Video Game Review, XBox 360: Armored Core: For Answer
Video Game Review, XBox 360: Armored Core: For Answer
Brandon Abley, Mar 06 2009
The Armored Core series is characterized by two disparate elements that aren’t often seen in the same game: lists of numbers with layers of statistic, and tight action characterized by exploding buildings and enormous laser cannons. Most players typically look for either a statistics game or an action game, and are not often interested in both at the same time. The Armored Core fanbase is thus understandably limited.
Armored Core is not so much an action video game about piloting gigantic, humanoid battle robots, but a simulation of the experience of being an owner-operator of such a robot. It, more or less, seems exactly how a mercenary might spend his time about 1000 years into the future. During missions, the player wrestles complicated controls to perform spectacular maneuvers, fires batteries of missiles at aggressors, and takes down enormous walking battle tanks. In between missions, the player shops for replacement parts, applies new paint or decals, and tunes the power output of tiny correctional rocket boosters on the knees or elbows of the mech to optimize its turning radius.
This is the least complicated of several dozens of charts and menus players will have to navigate.
There is no story in Armored Core. There is some establishment of setting, but it doesn’t have any tangible impact. There are mission briefings, but they are extremely formal. There is some radio chatter during missions, reminding the player there are human beings in that enormous futuristic fortress, and they are burning to death. However, there are no characters - there are only people. The life of a dystopian far-future mercenary-for-hire does not have room for friendships and rivalries. It may be the game’s presentation, but there is something eerily and intangibly non-violent about Armored Core, even though it is a game about never-ending wars in which millions die.
The amount of number-crunching and detail is engaging to people of a certain personality. Some may delight in rationing their bullets during missions, because the player has to spend money on ammunition once the mission is over. Even during the most intense firefights, the player must diligently crunch numbers, running cost estimates, lest the current mission ends up incurring more fees than its bounty can pay. It is easy to win in Armored Core, but it is challenging to win with style.
That is the problem with Armored Core - it is too cerebral. The game’s packaging shows a giant robot, with an equally giant gun. This promises explosions. While Armored Core delivers in that regard, it demands that as much time is spent preparing to make explosions as is spent creating them. It makes few concessions to the player, also. While a lengthy tutorial thoroughly tutors the player in the fairly complicated controls, it does little to teach him the nuances of the game’s economy.
Armored Core’s mission design is not always perfect, either. There are just as many scenarios that can be cheaply ended with a single precise laser sword strike as there are extended, hair-raising robot duels. Its fits and starts are not consistently satisfying. While some missions are exhillerating and brilliantly-designed, other missions are are tedious, and a few are frustrating.
There are, indeed, battles pitting enormous robots against each other.
The graphics look well enough, and the sound listens well enough. Armored Core’s media is strictly serviceable. The environments are completely destructible, however, and it is a thrill to see an enormous complex fall to pieces as errant rockets smash into them. A few missions demand that the player does everything he can not to harm the environment - these are a pleasant diversion.
I personally like Armored Core: For Answer. I like brutally violent action games as much as I like turn-based construction simulators, and I feel like Armored Core has enough aspects of either gametype. I bought Armored Core at a significant discount, and I feel that is a key factor - I would probably not be satisfied if I had paid full price.
Rating ( /5): 