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.