Customer Reviews

Armored Core 4

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In general, a welcome addition to the AC series. Great graphics, the outgoing and incoming fire illuminates the surrounding (buildings, valleys..), the buildings can be damaged and in some cases destroyed an improvement to the old static ones.

The garage is different than the last ones - schematics of pre-canned mechs, but they can be customized. The method is different, not good or bad, just will take some getting used to.

Primary Armor is new, electronic shielding device. I like it, you can hang in a firefight longer and it does regenerate. It doesn't make the game easier, you still get your [...] kicked.

The controls are similar to the old ones (type A), shoulder weapons (like shotguns) are now available than can fire independently are handy for little stuff.

The story line is interesting, but I don't buy games for cut scenes.

I only have gotten to the 4th chapter of missons so far, a 4yr old that wants to play or stands in front of the TV cuts back on the quality gaming time. I also only have a standard TV using S-video, the game supports 720p.

While the ever-changing garage interface continues, which is kind of annoying, the game play and graphics are amazing (as expected). The controls have been much improved and are very smooth. The auto-targeting and auto-boost features are very useful and the "shields" do help you maintain a few extra battle minutes. Overall very good, I hope it's long enough though (haven't beaten it yet)

Before I start the reveiw, I'll give a quick synopsys of what the game is about:

The world experienced a period of rapid population growth, which put a strain on global food and energy supplies. As populations increased, so did the gap between the wealthy and the poor, and so did the unrest within the population at large. Eventually, violence began to erupt and the governments quickly lost control of their populations as their cities were consumed by terrorism and anarchy. People began turning to corporations, complete with private armies, to keep them safe from the chaos.

In the midst of the meltdown, the world's six most powerful corporate conglomerates decided to do away with national governments and install their own brand of rule and law. They launched a full scale war on the nations of the world, which came to be known as the National Dismantlement War.

Using advanced Armored Core technology, the corporations decimated the forces of the nations and declared victory in less than a month. With the old nations of the world effectively toppled, the corporations set out to work on a new system of government.

The corporations dubbed their new order as the "Pax Economica" ("Economic [or Corporate] Peace", Latin), a system where loyalty and service to the corporations guaranteed food and survival. Under the Pax, however, people were forced into corporate-run colonies and essentially became slaves serving wealthy corporate masters.

Around five years after the National Dismantlement War, long-standing tensions between the Pax Economica members erupted, and a new war began.

Now onto the real reveiw: The game isn't half bad at all. Infact I say that the Armored Core series as a whole is underated, and should be getting more praise than it currently is, especially in the states. The gameplay is very cool, and the mech customization is pretty cool, and is the trademark feature of the series. The story also has alot of depth, but if you really want to get it, than I suggest you start from the very first game on the PSOne, otherwise you'll be kinda lost about whats going on, and all the different characters that appear in the game. As far as missions are concerned, some are really easy, and some are just hard as hell to beat, and will take a few tries to do so. Overall Armored Core 4 is an exceptional game in my opinion, but if you want real fun, buy AC For Answer. It features better graphics and WAY more parts and weapons to customize your NEXT with.

4/5.

It's everything you'd want from Armored Core. I certainly loved it. Parts, missions, online, and not to mention it's graphically awesome.

My one complaint is the lack of content. The game is short, though entertaining through it. However, the sequel, which is already on the way, will fix that.

Armored Core 4 comes from a long line of mech action games. The simplest thing to say about Armored Core 4 is that if you liked previous Armored Core games, you will like Armored Core 4. Otherwise, the game is a mixed bag.

AC4 takes place in the distant future, placing you in the role of a lone mercenary fighting huge enemy forces with his "AC" mech - the titular "Armored Cores". These mechs are humanoid in shape and carry weapons in their mechanical arms. If you've ever seen a "Gundam" episode, that's the basis they're working with - think a robot that is basically just a giant person in shape.

The gameplay itself seems promising, but gets somewhat repetitive. The ACs have two weapons (one in each hand) that range from assault rifles to miniguns to rocket launchers to laser guns to laser swords. There are also shoulder-mounted weapons like missile launchers and decoy launchers to lure missiles away from you. Control uses a simple left-stick-moves right-stick-looks system, and it's fairly intuitive. The other main gameplay feature is the booster, which is basically a jetpack that can propel you upwards or rocket you forwards or sideways. The main failing of the controls is that they're not particularly balanced; things that should be connected in purpose are set far apart on the gamepad. For example, pressing L2 uses the boost, but pressing L1 switches your left-hand weapon, and pressing square fires the left-hand weapon. The controls don't seem natural even after you get used to them.

There are a variety of missions in single player mode with some decent gimmicks to set them apart, from "destroy all the enemies" to "get past the enemy's defenses and defeat their anti-air guns" to "drop into hostile territory and maneuver past anti-air guns to reach the targets on the ground". However, the difficult varies way too much from mission to mission - some are just "destroy scattered enemies" with a generous time limit, while others in the same group of missions may have unreasonable time limits or throw you against entire walls of incoming fire. There are some battles against enemy ace pilots, and these are fairly interesting, but the other missions seem to boil down to "shoot all the enemies, who are shooting at you".

