Front Mission 3

"slow at first, a bit unrealistic, but very cool"

Front Mission 3
Graphics : 6
The graphics really are not very good. The explosions look rather generic. The missiles look like inflated grey condoms. Clipping galore especially if a battle move takes place while a machine is on an incline. The graphics do the job tho. The FMV scenes are very strange appear at the oddest times and dont really fit into the story very well(at least up to the point where I am at in the game).

Sound : 9
I luv the music. The gun sounds and sparking explosions sound very cool. The music loop it plays while you are on the satellite network is rather annoying however.

Vibrate Feature : 2
This is the worst application of the vibration feature I have seen yet. At first I was excited to see there was a vibrate feature. I imagined the dual shock vibrating with each gun blast or every time i recieved damage. No such luck. The controller only gives a wimpy vibrate once for every enemy unit downed. Disapointment

Gameplay : 9
At first the game is really slow, Squares whole ''teach you how to play the game tutorial stuff'' was always kind of annoying to me. Fortunately it seems as tho you can skip it if desired which beefs up the replay value for a square game in my book. the first few battle scenairos seem rather boring too not very much stratagey is implimented, like early battles in a final fantasy game you pretty much just attack get hit attack get hit etc....
When you do get further into the game and get more involved in customizing your mechs the real glory of the game begins to show. You can customize a mechs name, color and basically all of the body parts and weapon configurations very nice. The mechs have some neat colors from the basic color palette to forest camo, desert camo, etc. when you get to the first shop where you can actually buy new weapons you will absolutely love it.

There is no map screen that you actually move around on. You basically move the story and conversation along via these menus that appear over top of an image representing the current location so your exploreation options will seem rather limited. Considering the real focus and fun of this game is the combat situations tho I dont see this as being a problem. sometimes will just want more combat which will make the inbetween story seem rather bothersome. For a quick fix tho you can always use the simulator on your computer desktop, which brings me to my next observation the satellite network.

Appearantly you have some sort of super duper satellite capable computer that you cary with you to interface the network or ''internet''. The computer allows you to send and recieve email, browse the network, customize your desktop, view saved downloaded information, etc... Since the game isnt about exploring the network I wont place my gripes about these features in this review. It does however seem as tho solving riddles about the network play into the game.

Summary : In the end Front Mission 3 is a fabulous game. The combat situations are very addictive. Two complete storylines(altho I havent decided how you select the other situation) that you will no doubt want to play throu, make this a game you will be spending some time with. If you are looking for a Square RPG where you explore a fantasy world however you might be dissapointed. Otherwise stratagey fans should definately give this a try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/00, Updated 03/24/00