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Post by Ayen on Dec 9, 2020 8:33:18 GMT -6
Armored Core is a third-person-shooter mech game developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the Sony PlayStation console. It was released to North America on October 25, 1997. It stars you as a mech pilot who works for a mercenary group called the Ravens’ Nest who controls your own armored core (AC) and goes on various missions for different companies fighting a variety of enemies. This game spanned many sequels and spin off titles on various PlayStation consoles. Let’s take a look at the original Armored Core.
Gameplay: The main focus of gameplay involves your mech which you can customize in different ways. You have a gun as a primary weapon, a sword for a melee weapon, and rockets for a secondary weapon. You also have jet fuels that allows you to fly and slide across the ground at great speed, but that comes with an energy bar that gradually goes down the more you use it.
Health takes the form of numbers at the top left corner of the screen. The more damage you take, the more the numbers decrease. Unfortunately for you there’s no way to replenish health or ammo during a mission, so if you run out of either you’re basically screwed.
The main focus of the game are the missions you can go on for different groups. Depending on which missions you take can lock you out of others. It gives you multiple choices of what mission to take that either has money you can earn, or mech parts you can earn. Each mission deduct the amount of damage you take during the mission and some missions will take out money from your sum if you destroy certain objects or enemies. Once you complete the game you unlock all the different missions available in the game and can play any mission you want. The fact you can go on different paths prior to beating the game allows for more replay value
Another thing that will take some time to complete, but is worth it, is the customization of your mech. You can later buy different parts for the head, body, arms, and legs, as well as different weapons and equipment. You can also choose different patterns for your mech to take, or modify the colors yourself. You can even name your mech and take it on a test run after you modified it. You can also create or choose samples of emblems you can put on your mech. The emblem creator is actually pretty open-ended and if you have the patience you can make almost any kind of image you want to go on your mech.
There is a lot of action in the game. Something is always exploding and it can be very fast paced. All the different levels offer new terrain and obstacles and are a lot of fun to go through. Getting harder of course the further into the game you get. You’ll also be faced with different AC pilots who work for Raven ending with of course the number one ranked AC pilot Hustler One who operates Nine Ball.
Throughout the game you get different email messages from different people. Mainly from someone called R who explains different companies and stuff you encountered on your missions. You can also go to the shop to use your money to buy different mech parts, or sell what you have to afford something you want. You’ll even get messages in your email when the shop has some new parts to offer.
You have a targeting system that locks on to an enemy to make it easier to fire at them, and you can use the shoulder buttons to run to the right and left to avoid taking damage from enemies. The rockets have a different targeting system that makes it a little more difficult to ensure you’re going to get a hit.
In addition to the single player mode, there’s a two player versus mode where you can upload your mech from a memory card and battle other players in several different stages to give you a break from the single player mode.
Story: The game takes place in the future after a cataclysmic war took out most of the Earth’s population called the “Great Destruction.” This forced the few survivors of the war to go underground for fifty years during which corporations took over. The main two corporations in the game being Chrome and Murakumo Millennium. The two battle it out providing missions for the mercenary group known as the Ravens’ Nest to benefit from the conflict.
The game doesn’t go into too much detail about the war or what year it’s set in, and the end made completely no sense to me. Basically, you destroy something that kept order and now the world is forever changed. That’s the most I could take away from the ending of the game.
Graphics: The graphics aren’t bad. All the mechs look cool to see and the environments look different from one another. Only flaw is that sometimes outlines in the walls can make you think there’s a secret entrance when there isn’t, but other than that the graphics are solid.
Flaws: My only gripe with the game is the sometimes nigh impossible difficulty in latter levels, the fact you can’t recover your health or ammo during a mission, and the lack of any real story, but I’m hesitant to call them flaws. These are more personal preferences. The game still plays great to this day and there is a lot of action that takes you to the edge of your seat. The missions with time limits are often the most gut-wrenching.
Summary: Overall, Armored Core is the perfect game to end the year on. It’s fun, challenging, with great customization and level designs. If you like to check out old games then it’s definitely worth checking out for yourself.
Get it!
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