Armored Core 2: Another Age

"My wrist hurts"

I must say this game is #3 on my purchases for my Playstaion 2 so far. I liked it initially but felt bad about dishing out 50$ and tax. I noted a couple of flaws and rushed areas during my completion of the game. Mostly I just wanted to offer my opinion and review it a bit.

To begin with, it took me 2 weeks to finish this game. I tried not to rush but I found myself growing annoyed at times. Starting out the designers give you the idea that they did try to balance the game. Each mission didn't progress to a tougher one. Great, its about time designers got the idea that the world doesn't work like this. Original concept there guys. Wasn't quite as linear as you would have expected. Excellant. Seeing as how I have never played any of the others, I can see where it got its fan base from. It is sorta reminessant of Gundamn wing and Robotech. Two of my favorite shows.

I hardly pay much attention to music in games. Much rather turn on the cdplayer and listen to my own selection of music. The audio was decent nothing that stuck out. Would have been nice. Couple of hours into the game I decided to turn off the music.

Graphics wear nice. I do wish more game companies would provide an option to skip dialogue. I despise having to go through the same sentences 10-15 times depending on the difficulty. Yet this was kept to a minimum. You can skip the briefings. Quad-legged Mech's could use some animation guys. This suggests they were rushed for a deadline. But wasn't this an expansion? Oh well.

Playability was great. Except for a couple of the battles with other Mechs(AC's). This was my primary complaint. Lack of balance. This left my wrist hurting from all the crazy contortions I had to put it through to get the kill. Some of the missions should have been longer. I really like taking my time with a mission. Some areas and missions were not so intuitivly thought out. Yet I had fun. AC battles should last longer. I want mention the problem area. But it took me two days to beat 'it'. Or should I say HIM. ouch.

I don't want to give away any of the game but there are two points where the graphics will drag. Maybe a limitation of the PS2's hardware? Doubtful. Maybe just rushed.

The multiplayer looks fun. I don't really have anyone to play it with around here. A Soul Caliber style battle setup would have kicked some major butt. Just for close range combat.

Something that was hilarious was playing the muiliplayer mode with the tank tread legs positioning yourself on oneside of the arena. Then hitting the overbost and speeding past your opponent. Looking through your opponent's viewpoint it's funny how it hauls butt across the screen. You have to try it.

Pros and cons
-----------------------------
+ Interchange lots of mech parts to build hours of fun.
+ Co'op missions and serveral mutiplayer aspects
+ High replay value
+ Initally well balanced.
- A store on the multiplay page would have been nice.
- I hear there is an arena coming for the Armored Core 3.
Too bad there wasn't one here. Test area in the garage
was kinda neat.
-Quad-Legs not animated.
-Game felt rushed towards the end.

Good buy for you playstation 2 library. This should have been like a mission pack though. $25.00 would have been a good price. $50.00 is a little steep.
I hope they take their time for the release of AC3 for America. Off to ice my wrist.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/02, Updated 06/30/02