While this isn’t my 1st AC game and never felt that confusion like noob me did for AC2, I quite enjoyed this title.
I found myself spending more time customizing to playing the missions. It’s uncomfortable going back and forth to mid max your build and rather can discourage to experiment by how tedious it can get. Luckily this issue gets resolve down the line and we’re blessed for that.

The narrative is meh, it’s there. Really no enjoyment to come out of it except seeing the blunt irony of working for both sides like missions “go attack XY base” while the next mission to do is “someone attacked XY base, regain control of the situation.” This I found to be brilliant and wish you felt your actions more in the only title I finished, AC3.

The missions are outstanding and liked how divested the missions were, another you’re on a blimp, one in underground lab, and so on. They very much make up the missing arena. I loved the 2nd half of this title as it felt the game and world itself we’re starting to recognize your abilities and must put an end to you before you get out of hand. This being seen with getting 1v2, trapped in rooms, and given long length missions. I never felt a difficulty spike, it felt just right.

Short review to my others, just goes to show how underwhelming this title was to the rest of the series. Everyone online and friends kept saying this is the 10/10 experience, I was really looking forward to that experience people kept saying. Felt like a beacon of hope the closer I got to the title in my marathon.

I boot up the game, play it a couple sessions, then game just up and ended. I was left confused and said out loud “that was it? Really?”

SL never made me feel blown away like every title has beforehand. I can see this is where Modern Fromsoft starts to appear with “Oh? You think you’re gonna fight 1 enemy? Where here’s TWO MORE enemies!”
It’s not creative, not engaging, there’s like 1 or 2 gimmick missions.

Just felt a fast food burger, feels nice while eating it. But you know just how disgusting it is and make you feel bad after. You know you can get a far better quality anywhere else.

I love armored core, but I’m disappointed

Tl;dr, An incredibly short game that I recommend to play if got a few hours to use, bonus points if you beat it in one setting stoned.

A style over substance game.
It’s a criminally short title and heads up that I don’t know anything about Gungrave outside the games so no comparison coming from me.
With the game being so short, the gameplay still stayed fresh beginning to end. Enough difficulty where just walking and mashing square will get you killed, but not hard enough to get any frustration.
Enemy variants are okay to say the least. None that pose a threat besides of the rpg guys.
The story is very simplistic of a classic revenge gang story, but presentation made me engaged with some cool concepts like the main character needs new blood in him every few days because yknow, he’s a walking corpse.
I had fun throughout it, didn’t really gain anything throughout it on a personal level except 2 hours of escapism and fun!

The 1st Armored Core title on the ps2, is a very early installment ps2 as well so keep this in mind for this review. Let’s start off with the setting of the game, Mars, a big red rock planet with heavy weather. This leads to many of the missions and areas in the game being indoors, meaning many areas are laboratories or factories. While it can feel like a bummer to some people as the many open areas are found in the ps1 games. Here it checks out since the missions that DO have you outside, the weather is often rough like being at Mar’s poles, having to search and operate in a snowstorm. I find the areas overall good and fit with the setting, while there’s nothing to write home about for a gen 6 game.

Now let’s talk about the feature everyone loves dearly, the arena! I would sink in hours on end in the arena, going from rank 50 to 1 nearly all at the beginning of the game as there were no restrictions from stopping me. I feel rather conflicted about this game’s arena. On one hand, with the arena areas to choose from, I found myself swapping between them more often than I did with any AC title I’ve played as each has its own pros and cons. I love going to Falna Craters to give a large, almost flat arena to battle a fellow AC for example.

Now on the other hand… the AI in this game is dumb, I mean REALLY dumb. While yes, the difficulty curve for the arena is excellent in its own right. The AI placed in the areas given just doesn’t mix well. As you may know, areas are limited and if you leave the area borders, you fail. This same logic applies to the enemies, so you can beat ALL of the arenas by not shooting a single thing at an opponent. Can totally cheese by ringing out the opponents. The easiest to do this is by playing Abandon Highway. I say to give this a try as it’s hilarious, but the idea of being able to ring out even rank 1 AC by doing this is mind-boggling. This applies to the missions too, I personally have gotten an enemy AC trapped on my head in a corner and we’ll have an awkward moment together. While this is a clear flaw in game design, it being a solo experience makes the flaw not as bad if this problem existed in modern gaming.

Gameplay? It’s literally the same as the ps1 games but with better graphics. Don’t fix what isn’t broken I guess.

Music! The music in this title is good, full techno vibe for this title and great remakes of the 1’s ost. My favorite menu/garage theme without a doubt!

The story in this title is great and far better told than the previous entries. This time, the antagonists feel like a genuine threat and like you’re the only hope for the people on Mars, that feeling of being at a disadvantage the whole way through. Each mission has actual relevance to the story, unlike past and later titles where the plot only happens near the last half. Pleasant story and worth checking out for it alone.

Overall, this being my 1st AC game I tried it out years ago and gave up on it as it was too hard. Now back with 4 AC games under my belt and knowledge now going back into this game. This game is really really fun and what more can you ask from a video game?

This title didn’t hook me as much to Phantasma or the original to be frank.

I’ve come to appreciate the mission section of AC more as this title has like 5 total necessary missions to be done. I’ve had little to no difficulty for this title too, while it maybe due to better skill now, but I saw me never having to do any of the missions as money and management to it was NEVER an issue. Unlike AC 1 especially, where I was cutting it close throughout the entire game.

Oh the story, it has mystery, a clear antagonist, protag show some personality, and mystery. While the characters aren’t as well done to Phantasma, this title is ever so satisfying if you’ve played AC1 as it answers the biggest question I had the end of the game and interconnects with AC1’s story! Great tone of storytelling and hope they keep this going for AC2.

While this is a flaw to the mission sections, how the arena is done here is good, but not great. I much prefer how AC 3 handles arenas (only future tiles I’ve beaten and to make want to play the previous titles and future ones.). What is done here is better to enjoyment to Phantasma, but not by a large margin. Well done, this title is a solid middle ground for the ps1 era for me.

Overall, I had a fun time and beginner friendly I would say by how many resources are to your deposal.

This is one of those games where if I have gotten it on release and paid full price for this game. This game would suck and be heavily disappointed this is the 1st 3D Guilty Gear game.
Looking at it in 2024 where the game is $4 on steam a lot. The license battles they had to face makes for the lack of characters from the series seen. Those very license battles would create another goated series, Blazblue. Xrd and Strive came out and GG is successful it’s ever been. I think this game is decent!

I love how the game as legitimate boss battles even if a few are more “woah” factor to any actual gameplay intensive. Which the gameplay I feel mix about, you can do combos and do some wild stuff. Or you can button mash and get the same results on playthroughs. Abusing the I-frames from some of the tension moves leads to some interesting set ups and dodging. As blocking and dodging/side stepping in this game is awful. It’s better to use a tension move to get out of something than to try to block something.

I love early 2000s games mood and this game is no exception. Give it a try! Campaign is a few hours long and playing the other modes with characters non playable in the story are cool.

(This game added in Valentine and she’s adorable along with the other Valentines. So the game rating gets a bonus point.)