Mech-based videogames are notorious for not quite delivering enough to pull in the gaming masses, leaving mech-loving anime fans their lone, rabid fanbase. The latest installment in the Armored Core franchise gets a little closer to a more accessible experience, but still leaves you feeling that something is missing. The story begins in the midst of a three way war between various corporations and rebels, opposed to the existence of skyward bases housing refuges from the planetary pollution making much of the ground level unlivable. Your role in the action is as a mercenary, picking up contract work for the highest bidder; whether taking against of the corporations or the rebels. There are forty-two missions available, with some nice variety in terms of objectives. Most of them are obviously the ‘kill them all’ type, but the wrinkles involving escort missions and destroying large boss-like monstrosities keep things fresh. It also helps that you are occasionally invited to select another mech to work alongside, which provides you some of the only personality in the game. The mechs working with you, as well as the few renegade units you take on, are prone to mid-level chatter to add a little life to the game.
The game gives you three to choose from, with the percentage of the loot based on how highly ranked they are. The lowest of the three choices can help, but the more effective choices can make the missions a cake walk. The other mechs in the ‘collared ranks’ are also available for battle in ranked one-on-one battles, as your chance to climb the thirty-one mech ranking system. Winning the battles nets you one notch up the ladder, along with mech schematics and additional weapons and parts for upgrading your own machine. The battles are extremely easy for the first handful, until the game decides it wants to challenge you; at which point you last about thirty seconds before exploding in flames. Though you do not need the additional challenge after the first few, it would be nice if the game forced you into maps playing to the opponent’s strengths. Instead, you receive a mini-bio of the mech you are about to face, then select a map. If you see you are about to face off against a sniping expert, it is hard not to smile and select a wide-open desert. The story mode typically provides three missions and one ranked battle to choose from at any time, with three chapters to the story pushing toward one of three endings based on choices you make along the way. The pre-mission briefings also offer some background as to the plot, although the metallic tinge of the vocals give everything a lifeless tone that makes it all feel very cold. The apocalyptic setting has never felt so boring.
The game excels in the customization options it provides. For Answer is as deep as nearly any car racing game you have seen. In addition to a massive amount of individual parts and weapons to purchase and swap out, you can also fine tune the specifications of your mech’s handling and targeting down to a miniscule level of detail. The store could use a little tweaking, though. There is no reason not to at least ask you whether or not you would like to equip a newly purchased item. The lack of a quick-equip option leaves you jumping back and forth to the store and equipment screen, and back. The methodical nature of upgrading your mech pays off with increased mobility on the battlefield. The game starts off controlling raggedly, with appropriately stiff movements that make it hard to turn your mech around in battle. As you purchase upgraded boosters and stabilizers, your mech slowly begins to handle increasingly better. The auto-lock aiming makes you feeling a bit worthless at first, but you begin appreciating the ability as the difficulty creeps upward.
The game’s Live functionality feels like a great start, but has some room for improvement. The quick-select co-op option in the story mode allows you to set up a co-op match on the fly, without leaving your story. Not all the missions are available as co-op, but the vast majority allows online friends and strangers to help. Since you bring your customized mech with you online, chances are you can find someone much better equipped to assist you than any of the offline options. The basic online modes are here, with your standard team or every-mech-for-themselves deathmatch variety, but you do have a solid amount of customized rule selections available.
Unfortunately, the game awkwardly codenames them with iteration numbers, which is unfriendly to new players who look at the iteration numbers as if another language. It is also a little odd that the game splits the game into regional rooms, with Japan serving as the default location when you go looking for a game. The community is not so large that it needs segregating for performance. In fact, despite the solid number of maps and online customization, the online community is negligible; which will leave most achievement whores in tears. The majority of the game’s forty-one achievements are tagged for online versus matches, with the majority of them taking very committed players weeks to reach. The earliest kill and win achievements are awarded at one-thousand, with the game capping out at achievements for ten-thousand of each. Even if you find a full match, the games are capped at just eight players. Those who have trouble finding a match online will find some solace in the split-screen versus matches.
Most of the game’s presentation is lackluster, but the pause menu is the most generic of all. The lone option when paused is to back out of the current mission. The complicated control scheme may leave you scouring for how to drop your current weapon from an arm, but your only option mid-mission is to crack open the instruction manual. The graphics are equally serviceable, but unspectacular. They get the job done, but despite the ability to fully customize even your mech paint job, the game has a very generic look; failing to distinguish itself from any mech game before it. Given the bleak backdrop to the story, the world is expected to be desolate, but the game fails to take advantage of opportunities to show off decrepit cities the way other games with similar themes have done so well. There are some destructible buildings and roads, but they look more like randomly placed blocks to knock over like Legos than a fading city. Armored Core: For Answer is far from a perfect game. The bare-bones presentation and limited versus matches leave some definite room for improvement. With a greater focus on co-op and story, the next Armored Core could be the first must-own mech title.
