Front Mission Evolved

[Adam]

Game needs a patch and there is no install option from what I see. There's Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty levels. You start with a quick tutorial which shows you how to move your Wanzer and fire each type of weapon. There can be 4 weapons equipped on a Wanzer which can be used in battle via the 4 shoulder buttons. Each weapon seems to have it's advantages, melee is up close and does a lot more damage if you dash (circle button) into a punch. Machine guns are allrounders but overheat if you don't let off on the trigger. Missiles you need to hilight your enemy and hold the fire button down to lock-on each individual rocket then let go to fire, they home in on targets and are pretty handy.

You and your enemies have body parts. Wanzers have legs, two arms and a body while other types of enemy can have different setups ie helicopters or gun turrets will just have one health bar. If your enemy is holding a machine gun in their right hand you can destroy their right arm to lower their accuracy with the gun drastically. But from what I've played, trying to destroy parts deliberately before actually going for the body seems to do more harm than good. Instead it seems like just a bonus, if you happen to destroy parts while trying to kill enemies then great. Legs can be damaged to lower yours and your enemies moving ability and if the body is destroyed then that's the end of that Wanzer. Your body recharges back to full if you can take cover somewhere but your other parts will still remain broken. When you die you just go back to the last checkpoint or you can redo the entire level.

There's alot of item pickups in a level, there's plenty of ammo and health to grab to restore your body parts and you can find even more goodies if you go looking around. I found some cash in a few hiding places and there are Emblems and Sensors that you can collect on each level. Getting some of these gave me more money and I think finding all of them on a level gives you extra battle abilities which I've not used yet. Must say though, some of the places these items are hidden in are pretty clever. One of the Emblems in level 1 had me climbing the outside of a building and using the hover ability to get around. Didn't think I'd be doing this kind of thing in a Wanzer but they are pretty mobile here

It's alright so far. Was thinking this would be a right stinker after reading some of the reviews but I don't mind it actually.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Reminds me of the very first Armored Core in turns of action thats my first impressions on the first stage. If you like speedy action games like that you'll love it. It does nothing different but its enjoyable from what what i can tell. Well worth picking up when it drops to £10-20 in a month.

[saturn-gamer]

This is on my radar because its FM. But my cash goes to CV, perhaps Enslaved too so I'm waiting for a price drop and since this is Square it will be soon enough.

[elaniel]

Cancelled my original order and placed a new one when Zavvi dropped the price to £17.99. Received it today and really like it. Apparently it's very short, and while the controls seem very basic the game is good so far.

Plus, the cut scenes are really well done.

[eastyy]

does it suffer the problem most mech games have in that takes forever to destroy a enemy ?

[SuperBeatBoy]

does it suffer the problem most mech games have in that takes forever to destroy a enemy ?

Apparently the bosses do. But then the bosses take everything you are taught and throw it out of the window. Also the onfoot sections are suppose to be godawful.

[Adam]

First boss didn't take long to die on hard. Tought the

->Open Spoiler<-

escape

section at the end of Act 1 was pretty cool, but not long enough!

[plopboy]

I'm finding this game horribly average, everything from the repetitive game play , clear area door opens, clear area door open , to the horribly cliche plot and vapid characters.

The Wanzer look good though and the your paint job appears in the cut scenes but your load out doesn't which breaks the illusion some what.

Customiseation is ok but not a patch on Chrome hounds.

The cut scene acting IMHO is atrocious, everything from the forced story, the bad voice acting and frankly poor character models.

And just as a quick question why do the pilots not wear a harness?

Graphically it is a mixed bag, the wanzers look good but the scenery especially trees look frankly very poor.

The on foot sections are just dull and have very little to offer at all apart from breaking up the monotony of the mech sections.

But overall it just feels like a poor mans Armored Core or Chrome Hounds, both of these game produced a better mech game where as this just feels horribly average to the point of boredom.

Quite frankly it is the worst Front Mission game I have played and to equate it to another recent shocker it is about as good as Dark Void.

As you can gather I'm not a big fan and not because it is a poor Front Mission game as this isn't the first departure from the SRPG template, but just because it is below average in almost every respect 4/10.

[saturn-gamer]

I bought this on a bargain last weekend and beat it yesterday night. I did enjoy it at a few moments.

The on rails shooting levels are fun. I actually found there was diversity in this, but its very predictable in its setup. There is always a wanzer level or 2, then an on foot mission (they aren't good, but thankfully they are short and the least frequent) and likely an on rails part thrown in. The wanzers look good, and I found the missions, gameplay and even storyline (although stupid) to be far above Armored core which I could never enjoy because of all these things.

Bosses suck, as there is no strategy involved. Its endurance, rushing to health packs when needed. Usually going more defensive with heavier armor and a shield (with perfect block skill) works, utilizing Edge. In most regular missions a Sniper setup seems to be the best. I ripped most enemies apart in 2 or 3 shots with the Sieger DLC rifle.

One boss I did enjoy though, the big one on ice was kinda fun.

Yeah not bad, just some 6 hours brainless fun. If I had paid full buck for it I'd probably returned it but for a few dimes you can't really go wrong with this one.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

I bought this a year or so ago when GAME were in the **** and have just got round to playing it. It's not too bad so far, but then I'm only on Act I Mission IV.

Worth carrying on with? What's the online like? Are all the emblems and sensors easy enough to find?

[JazzFunk]

^I did the same, got it for ?1.98 on PS3, it's very much an average game, did about four missions then left it. Quite fun, though, but not Japanesey enough, it's like an old PS2 mech combat game but I preferred them over this, yet I could never say this game was bad. Not sure what the online's like but it's decent value at ?1.98, a penny cheaper than Mastertronic tapes back in the 80s.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Finished single player last night and it's not great, but not piss poor either. Boss battles do seem to come down to shoot, dodge, EDGE, pick up health and rinse, but the game itself is entertaining enough. It does have some replay value if like me, you're a completionist and want to find all the sensors and emblems.

Thinking about trying online if anyone fancies it?

[S3M]

Finished single player last night and it's not great, but not piss poor either. Boss battles do seem to come down to shoot, dodge, EDGE, pick up health and rinse, but the game itself is entertaining enough. It does have some replay value if like me, you're a completionist and want to find all the sensors and emblems.

Thinking about trying online if anyone fancies it?

Word of warning the online is just one massive grind for that game and you have to have 4 players minimum to start a match.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

That doesn't bother me too much. I'm sure I'll find some people who will play.

[dvdx2]

I love mech games and thought it was abit rubbish.

Go play gun griffon blaze, if you want fast mech action