Armored Core 2

"A very impressive and very fun game."

What an awesome game, it has kept me hooked for over 3 months. The game blends an action packed story with beautiful graphics and very impressive gameplay with a nice learning curve.

Gameplay
This game is so fun you will often find your self playing it for 4 hours at a time. The game itself is pretty challenging. Every mission will test your ability to control your core and tackle enemies. Every mission is a great challenge. The control is what you will need to practice to get used to. It is a little awkward at first, but with enough practice, you shouldn't have a major problem. The Arena is another challenge in itself. Each enemy there gets progressively harder. Almost to the point of being near impossible to beat. But overall, if you put time into the game's control, you will love it as it can be frustrating at first. After gaining some money to buy parts, you will spend HOURS making new and improved cores. This is the most addicting element of the game. Your memory card will be filled up with the numerous cores you can design. You can customize EVERY aspect of your core right down to its boosters.

Story
The story is good and pretty addicting. However the story is not the best part of the game. It is its action factor and pure fun as well as the ability to make a custom core. The story for this games genre is good however. It is the usual sci-fi story about someone trying to cause an apacolypse on the planet Mars. It draws you in with a few twists. The story is basically just your missions though. However, each mission ties in with the story. The arena does not have its own story other than trying to become the ninebreaker or best pilot in the arena.

Graphics/Sound
The Graphics are simply amazing. Every particle effect is brilliant and the environments are drop dead gorgeous. Some of them are huge with multiple places to take cover and many areas to hide behind. The levels are huge and very varied. The mulitplayer levels take place on what appears to be a spacestation, some on suburban cities, and some in vast deserts. The effects of the core's weaponry is also very pretty. The effects are fantastic from explosions to laser blasts.

Replayability
As I stated earlier, this is a very addicting game. Once you play it, you don't stop. The arena presents a challenge that you want to complete for bragging rights. I have beat the game about 5 times and it is still very fun. The true replayabillity lies in customizing your core and testing it against the arena's formiddable opponents. In all, months of action packed fun await you.

Buy/Rent
You want to buy this game if you like action and mech combat. This is definitely one of the better games on the system. I've invested over 3 months in this game. You will pretty much love this game if you can learn the controls. Overall, get ready for a fantastic action game with MANY challenges.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/01, Updated 03/04/02