The other part of single player is customizing your AC with a wide variety of parts and weapons. Every single part of the frame can be upgraded with a variety of different pieces, from the head down to the legs. Each also carries different statistics, so you can build a thin, fast mech, or a bulky, heavy, high-defense mech. The numbers involved are probably enough to make most casual players shy away - it's difficult to enjoy giant robot action when you have to wade through a sea of statistics to get to it. Besides parts, you can also customize your AC with a detailed set of colors - almost every part can be individually colored, and there are two different methods of picking colors in addition to a pre-set palette. It's also possible to create your own emblems to apply to your mech on various locations.

The graphics in AC4 are decent, but not exceptional enough to be worth it - while the game itself is fairly dated, it's still a PS3 game, and should be a little more impressive than this. Shooting things with missiles and guns feels like it should be more cinematic - as it is, you're basically launching yellow ovals toward the enemy that make weak explosive impacts. The mechs are neat and there's a wide variety, but they're all basically geometric shapes that have been squashed together to make a humanoid shape. The buildings and environments are even more shapeless, with damage effects resembling something from the PS2.

The sound is even more generic than the graphics. The music is hardly worth mentioning - it's just standard futuristic chimes and beeps, without any real independent merit. There's not much voice acting - it's pretty much limited to your Mission Control operator and the voiceovers done for the cutscenes (which is only one guy).

As a whole, AC4 feels like it should be a lot cooler and more fun than it is. Unfortunately, the final product falls short of its ambitions, and feels kind of shallow. Online multiplayer allows for some potential fun, but since the game itself is kind of boring, it can only carry it so far. This game feels most like a 6/10 - good effort, but not enough substance.

Written by James Shea

As an oldschool fan of "giant fighting robot" games(starting with the original Battletech boardgame waaayyy back in the day) I must rank this game as the pinnacle of of the genre! The ability to customize your Mech's weapons and defenses beats every installment of the "Mechwarrior" franchise (though admittedly the Mechwarrior storylines felt better developed) and I'm not even going to bother to compare it to the lackluster Gundam franchise. The action here is FAST and as one reviewer mentioned some missions can be completed in under 30 seconds, but this is totally a function of having the right Mech design to get the job done. But don't worry if you aren't super-twitchy- there are plenty of missions that can benefit from a slower more thoughtful approach (those with environmental challenges or terrain that can be used to your advantage).
It is the combination of strategy (outfitting and tuning your Mech for a particular mission goal) and frantic fast-paced mech-on-mech combat that manages to satisfy all my gaming needs. Armored Core 4 has both adrenaline and brains. All it needs now is a movie franchise (and after you see the opening cinematic I think you'll agree with me on that one!)

The Armored Core series has long suffered gripes and complaints from most American reviewers for pretty much as long as the franchise has existed. It is, however, not a bad title. The thing about Armored Core is that it involves a lot of thinking. A large part of the game revolves around testing parts out, as you literally build a war robot out of hundreds of different parts to choose from, all of which offer varying stats, that leave it up to the pilot to figure out what suits his play style best, and what will help him out the most in missions.

Many people get turned off by the level of depth this game has, which often leads to confusion. Its not a bad title, you just have to be prepared to expect alot of trial and error. Satisfaction comes from completing the often infuriatingly difficult missions [which often turn out you were using the wrong mech setup the whole time] as well as making a very successful robot that trounces competition [other players] Despite poor reviews by those that misunderstand this game, I'll leave it to the fact that this franchise has survived 13 iterations and is still pulling strong, that this is a good franchise, just not for everyone.

Now onto Armored Core in and of itself. It is the most recent game released in America, and for those unsure about this series, this is probably the best one to get into, as by now they have addressed plenty faults from the earlier iterations. The earlier ones did indeed have troubling control layouts, but thankfully it fits just fine on the xbox controller. Anyone who has played Halo or Gears of War will have no trouble grasping the controls, just remember to map the boosting and firing controls to the triggers and not the buttons! The graphics in this game are the best so far, but are no where near as good as something like Mass Effect or Halo, suffering that typical muddy texture feel that most Japanese games seem to have. Music is rather nice in this game, it feels more epic than the techno beats of older games. Sound Effects aren't great but you'll forget them under huge amount of concentration you'll have during fights. The UI is a bit funny, but with some tinkering you'll understand it fine. As far as difficulty, this game can be maddeningly hard for newcomers, but overcome it and you can definitely say you've played a game.

In the end, this game is not for everyone, but don't bash it. Its good, you just have to have some patience and work that brain a little and have some fun, its giant robots with guns.

This game is very fun, the graphics are a little below what I expectec but no problem at all.

the game is a little to technical for a quick play and will take time to get the hang of .

Huge robots that are fully customizable fighting it out! This series has been progressively getting better and better.