Once you get the hang of robot design and commit the function of a hundred or
so robot parts to memory you’ll be able to customize your robots to build a
well-balanced team with a nimble little bot, a big armored bruiser, and a few of
the other types in between. Since you can also tweak your robots at any time and
as new parts become available, you’ll find yourself tweaking one of your robots
specifically to beat your next opponent. Since there is trial and error involved
in learning your opponents’ weaknesses, this means that you’ll spend a lot of
time going back to the drawing board until you can beat your next opponent … and
then you move on to the next match and the process begins anew all over again.
 |
| An even bigger robot with an even bigger gun. |
When you’re actually in a match you have the option of controlling your robot
yourself or letting the AI handle the dirty work for you. I’m sure that you’re
thinking that the first option is the more appealing of the two, but that’s not
the case here and that’s why the game will probably disappoint you wannabe
robojocks out there. Battles often take the form of you and your opponent
running, hopping, or flying in circles around each other as you try to get a
lock on the other robot so that you can begin mashing the fire button. And the
sluggish controls aren’t really suited that well to this. Sure, you can cycle
through weapons and special abilities, but I found that in the short battles in
the game that there was not really much time to try out strategies other than
running around in circles mashing buttons.
If you let the AI fight the battles things are more enjoyable as you can
still have an effect on how your robot performs in the fight. A series of
sliders lets you set the robot’s operating parameters and tactics such as the
range at which to engage the enemy. If you want even greater tactical control,
you can use special “operations chips” to perform specific actions at a
specified time interval in the match. For example, you can use a chip to command
your robot to start bunny-hopping 30 seconds into the match. All of these
customizations mean even more time away from any actual action, so you really
have to enjoy this sort of stuff or you won’t enjoy the game.
While there’s a lot to the robot customization, there’s not much more to the
game itself. There’s a screen where you can read news headlines about the league
or get emails from the other teams, but this does not add much story or
immersion to the game. Armored Core is a sim through and through, which is great
if you love sims but there’s not enough else here if you’re not.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
69%. The action's not enough of a payoff for all the time spent in robot
design.
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