I love Armored Core. This game has the trappings of a fascinating action game. It is clunky, but it could easily be argued that its clunk is often the point. Armored Core wants to sell you on the fact that piloting a huge war machine is actually pretty sluggish and clunky, and it succeeds at this while also improving over the course of the game. As you buy new parts, old annoying aspects of control fade away and your machine feels more modern and powerful.
The progression in this game is noteworthy. In between missions you can buy items at a shop, but this isn't a simply case of buying the best item with the best stats because everything has tradeoffs. Having heavy armor or lots of guns will make your vehicle overweight. This can be overcome by having more powerful legs, but these use more energy so you would need a better generator and the bigger generator will be heavier and at that point maybe its worth looking at a different kind of gun that's potentially lighter to do the job. There is a lot to consider when building your mech, and this makes the choice of how to build incredibly meaningful. There are some missions where certain loadouts are better, and you often have to figure out what the optimal loadout will be based on a description alone. This makes a first time run incredibly tense because you don't know what will in store for you, especially because missions will often throw in unexpected surprises into missions. These surprises are fascinating in the sense that AC is such a plan heavy game. I spend a long time planning my mech and optimizing its approach to suit different missions, but these surprises can counter planning to a certain extent and force you to always anticipate unknown threats. One downside of this is that repeat playthroughs can't quite carry the same level of surprise, and the game becomes a lot easier and loses the surprise that keeps you on the tips of your toes.
Armored Core's mission design does a lot for the game. Each mission presents a unique obstacle to the player and each stands on their own. Overall, I like the missions, though there are some that clearly stand out over the others. In particular, the game's final mission is genuinely awful, and is a greater drop in quality than Xen was for Half Life.
Overall, Armored Core is an excellent action game. It's controls are clunky, but that's fitting for the sort of experience the game is going for and only rarely detracts from the experience. It's economic themes pair well with the game's writing, creating an effective critique of capitalism with only a few simple elements
The progression in this game is noteworthy. In between missions you can buy items at a shop, but this isn't a simply case of buying the best item with the best stats because everything has tradeoffs. Having heavy armor or lots of guns will make your vehicle overweight. This can be overcome by having more powerful legs, but these use more energy so you would need a better generator and the bigger generator will be heavier and at that point maybe its worth looking at a different kind of gun that's potentially lighter to do the job. There is a lot to consider when building your mech, and this makes the choice of how to build incredibly meaningful. There are some missions where certain loadouts are better, and you often have to figure out what the optimal loadout will be based on a description alone. This makes a first time run incredibly tense because you don't know what will in store for you, especially because missions will often throw in unexpected surprises into missions. These surprises are fascinating in the sense that AC is such a plan heavy game. I spend a long time planning my mech and optimizing its approach to suit different missions, but these surprises can counter planning to a certain extent and force you to always anticipate unknown threats. One downside of this is that repeat playthroughs can't quite carry the same level of surprise, and the game becomes a lot easier and loses the surprise that keeps you on the tips of your toes.
Armored Core's mission design does a lot for the game. Each mission presents a unique obstacle to the player and each stands on their own. Overall, I like the missions, though there are some that clearly stand out over the others. In particular, the game's final mission is genuinely awful, and is a greater drop in quality than Xen was for Half Life.
Overall, Armored Core is an excellent action game. It's controls are clunky, but that's fitting for the sort of experience the game is going for and only rarely detracts from the experience. It's economic themes pair well with the game's writing, creating an effective critique of capitalism with only a few simple elements