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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Action Developer: From Software Publisher: SEGA of America |
Excuse the overly used cliché, but “Armored Core 4” is a definite emotional rollercoaster ride that will have players moving from a high
to an extreme low. When players first boot up the new title from SEGA, they will get an awesome introduction movie featuring amazing
visuals and start the game with some very high expectations, but instead of players getting involved in mind blowing mech combat,
players are treated to missions that involve limited movement and extremely boring objectives.
If players are able to make it through the long list of boring and uneventful missions involving shooting things out of the air as the going
flying by, they will be able to get a few cool seek out and destroy missions as well. Players will possibly begin to get excited again but
as soon as players log into the online multiplayer they will get a dose of inadequate arenas mixed with a lot of fun friend fragging. It is
enough to make players sick with all of the ups and downs and will eventually cause players to simply turn off their Xbox 360 instead of
dealing with the game anymore.
Like any game that has ever been released in the “Armored Core” franchise, this title throws players into a mech as part of a squadron
that is facing off against some bad guys with their own batch of tanks and mechs. The storyline is very confusing and never really gets
fleshed out enough to make it interesting, but “Armored Core” fans probably won’t complain too much about it. These games focus on
the mech customization and “Armored Core 4” surely doesn’t disappoint. There are more than five difference schematics that are
available from the game’s very beginning to jump into and customize with guns, missiles, heads and stabilizers. Players are able to
load up their mech with their favorite colors and deck it out with piles and piles of weapons and ammunition with nearly unlimited
numbers of possible combinations. It is easy for players to make their own special mech beast and run it against their friends, and that
is the main point of “Armored Core 4.”
When players take out their mech to face off against other fans of mechs, players will notice that this is easily the most important feature
of the game and SEGA offers a wide variety of ways to player against friends and other fans of the game, system ink, split screen and
online. From the multiplayer menu players are able to challenge their friends in a variety of matches such as one on one, two on two,
four on four, four player battle royal matches and eight player battle royal. The multiplayer game play is a lot of fun, able to check out
how different players have customized their own personal mech, trade mech schematics and learn all new tactics for fighting, however
the multiplayer mode highlights one of the game’s biggest downfall. Visually “Armored Core 4” is a major failure.
Each environment is bland, boring and barren, and the backgrounds in the distance are extremely limited and the colors are completely
washed out. To a certain extent players could point these shortcomings up to the overall story elements. Most of the storyline has
players playing through empty ghost towns that are supposed to be empty because of the fact that there is a giant mechanical robot war
and when players are playing at night, they can still see great distance. This stuff doesn’t quite make sense in the game, but certain
elements of the game make these forgivable. Also, when giant craters are shot into the crowd, having them instantly disappear as
players approach them and levels that have players operating blind in a large sandstorm, players will be very disappointed with the
graphics that the game offers. It is obvious that the developers worked with whatever they had and what they had didn’t work well.
Beyond the games visual shortcomings, players may also be disappointed with the fact that most of the missions are quite boring. I
would be expected that the first few levels of the game would ease players into how to use the mech, but instead they are given tedious
and simple missions that continue throughout the entire game. In fact chapters two and three are almost completely identical, having
players stand in one spot and guard and blast enemies as they fly by. If players miss one of the enemies and begin to chase after
them, they will be reprimanded for nearing the edge of the combat area and will fail the mission.
Players are in gigantic mechs, and if they want to fly after some of the self destructing enemies they should be able to do it. Also,
players aren’t able to flank their enemies because they could end up outside of the combat area. By the time they get back into the safe
zone, they had already lost the mission. Players will probably get very frustrated and bored with the single player mode.
