Armored Core 3

"Great Overall AC Game"

Control of the Earth is still undecided…

“It's been 20 years since the Earth Government and the Corporations battled for supremacy. The majority of humanity lives beneath the surface of the planet, relatively safe from the continuing struggle. A new and mysterious entity has entered the picture, however, snapping up all the available Ravens for intense missions that only their custom-built Armored Core Units can handle.” ~Back of the box

“As a Raven, you know there's always another mission waiting for you -does it really matter who, or what, hires you? For all the new parts and weapons out there for you to earn in battle - we didn't think so. But just the same, keep your back covered, Raven.” ~Agetec.com

Gameplay 9 - 10
You start off by trying to earn your ''RAVEN LICENSE'' in a training exercise. If you succeed then you get to become a raven and enter the ''Global Nest'' which contains 5 things: Missions, where you do all your missions. Garage, where you build, and buy. Mail, where you receive mail. System, where you save and load. Last but not least the arena, where you compete against other ranking Armored Cores. After becoming a raven you get hired by different corporations to do missions. Each mission awarding a different amount of Credits(money) according to the difficulty of the mission. The missions consist of everything from protecting, saving, and planting items to destroying robots, causing chaos in a city, or going head to head with another Armored Core. As fun as it is to wasting rounds of ammo on your surroundings, there is a draw back to all missions...EXPENSES! You see, you have to be careful in what you do in missions. There are Ammunition costs, AC(armored core) damage repair, and special deductions that get taken away from the payment they intended on giving you for completing the mission.
The missions in later game are VERY difficult, and you lose the ability to merely leave a mission incomplete if you fail it, a feature that cause me a few headaches. On the higher note though, you can receive special additions to make up for some losses. You try to gain as much credits (money) as you can in every level so you can buy parts for your AC. You can have negative credits, which means you owe money. If your credits are too low, your license gets revoked and game is over. Play it smart, and become rich.

In Armored Core 3, you have a very nice option of taking a 'wingman' on your mission which could be an MT (muscle tracer) or a fellow Raven (AC pilot). This is a nice little addition on missions, however it costs credits to hire them.

Aside from the missions, there is an ''Arena'' mode which contains good and bad armored cores ploted by the computer AI, in which you can compete against. You gain Raven rank by completing missions, and defeating AC's in the arena. The higher your rank, the more AC's you are able to fight. The opponents can be fought in 8 different levels. All with boundaries, and different environments.

Graphics 10-10

The graphics in this game are the best of all the AC games to date. AC2 and AC2: Another Age had very detailed mech designs, but the environments were a bit drab. AC3 takes the old mech designs and makes them all a bit more sleek and stylish, then spruces up the environments a bit to make them more interesting. It's still no Metal Gear Solid 2 in terms of visual presentation (water effects in AC3 are especially dull), but with improved mechs, improved environments, and improved explosions, it doesn't get much better than this. All the little parts and gizmos on your AC really come alive when you activate them, and the stealth parts' purple glow is a great touch.

Controls 6-10

AC3 has the same controls as the very first Armored Core on the PSX, with some minor tweaks for the new abilities. Yes, this means no dual analog. You can use the left analog in place of the d-pad if you wish, but strafing and looking will forever be stuck on the shoulder buttons. For my oldskool gaming philosophy, that works just fine. It works just fine for a lot of other AC fans as well, but for newcomers to the series, and those who have grown accustomed to the dual analog controls that modern third-person games utilize (Max Payne comes to mind), it can be frustrating. It is very responsive though, so if you can get used to the button layout, actually playing the game is a breeze.

Rent or Buy
To rent or to buy… if you have never played AC, you should rent it first, however, if you have played any of the series and liked it, I would have to say buy. This is a game that offers unlimited gameplay. Creating your own custom AC’s is amazing, you’ll no doubt want to have every kind. The game could get repetitive, and could get a bit boring, but it will take awhile for that to set in.

My final review: 9 - 10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/02, Updated 12/13/02