Armored Core: Last Raven

"Such a fine line between "challenging" and "irritating", eh From Software?"

The Armored Core series has seen a fruitful life on the PS2 since AC2 made it's big appearance. Fully customizable machines, great control setup and little plots that make the player care a little more about the game and ponder the events going on. With a winning formula, From Software has kept the series alive and well straight through Nexus. It can be said that with a little perseverance, the AC titles were never excessively difficult, but sadly, an attempt to squeeze one final challenge into the PS2's lifespan brings about a horrible flaw in the old successful gameplay. There's To make things clear, each section of this game will be analyzed as a singular section and will have minimal impact on my view of the game as a whole.

STORY 4/10
Once again, you're a Raven. The elite mercenary bunch who determine what goes in the world of Corporate vs Corporate. Do you care who your client is? No. You go for who offers money. Nothing more, nothing less.

Set after the Suicide Weapon attack in Nexus, only a handful of Ravens remain. The Corporate entities of Kisaragi, Mirage and Crest have merged to create The Alliance, a massive corporate force which will eliminate the need for Ravens if unopposed. However, discontent with the corporate treatment to Ravens during the events of Nexus, the Raven Jack-O founds the anti-Alliance group Vertex. Ravens take sides, going to Vertex, siding with The Alliance, or simply hitting it out on their own agenda as independent warlords. This game follows three major Ravens as allies or antagonists.

Jack-O is the founder of Vertex. His motives are never made completely clear, but he clearly opposes The Alliance. If From had just given some more clear motives for this guy, rather than make him TOO enigmatic, he might have been a bit more interesting.

Evangel is the Alliance Tactical Commander and initially opposes Vertex. His motives for acting, to be the strongest "Dominant" Raven, are cliched and rather weak. This makes his character a little generic and rather irksome.

Zinaida is an independent Raven who embodies the spirit of the name. She doesn't care who she works for and just takes missions as she sees fit. As the end all hardest boss of the game, her character is made clear and fits perfectly with the overall picture of Ravens (Though the fight with her is absolutely nuts).

Consequently, ever other Raven in the game is of little issue and is more or less a (under priced) bounty to be collected.

GAMEPLAY 5/10
If you've played any of the Armored Core games, this will all seem familiar and good. Any veteran will know the controls (There haven't been many changes over the past few games) and feel right at home in the seat of their AC. If you haven't played before (You should probably start at another game), a few runs in the Arena Simulator will break you in nicely. The control setups are very intuitive.

The joys of building an AC are half the fun of the game. With more parts than ever and all the special options from Nexus, you have the ability to slightly tweak your Core to limits not possible at Silent Line and before. Whether you want a hit and run machine or a tank with all the bells and whistles, the possibilities for creating a custom AC are now more specialized than ever.

Sadly, to say the game is difficult would be a gross understatement. Crossing the fine line of challenge and controller breaking irritation, this game focuses heavily on AC vs AC warfare, which used to be a rarity in games gone past. Now that the game is more heavily focused on fighting other Ravens, enemy cores are given little "enhancements" to put them above you in terms of capability. This allows our enemies to be more diverse, but also gives them an advantage we can't possibly hope to match. Between tweaked stats, weapon benefits, and often having to fight the enemy under adverse conditions to begin with (Oh, say fighting at night with unmanned weapons playing tag with your AC and the ground) the game can be frustrating to even the most skilled of players. It also kills the potential to experiment and use new cores, putting many a prototype AC on permanent hiatus (Killing the aforementioned joy buzz from creating customized machines).

GRAPHICS 10/10
Really, I shouldn't have to go any further. These games always look beautiful, and each core built will be a masterpiece on it's own.

SOUND 7/10
Armored Core generally boasts some of the jazziest tunes you'll ever hear in a game of giant robots. The music isn't quite perfect and kind of changes the mood from previous games, and while it's not a bad thing, since they wanna fit the theme and all, the usual trend of tunes is missed. As for effects, the sounds are still unchanged from the older games. Apparently, one person believes the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

REPLAYABILITY 5/10
This is a fifty-fifty toss. If you aren't irritated by the insane difficulty curve, there are six endings to see and a buttload of stages to play. If you ARE irritated, you'll probably turn the game off, go chill for a while and come back a few hours later to try it again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

OVERALL 4/10
When I look at it and compare it to the older games, I just can't delude myself as others would. This just isn't as fun as the other titles. I strongly urge rental over buying first. If you think you can handle it, by all means buy. If not, go find a copy of Nexus or AC3, something more fun for somebody who doesn't care for a crazy difficulty curve.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/06