Armored Core (1997)

Armored Core is a series that eluded me for a long time until I decided to finally try the first game. I was curious about what made it be so succesfull, why did this keep FromSoftware afloat.

The armored

• Armored Core has a very interesting story and lore. The first game has a lot of backstory that you have to piece together reading the emails that the game sends you. And it is very interesting, you slowly start to learn about the downfall of humanity, how it was destroyed and reduced to underground cities.

• The different points of view of the corporations you work for are shown very well. If you are willing to play all story missions, you start to learn how hypocritical they are after all.

• The music is just awesome, that's all I can describe it with. It pumps you and makes you nervous of what's to come.

• The game despite being extremely hard, is actually quite forgiving. If you go indebt several times, you will be forced to take a handicap called Human Plus, which causes you to be more agile, more resistant, etc.

• Mech customization is quite indepth. You can customize the paint, the symbol, etc. And you have many options, armed arms, laser guns, plasma guns, generators, machineguns, missiles, etc. And the game actually forces you to work on a budget and on weight plus energy capacity.

• You can find lots of hidden weapons that make the battle easier.

The debt

• The controls are horrible due to the time period, nobody knew about twin sticks and the Dualshock wasn't commonplace. You will be fightning the controls a lot during the game because you can't dodge or turn around fast enough, causing you to take damage.

• It's extremely easy to go indebt on accident, take a little bit too much damage or waste a little too much ammo and now you lost money, and without money you can't buy or upgrade anything; and if you go into debt way too much you are going directly into Human Plus, losing your progress. To some people, becoming Human Plus is almost an inevitability.

• The game has a dominant strategy because it forces you into it. Just build a sturdy mecha that can take a beating, then put a powerful generator in it so you have energy to spare, add a super fast booster, then some multi missile, then the Karasawa; with that build you are set for the entire game because any other build is not as powerful or as useful as this one.

Conclusion

Armored Core had somewhat of a rough start, but the appeal is still there and you can see the small inspirations for Dark Souls.

Armored Core can take some time to get used to, but the process of building up one's mech and taking on a surprisingly rich variety of battles with technical and narrative depth make this a must-play experience.

After Earth survives a catastrophic war, corporations soon come to power (Chrome and Murakumo Millennium). Inter-corporate war between them provides opportunities for mercenaries called Ravens to fulfill jobs using powerful and highly customizable mechs called Armored Cores.

The player can either play single-player missions or do a two-player versus mode. Players may use guns, rockets, lasers, and swords of varying power and ammo during a mission, with the need to balance energy output and weight for max firepower and survival.

Controls seem a bit awkward at first without the analog stick, but managing aiming with L2/R2 and having good strafe controls allow the player to make either careful and deliberate movements or use a ridiculous amount of vertical maneuvering, including advanced techniques such as the "bunny hop".

While the movement controls are something to train for battles, most of the single player's challenge comes from figuring out the best type of mech for challenges and being able to afford the parts. Using up health and ammo incurs extra costs, and debt can prevent the player from buying new parts. This encourages the player to save often and practice missions until powerful radar and lock-on, high energy output (and energy weaponry), and some helpful guns (read: the chaingun) will turn the player's Armored Core into a killing machine.

Missions can be fairly massive in terms of space, with large fields, vertical shafts, blimps, seaside bases, abandoned facilities, test arenas, cities, and so much more bring this cyberpunk world to life. Graphics are also surprisingly varied for a 1997 3D game, with no attempt at rendering human models (mechs look far better with primitive 3D rendering). Music is solid techno that also fits intense cyberpunk battles and will provide a suitable beat for focus. The player can also customize their mech and emblem, resulting in opportunities for fun and colorful creativity amidst the serious (if a little drab) designs.

Armored Core is plain impressive for the time it was made, utilizing limited controls in mech combat that works both single and multiplayer, enriched with plenty of gameplay variety and a morally ambiguous storyline that puts the player on either side of a futuristic imperialist war.