Front Mission 3

"The only game you'll be playing for the next few weeks..."

Overall - 8

First off, don't get me wrong... i think this is a fantastic title... but there a whole bunch of nits i would like to pick. This is a great tactical RPG, but you don't do much to advance the story... basically, you fight, and then the game walks you through the storyline, then you fight, then the game walks you... you know what i mean. Though you can make choices along the way, they are few and far between. It would have been nice if they included more story sideways so that it wouldn't feel so linear. Also, the story seems to advance independent of what you do on the in-game internet or network and in your in-game e-mail... which i feel should have been tied more closely into the story to encourage you to read it more.

Despite the semi-linearity of the story, the game never disappoints. The battles relate to the story pretty well and are varied and challenging. If you have not tried this game, do so... NOW.

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Gameplay - 10 - combat / 7 - network

This is an excellent tactical RPG for the Playstation, mixing the gameplay of Final Fantasy Tactics with the robot (they're called 'wanzers') management and customization seen only in such games as the Armored Core Series and Mechwarrior. The game gives you a ton of menus featuring weapons, parts and upgrades for your wanzer. You will most likely spend most of your time tweaking your wanzer and training your characters for the next battle.

The downside of training, though, is that if you do it enough, the game will not present as much of a challenge to you than it would otherwise... as training not only raises your characters' ability points, it also gives you money to upgrade your wanzers.

The menu system is fine once you get used to it, but i'm still amazed at how clunky it is. The network system (the in-game internet) is innovative and unheard of in playstation games until now. But once the novelty wears off, you might tire of the long and frustrating chores of hacking passwords to sites that contain goodies for your wanzers. Fortunately, you don't really need to access the net to further the story line... but if you did need to, it would have added some spice to the game.

The combat itself is nothing to complain about. Even after you've mastered the computer AI (which is nothing to write home about... most of the enemy actions that seem halfway intelligent are really pre-programmed scripts), there is challenge enough in managing your combat group and keeping them all alive through a battle. The most annoying thing, though, is that some enemies will completely ignore you until you get close enough... that should have been worked out in pre-production. Another downer is the fact that you can only have four of your characters in battle at one time. Hopefully, when the PS2 version comes out, they will include bigger maps and more units per battle. The best part about combat is the ability to eject or kill pilots and steal their wanzers or vehicles... this has helped me a lot in some tough missions... but even if you don't need to do it, it's a whole bag of fun.

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Story - 8

The story is intriguing and multi-levelled, to really get the full flavor of it, you must get on the in-game network for the background and history of the world of tomorrow. Basically, though, the game is about multinational conspiracies and a secret weapon that everyone wants... i'd say more, but that would be ruining it. suffice to say, that with two main storylines with various small subplots, this game should keep you busy for a while.

It would have been nice, though, to be able to have more branchings of the storyline... since squaresoft used the picturebox format for dialogue to save space, they could've put much more into this than two paths.

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Audio/Video - 7 / 8

The music for the cut scenes and FMV is pretty good, but it is almost absent during the battles because it is so much quieter than the sound effects. The sound effects for the battles are crisp and accurate.

The graphic details for the wanzers and vehicles are pretty good. Movement is well-animated and realistic (all robot games should have giant robots moving like they are giant robots!!! big, slow and powerful!). The cut-scene backgrounds are well-rendered.

The structures are all well-rendered and are interesting and varied... no boxes with bitmaps here! The buildings and landscapes all look realistic. The trees, crates, tanks, fences, cars (i could go on and on and on...) and other destructible items are all nice touches... having areas that are only accessible to the pilots (i.e.: too small for wanzers) is a nice touch, too.

...however...

The graphics show an extreme amount of pop-in and some clipping when it comes to the polygonal backgrounds. As the pilots are very small compared to the wanzers, they can actually fit on single pixels on the bitmaps that cover the battle surfaces. The texture maps on the background surfaces are extremely low resolution and clunky when seen up-close, and occasionally, structures will ruin the up-close battle sequences as they often get in the way of the camera.

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Replay Value - 9

I can't honestly tell you if this is true, as i haven't finished the game yet, but the first run through will keep you occupied for as long as you want... it's pretty hard to get tired of this game! Besides the multiple story paths, there is the challenge of finding rare wanzers and parts, some of which are not available in one storyline and are not purchaseable. There is also the challenge of getting the platinum for the harder missions.

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Buy or Rent?

Well, if you have rented this, you will know that it is better to BUY it... even after you finish the game. It is something that you ought to put up in your trophy case, along with the memory card you've used for it... just so you can show everyone you've actually beaten it.

i'm going to have mine framed.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/24/00, Updated 01/29/02