Seldom is a game devoured by me quite like 'Armored Core 3', and this has left me feeling a little undercut on my task here. I can't remember the last time I beat a game this fast, let alone sat down for 16 hours across two days to do nothing but play it. Maybe I’m a depressed neet, or maybe this game is just goated, who can really say for sure? At any rate, upon reflection on my time with this cult classic there's honestly so little of FromSoftware's work here that I feel is worth criticising, and while all my game reviews have done an excellent job in making me feel totally useless, here I worry that this piece will be me grossly wasting your time beyond previous levels, dearest reader. That’s not supposed to be an insult to the game, mind you, just my writing ability. This is all because although 'Armored Core 3' is far from the most profound work in this fabled developer's catalogue, it has put the mecha series into an ascendancy which holds so much potential that it leaves me hungering for more in a way that I have never felt with previous entries, which is going to make this review seem more like me verbally gushing ceaselessly from every orifice because I’ve properly noticed the beginning of something great before it’s full form physically causes that phenomena to occur.
Now that I’ve overly drawn out the worst opening of my entire critical output on the internet, this is a good time to start by stating that mechanically speaking, this is the best title yet. Naturally. All but barring only one glaring balancing issue. The game is as smooth as the series has ever been, with a great selection of weapons and parts, as well as great potential for detailed builds in its welcome array of optional parts. The addition of ranged left arm weapons and the economic leniency underpinning the whole experience means I got into customising a variety of ACs in this game more than any other instalment. However, builds that involve overheating are just simply too strong. Most bossfights in this game are of course other ACs, not to mention the whole alternative progression of the Arena mode, many of which are simply left in the dust due to certain weapons which generate loads of heat. Paired with a flamethrower, these selections are hilariously overpowered and I simply refused to touch them unless I got into a battle that was really chewing me up quite badly. Such fights did not, however, include Ace funnily enough—despite everything I had heard about him—of whom ya girl sent to the own-zone in one short attempt. I'm definitely not proud, nor editing this review post publication to include me bragging, you don't have any evidence because I am a perfect princess. Other than that though, no notes, still an excellent combat system with tons of nuance and a great mechanic-system relationship.
From the offset of the game's very impressively animated opening short, the presentation of '3' is the most oddly distinct part of it to me given how much it controls and often looks like—superficially, at least—the Generation 2 titles, while still decidedly pulp there's an emerging angelic coldness to the tone of the game that is truly discerning the series from it's mecha peers. Choirs peering through like blinding white gleams of sunshine over the indifferent concrete monoliths of electronic beats, these textures cascade over peerless, aimless metal in one of the more elegant science fiction aesthetics of the Playstation 2. As a nice technical aside, 'Armored Core 3' boasts Dolby pro logic II surround sound which really brings the best out of the mix in music and SFX, resulting in probably the best sounding machine gun of any 2000s action game. FromSoftware's work here truly illuminates a vision of what 'Armored Core' was to be all this time, and while continuing to excel in the ludically thrilling battles the series has always done well, it is strange that I have so much more to praise about the artfulness found in the direction of 'Armored Core 3', but this really was, in my identifications, the true beginning of FromSoftware's iconic and hauntingly picturesque moments. Such a word by popular outlets limited only to their hack and slash titles, under-recognised is it in their older projects such as this, but the framing of some sections is so strong that I'd forget to even whinge about map reuse. In the final leg of the game, hurtling toward the final set of missions, a sortie sees the player taking on a goliath MT, captured in the reduction of the 4:3 tunnel vision, the metal beast sets above a sea of sand, wings outstretched. The moment you look up to lock it into your FCS, and the image is cast of the desperate glide across the wasteland Arena map—now devoid of the visual noise it once had, a clean, static battlefield of endless soft oranges and metal monoliths—is such a moment of spectacle for a game of 2002 that is to such ends rarely so elegantly and subtly framed even today. Still undeniably pulpy—an attitude heightened in effectiveness across time with it's safely played texture work and environment scales given the hardware—'Armored Core 3' is the elevation of the series in all presentational respects, resulting in a remarkably well paced and artfully keen experience.
Mission quality, variety and purpose here is far and away the best of the series thus far, in fact, I'd go as far as to say there are no letdowns. The worst a sortie gets in 'Armored Core 3' is forgettable, and even then not frequently. The variety of Areas have been sorted in conceptual factors by the separate sections of the game's new setting, the underground city of Layered. Yes, this is a reboot trying to retell the same story, but it does so with so much more specificity in world building. The 'Armored Core' of 97' was by no means bad at this element, with its cold writing, barren locations and dehumanised presentation, but '3' achieves such things with more compelling premise of an AI controlled, lulled civilisation, like 'Arx Fatalis' by way of 'The Matrix', and defined mission locations that give character to each descending level of Layered to better inform how life there truly comes together. This means each level possess an inherent attribute of environmental storytelling that is so accessible to inference; the highest level is a nature deck featuring what appear to be falsified ecosystems, hosting a few personal favourite missions such as the bossfight mentioned before as well as a thrilling thievery operation on a sunken ship. Beneath this layer though is the more residential city areas, banal transit places like highways and mazes of grey-guarded roads where one mission asks you to quite literally just be a big annoying robot to lure out security forces in your disruption of the vapid commute. The game skips the commercial and jets straight for the appropriately industrial in the lowest layers, giving a genuine and well textured feeling of progressing more forward to the predictable threat of the AI Controller gone amuck in the metal heart of the city.