The “Armored Core” franchise celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. With games that have that kind of staying power, it is definitely
clear that SEGA knows exactly what this specific fan base wants, however “Armored Core 4” delivers its usual customizations options
that are very expansive. It isn’t enough that the weak single player missions and visuals are lacking, but overall the game somewhat
fails where others worked so well. For those who are fans of the franchise, this is a must have game.
to an extreme low. When players first boot up the new title from SEGA, they will get an awesome introduction movie featuring amazing
visuals and start the game with some very high expectations, but instead of players getting involved in mind blowing mech combat,
players are treated to missions that involve limited movement and extremely boring objectives.
If players are able to make it through the long list of boring and uneventful missions involving shooting things out of the air as the going
flying by, they will be able to get a few cool seek out and destroy missions as well. Players will possibly begin to get excited again but
as soon as players log into the online multiplayer they will get a dose of inadequate arenas mixed with a lot of fun friend fragging. It is
enough to make players sick with all of the ups and downs and will eventually cause players to simply turn off their Xbox 360 instead of
dealing with the game anymore.
Like any game that has ever been released in the “Armored Core” franchise, this title throws players into a mech as part of a squadron
that is facing off against some bad guys with their own batch of tanks and mechs. The storyline is very confusing and never really gets
fleshed out enough to make it interesting, but “Armored Core” fans probably won’t complain too much about it. These games focus on
the mech customization and “Armored Core 4” surely doesn’t disappoint. There are more than five difference schematics that are
available from the game’s very beginning to jump into and customize with guns, missiles, heads and stabilizers. Players are able to
load up their mech with their favorite colors and deck it out with piles and piles of weapons and ammunition with nearly unlimited
numbers of possible combinations. It is easy for players to make their own special mech beast and run it against their friends, and that
is the main point of “Armored Core 4.”
When players take out their mech to face off against other fans of mechs, players will notice that this is easily the most important feature
of the game and SEGA offers a wide variety of ways to player against friends and other fans of the game, system ink, split screen and
online. From the multiplayer menu players are able to challenge their friends in a variety of matches such as one on one, two on two,
four on four, four player battle royal matches and eight player battle royal. The multiplayer game play is a lot of fun, able to check out
how different players have customized their own personal mech, trade mech schematics and learn all new tactics for fighting, however
the multiplayer mode highlights one of the game’s biggest downfall. Visually “Armored Core 4” is a major failure.
Each environment is bland, boring and barren, and the backgrounds in the distance are extremely limited and the colors are completely
washed out. To a certain extent players could point these shortcomings up to the overall story elements. Most of the storyline has
players playing through empty ghost towns that are supposed to be empty because of the fact that there is a giant mechanical robot war
and when players are playing at night, they can still see great distance. This stuff doesn’t quite make sense in the game, but certain
elements of the game make these forgivable. Also, when giant craters are shot into the crowd, having them instantly disappear as
players approach them and levels that have players operating blind in a large sandstorm, players will be very disappointed with the
graphics that the game offers. It is obvious that the developers worked with whatever they had and what they had didn’t work well.
Beyond the games visual shortcomings, players may also be disappointed with the fact that most of the missions are quite boring. I
would be expected that the first few levels of the game would ease players into how to use the mech, but instead they are given tedious
and simple missions that continue throughout the entire game. In fact chapters two and three are almost completely identical, having
players stand in one spot and guard and blast enemies as they fly by. If players miss one of the enemies and begin to chase after
them, they will be reprimanded for nearing the edge of the combat area and will fail the mission.
Players are in gigantic mechs, and if they want to fly after some of the self destructing enemies they should be able to do it. Also,
players aren’t able to flank their enemies because they could end up outside of the combat area. By the time they get back into the safe
zone, they had already lost the mission. Players will probably get very frustrated and bored with the single player mode.
The “Armored Core” franchise celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. With games that have that kind of staying power, it is definitely
clear that SEGA knows exactly what this specific fan base wants, however “Armored Core 4” delivers its usual customizations options
that are very expansive. It isn’t enough that the weak single player missions and visuals are lacking, but overall the game somewhat
fails where others worked so well. For those who are fans of the franchise, this is a must have game.
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