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![[GAMES & SOFTWARE]](/file/35716/EX CD Rom.iso/issue2_6/images/section_games_sw.gif){kind=small}  |
 Armored Core
Sony Playstation
— Joseph Lee |
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The much anticipated game for the Sony Playstation is finally out and lives up to its hype. ARMORED CORE (AC) is a detailed action game where you play a mercenary soldier on a hard world in an armored core bristling with a selection of machine guns, laser swords, missiles, cannons, shields, and armor. You contract onto missions and earn money to upgrade your core by parts, to eventually become the number one core in the world. Then, you can go and slug it out with your friend's number 1 core.
Missions vary in locations of open and closed spaces consisting of underground
bunkers, underwater bases, space-stations, to the tops of skyscrapers.
Some mission objectives are:
The appeal and success of ARMORED CORE lies in its well planned game play.
Initial missions are easy enough for the player to get used to the controls and
interacting with the environment through the initial core. This involves
walking, turning the core body, strafing, moving the view camera up and down,
running, jumping, hovering, sliding, and the combination of all. Then, it's
learning to interact with the different environments such as finding high
ground from which to shoot incoming raiders; going from room to room opening doors; or
shooting out security guns on the ceiling from behind a wall. |
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One menu displays the currently available non-linear, semi-random selection
of missions with a sub-stats screen for each mission illustrating the
important points of that particular mission. The missions steadily increase
in difficulty, so the player is strongly encouraged to save money and upgrade.
Since money is automatically spent on repairs and ammo after missions, having
enough left to afford the expensive upgrades depends on surviving missions, and
minimizing repair and ammo costs.
The core, head, arms, legs, left and right arm weapons, 2 weapon slots on the
back, jump jets, engine, and computer can all be upgraded from a large
selection of available parts. Special attention must be paid to details such
as cost vs. weight or speed vs. armor and so on, which all affect combat
performance. Weapons have different ranges, damage potential, and lock-on
scanning areas. You can even select different configurations for the core,
such as normal arms or weapon arms, humanoid legs or reverse-joint (kangaroo)
legs, 4 legs or tank treads.
The selection of parts can create a fast, lightly-armored core; a slow,
heavily-armored core; a core for shooting from the horizon; a core for
getting into the thick of battle; or something in between. Obviously, this
greatly affects in-game combat strategy. This is where AC shines; with its attention
to detail and selection, and giving the player full control of the core's
performance and ability during missions, and therefore his or her destiny. |
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Other nice touches include customizing the color and emblem of
the core (like RAGE RACER), rankings, and an interactive background storyline.
As the player starts missions and ranks up, those cores in the rankings will
eventually come to challenge — beating them attains their rank. Also, email
messages that taunt or inform will be received from military and political
factions after missions, as well as any follow-up information
for a mission; much in the way the old game NEUROMANCER's email messages did.
ARMORED CORE supports both split-screen link and combat cable link play for
that extra fun factor. Saved cores can be loaded for versus play, and more
arenas are available for cable link play. It's just more incentive to build up
a really nice customized core, and then challenge a friend's best core.
It's one memory slot per saved game, as many saves as free slots. After all
the final bosses have been defeated and the game has ended, all of
the missions become available for replay and cores can be built
that violate weight restrictions. Large replay value is AC's motto.
Initially, ARMORED CORE looks like Sega's
VIRTUAL ON game until it's actually
played — then it's a totally different ballpark. The engine appears
to be an upgraded version of KING'S FIELD's, with the transparent flowing water,
organic creatures, huge, minimally-pixilated worlds, multiple room areas,
and all strongly affected by available light. It's a 512x240 30fps world with
auto-mapping available, depending on the type of core head you choose.
One complaint: there should be an option to switch between internal and
external views because the external camera has an annoying tendency to bounce
off walls, disturbing orientation. It's especially hard on a mission where
it's a narrow, vertical climb to the top. The lack of such a switch makes
little sense in a mecha game where the pilot inside the core would really have no
problems.
Controls take some learning but become natural to use. The digital controls
are slightly awkward, but remappable. There is no analog support,
unfortunately.
Background music is non-existent in the initial batch of missions, but
as they progress, nice techno MIDI music will play during particularly
intensive sessions.
The game is easily playable in the Japanese import form — most menus
and information windows are in English. Emails and mission overviews
are all in kanji, katakana, or hiragana, but with enough pictures to get the
gist of the idea. This does detract from flowing with the storyline during gameplay,
but not too badly.
Points:
ARMORED CORE is a gem of a game from From Software for anybody, and a must-have
for the serious mecha/military enthusiast. AC demonstrates that gameplay and
attention to detail is what a "Great Game" is all about, not whether it's 3D,
uses the latest technology, or whatnot.Rating: **** (out of 4) |
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