While maybe a trite advancement in the narrative, the motivations of the AI antagonist are positively not so, perhaps those who played 'Master of Arena' will recognise the beat being revised here, but a creature of automation manufacturing jet fueled, commercially militant violence in the light of it's hopelessness at the prospect of humanity seeing anything other than the metal funnel they meander submissively in under-earth is so elegant a connection to the broader themes properly initiated in 2000s 'Armored Core 2' that it makes the enchanting final cutscene of '3' all the more a perfect closure, in brutally harmonic correlation with the instances of fellow Ravens turning against you when the winds of change that follow you brush past their tender feathers. Truly one of the studio's greats, and a daring stage set for the future.
Now that I’ve overly drawn out the worst opening of my entire critical output on the internet, this is a good time to start by stating that mechanically speaking, this is the best title yet. Naturally. All but barring only one glaring balancing issue. The game is as smooth as the series has ever been, with a great selection of weapons and parts, as well as great potential for detailed builds in its welcome array of optional parts. The addition of ranged left arm weapons and the economic leniency underpinning the whole experience means I got into customising a variety of ACs in this game more than any other instalment. However, builds that involve overheating are just simply too strong. Most bossfights in this game are of course other ACs, not to mention the whole alternative progression of the Arena mode, many of which are simply left in the dust due to certain weapons which generate loads of heat. Paired with a flamethrower, these selections are hilariously overpowered and I simply refused to touch them unless I got into a battle that was really chewing me up quite badly. Such fights did not, however, include Ace funnily enough—despite everything I had heard about him—of whom ya girl sent to the own-zone in one short attempt. I'm definitely not proud, nor editing this review post publication to include me bragging, you don't have any evidence because I am a perfect princess. Other than that though, no notes, still an excellent combat system with tons of nuance and a great mechanic-system relationship.
From the offset of the game's very impressively animated opening short, the presentation of '3' is the most oddly distinct part of it to me given how much it controls and often looks like—superficially, at least—the Generation 2 titles, while still decidedly pulp there's an emerging angelic coldness to the tone of the game that is truly discerning the series from it's mecha peers. Choirs peering through like blinding white gleams of sunshine over the indifferent concrete monoliths of electronic beats, these textures cascade over peerless, aimless metal in one of the more elegant science fiction aesthetics of the Playstation 2. As a nice technical aside, 'Armored Core 3' boasts Dolby pro logic II surround sound which really brings the best out of the mix in music and SFX, resulting in probably the best sounding machine gun of any 2000s action game. FromSoftware's work here truly illuminates a vision of what 'Armored Core' was to be all this time, and while continuing to excel in the ludically thrilling battles the series has always done well, it is strange that I have so much more to praise about the artfulness found in the direction of 'Armored Core 3', but this really was, in my identifications, the true beginning of FromSoftware's iconic and hauntingly picturesque moments. Such a word by popular outlets limited only to their hack and slash titles, under-recognised is it in their older projects such as this, but the framing of some sections is so strong that I'd forget to even whinge about map reuse. In the final leg of the game, hurtling toward the final set of missions, a sortie sees the player taking on a goliath MT, captured in the reduction of the 4:3 tunnel vision, the metal beast sets above a sea of sand, wings outstretched. The moment you look up to lock it into your FCS, and the image is cast of the desperate glide across the wasteland Arena map—now devoid of the visual noise it once had, a clean, static battlefield of endless soft oranges and metal monoliths—is such a moment of spectacle for a game of 2002 that is to such ends rarely so elegantly and subtly framed even today. Still undeniably pulpy—an attitude heightened in effectiveness across time with it's safely played texture work and environment scales given the hardware—'Armored Core 3' is the elevation of the series in all presentational respects, resulting in a remarkably well paced and artfully keen experience.
Mission quality, variety and purpose here is far and away the best of the series thus far, in fact, I'd go as far as to say there are no letdowns. The worst a sortie gets in 'Armored Core 3' is forgettable, and even then not frequently. The variety of Areas have been sorted in conceptual factors by the separate sections of the game's new setting, the underground city of Layered. Yes, this is a reboot trying to retell the same story, but it does so with so much more specificity in world building. The 'Armored Core' of 97' was by no means bad at this element, with its cold writing, barren locations and dehumanised presentation, but '3' achieves such things with more compelling premise of an AI controlled, lulled civilisation, like 'Arx Fatalis' by way of 'The Matrix', and defined mission locations that give character to each descending level of Layered to better inform how life there truly comes together. This means each level possess an inherent attribute of environmental storytelling that is so accessible to inference; the highest level is a nature deck featuring what appear to be falsified ecosystems, hosting a few personal favourite missions such as the bossfight mentioned before as well as a thrilling thievery operation on a sunken ship. Beneath this layer though is the more residential city areas, banal transit places like highways and mazes of grey-guarded roads where one mission asks you to quite literally just be a big annoying robot to lure out security forces in your disruption of the vapid commute. The game skips the commercial and jets straight for the appropriately industrial in the lowest layers, giving a genuine and well textured feeling of progressing more forward to the predictable threat of the AI Controller gone amuck in the metal heart of the city.
While maybe a trite advancement in the narrative, the motivations of the AI antagonist are positively not so, perhaps those who played 'Master of Arena' will recognise the beat being revised here, but a creature of automation manufacturing jet fueled, commercially militant violence in the light of it's hopelessness at the prospect of humanity seeing anything other than the metal funnel they meander submissively in under-earth is so elegant a connection to the broader themes properly initiated in 2000s 'Armored Core 2' that it makes the enchanting final cutscene of '3' all the more a perfect closure, in brutally harmonic correlation with the instances of fellow Ravens turning against you when the winds of change that follow you brush past their tender feathers. Truly one of the studio's greats, and a daring stage set for the future.