Nexus and onwards, so I'm glad this game has some real memorable tunes at least.

MAIN SYSTEM ENGAGING COMBAT MODE

Man what is there can I not say about this game? Armored Core was a franchise that lasted from 1997-2013 serving as From Software's major cash cow until Souls gained mainstream popularity. The franchise has a heavy emphasis on customization so extensive it can be intimidating for new players.

The original Armored Core and every entry up to Armored Core 2 Another Age takes place in a futuristic setting where most of humanity is wiped out and what remains is an anarcho capitalist hellhole where the major corporations are all committing all sorts of atrocities on each other along with the general public to be the big dog. The player takes the role as a Raven who is basically a gun for hire these corporations will contact and it's up to you to pick which missions fit your agenda whether it be your morals, objective difficulty, or monetary gain. At the end of the day you're going to be doing some dirty deeds whether it be killing a bunch of homeless people squatting in an area a company wants to expand in, unleashing a biological weapon to screw over another company, or killing someone who went under a horrific experimental procedure to turn them into a murder machine only to go rogue. Starting with the very first game Armored Core establishes a bleak setting where the player is not the hero of the story but rather another factor in its ongoing misery.

What makes Armored Core really stand out for me is how customization is integrated into its overall missions structure. Each mission will give you a briefing that details a general idea of what you're in for and it's up to you to tune up your AC as needed. The majority of the game is essentially this puzzle of tackling a mission, changing things as you feel need be and either successfully accomplishing the mission or having to troubleshoot where your AC is lacking and do some touch ups. This might sound tedious but From made the right call in two areas. Missions are generally short very rarely surpassing the five minute mark but more importantly every weapon or part you purchase in the store can be resold at the same exact price you paid for so there is absolutely no punishment for experimentation.

Another aspect of Armored Core I absolutely adore is the control. Initially the controls will seem very clunky and unintuitive but over time you eventually get the hang of them and my god does it feel incredible piloting a hulking behemoth who is also somehow flying around in circles dodging missiles and shooting rival ACs up in the sky with your plasma cannon.

Also gosh dang is the music FANTASTIC. AC1 in particular is a great combination of electric and atmospheric tracks and I frequently find myself coming back to them often while I'm not playing. My personal favorite from AC1 are Synoptic Dope, Shape Memory Alloys, Grip, and Air.

I'm trying to keep this review as concise as possible so I'll finish now with urging you to finally try out this series. It may be forgotten now by gamers but there's a pretty dang good reason we got 18 games in a 16 year period and it's absolutely worth diving into the first entry to get a glimpse why.

Looks good, sounds good, plays...interestingly. It's not that the controls are extremely terrible, but they're certainly not great. But in a way I suppose it helps you get the feeling that you're really piloting a monstrous humanoid tank packing crazy ordnance when it takes you 5+ seconds to turn around. Some of the levels felt very impressively sized considering the time of release. The story is kind of in the background, so you can pay as much or little attention to it as you want, and which missions you accept change the way that story progresses. Very neat idea for replays. Speaking of neat ideas, the emblem editor is pretty full-featured for a free sprite art editor in a PS1 mech game. I don't know if playing on an arcade stick hurt or helped with this one. I think it's going to take some patience to get used to the controls regardless. But if you can adapt to them, it's absolutely a game worth checking out.