Armored Core 2

"AC2 is the best Mecha game out there hands down, and a truly superb game, (my personal fave) however it isn't going to appeal to everyone."

General Overview
The game gets a 9 because it's a blast and a truly great game with an incredible amount of depth to the gameplay. This is not to say it's perfect, there are several things in the game which could be done better, but most are only minor annoyances. It is also not going to be for everyone, this is one game with a high learning curve, but one that's extremely worthwhile if you stick with it.

The game is going to consume a lot of hours, even to just get yourself worked up to the point where you can outfit the AC you want. It's going to take a while to master the controls, especially those who haven't played AC before. The game is fairly difficult, and should keep the average player busy for a while just beating the game. There is no analog support, and I honestly don't care, I find analog control too touchy for me most times anyway, and in AC touchy controls would get you butchered against good opponents. Be forewarned, probably not for those who have a mindset of 'the game must have x or it's no good'.

Gameplay
For the mecha enthusiast this game is the one to get, hands down. The gameplay is great and loads of fun. It is fairly hard to get the hang of using all the controls simultaneously initially for newcomers to the AC series, but this is one game where the more you practice the better you get, and there's real payoff to increasing your skill. There's almost always room for improvement too, the gameplay itself can hold tons of play time by itself. This is basically a mech game that actually plays fast and fun, unlike the plodding snail-like Battletech I had the unfortunate experience of renting for the PSX. If you like mecha and robots (Voltron, Transformers, anime mecha) and don't mind spending a fair bit of time putting them together and experimenting, this is your game.

There are several new types of parts which can dramatically affect play depending if they are used right, and a new ability to overboost that will take some time to get used to in order to use to maximum effect. Many of these are also very cool besides being useful, like energy shields on arms that can be used to block shots and blades to reduce damage, dual laserblade arms, decoys for missiles, antimissiles which shoot down enemy volleys, and support missiles which add more missiles to your own volleys.

Some people complain the ACs turn too slow. They don't. Depending which parts you choose, they can turn fairly fast, but as with previous AC games, simply standing and turning _will_ usually get you slaughtered. The ACs can move for a reason, you have to hop and boost around to help turn your AC around faster. Also the reason they don't turn faster than they do is the controls would get too touchy, as is it can be hard to keep opponents in missile lock while multiple missiles lock up, making the ACs turn faster would make it nearly impossible to keep opponents in lock while moving without breaking lock.

Replayability
There is a staggering amount of customization possible, parts, colors, weapons, and a whole bunch of others. At first this is a bit overwhelming, as there are loads of statistics for nearly every part, each affecting to some degree the performance of your AC. It doesn't take that long to sort out though if you keep playing and experimenting with different parts to see notable differences in performance. (one of the most important is accuracy of your arms and FCS) Combined with the sheer number of different parts and weapons, you can experiment for a huge amount of hours upon hours making different ACs. There's lots of room to choose your own style too, you can play a fast light human with little armor or a big slow heavily armed and armored tank, and a whole slew of things in between.

The biggest draw for replayability is the VS mode where you and your friend can load up your ACs to battle each other to see who's the best AC designer and pilot. Link cable and two TVs, PS2s, and AC2s is recommended as the narrow split screen is just plain too small, and also causes much slowdown when lots of stuff is happening, especially missile volleys.

Given the insane amount of customization and variety, this game has heaps and heaps of replayability. The game is either one you're going to get into hardcore or you're not going to bother with much. If you get into it, it probably keeps its replay value better than nearly any other game I've ever played, equal to the best fighting games, like the original SF2, Tekken 2, and Soul Calibur. Maybe even better.

The assembling of your AC could have been done better, not in terms of the actual parts, as they are pretty well balanced and almost all have their strengths and weaknesses, but the designing section of the game. It just takes a long time to put your AC together or swap parts and modify it. Personally I'm willing to put up with the somewhat tedious process because it's worth it, once you get your custom AC all built and it's exactly how you want you can go kick butt with it and it's very satisfying. However, this could put some people off, and they could have easily put in ways to do this quicker. AC2 is not a game for a quick pop in and play (especially for people who haven't played before) unless you've already done all the laborious assembling beforehand.

It's also pretty well impossible to get a really good AC right away, you have to pretty much play through the complete game before you can really afford a great AC. Not for those who want the best in 5 minutes.

I was disappointed you could not construct your own ACs to battle against in the arena like you could in Master of the Arena for PSX, this is another thing I'm sure they could have added without too much trouble. Another thing I didn't like is there's no way to skip the little 'story' sections at the beginning of some missions - they're cool, but if I'm doing the mission for the 10th time to get some quick cash I don't want to be forced to watch it. It should also ask if you want to reload the replay of a battle when you win in the arena instead of automatically loading it. For the most part, these are minor annoyances.

Story
There isn't that much of a story, which is ok. Basically you're a mercenary on colonized Mars where corporations are battling each other for supremacy. You take missions with different employers to do various stuff, like eliminating targets, clearing areas of enemies, or guarding stuff. Who really cares though, the game is fun to play, the story is fairly hacked but it doesn't really matter.

Graphics
The graphics got a long overdue update and the ACs now are much more detailed. Some weapons, especially missiles look much cooler when fired in general, but others don't look as cool like the Chain Gun. In general it looks much prettier than the other AC games, which is to be expected since they're four years out of date graphically.

Sound
The sound seems like it's actually suffered. Most weapons just don't sound as cool when fired as the ones in the old AC games. There's an annoying peeyew for the grenade launcher, I want to hear a boom! Same with the shotgun, sounds like paff instead of a packow! These should be improved, it seems like they spent too long trying to make sound effects for energy weapons and just had to recycle them for solid weapons too.

Buy or Rent?
Definite buy if you're into this type of game. I would advise renting first to test to see if it is for you though. Be aware that it will take many hours just assembling ACs, and if you're looking for a more 'standard' type of game this is probably not for you. The controls are going to be tough for newcomers, but are far from impossible with practice.

Despite this, once you get the controls down, this game shines like few others in terms of depth of play, high level tactics/maneuvers, and just plain rockin fun. Enemies launch a volley of missiles at you which you avoid by spitting out a decoy, then switch weapons to return a volley of your own, which gets shot down by the enemies antimissiles. They then come in for a blade attack, which you spot in time to block with your energy shield before switching weapons again to guns and opening up with your machinegun while boosting away. Etc.

Reviewed by Hugh - hking@mailserv.nbnet.nb.ca

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/04/00, Updated 11/04/00