Published by: Sega                                       Developed by: From Software

Genre: Mech Shooter                                     Number of Players: 1 (2-8)

Armored Core 4 is the fourth installment in the Armored Core (minus the spin-offs) series which started on the PS1 and was originally planned to be a PS3 exclusive. . But luckily the game manages to land on the 360, which is great for us Mech lovers! The goal of the game was to change the speed of the previous games by allowing for unlimited boosting when not flying/quick boosting. Previously the only Mech/Robot game on the 360 was Chromehounds, while the game wasn’t horrible it was slow as molasses. Developed by the same company, AC4 completely turns that around making an extremely fast-paced and enjoyable gaming experience.

As I stated, this is a Mech action game, but more specifically you need to know there are two different categorized mech types in the world of gaming and anime. There are the slow-paced, giant hunks of armor, 4 legged Western mechs. And then there are the fast-paced, gundam like Eastern mechs, which generally take the appearance of a human shape. This is obviously using the Eastern Mech style like all the previous games in the series.

The single-player fighting takes place in two ways, the first of which is the missions you take part in to go through-out the 6 Chapters. Now, each mission is generally only a few minutes long, which while it seems like that would get annoying blazing through the single player, there is a LOT of replayability. Of the many missions in the game all of them can be done over again to achieve that oh-so-precious S rank, as well as on a Hard difficulty.  As you progress through this mission you unlock money and parts for your mech to be used in Story, Multiplayer or Simulator which I’ll discuss later. At first you pick a AC (Mech name) which suits your fighting style, as you unlock parts throughout the game your AC will go from a easily-killed damage sponge to a walking army; assuming you pick the right parts!

 The customization in this game is really immersive, unlike Chromehounds where as they just used the same part with a different name and stats, all the parts in the game have a different look to them. When making your AC, you can pick two Arm weapons, two shoulder weapons, two back-up weapons in case you run out of ammo, and a shoulder part that doesn’t seem to ever want to work. Now, besides the weapons you have to build your AC from the ground up, with Legs (Standard, Reverse Joint, Tank), a Core, a Face, and of course arms. The cool thing that really changes up the game’s customization up is the opportunity to rather then picking arms that can hold guns or a sword; you can choose Arm-Guns, which range from a powerful grenade launcher, to a one-hit kill Particle gun that only has 2 shots. Even added to all the weapons and body parts, you still have to choose your boosters and other things that power your AC, even after that are points you unlock that boost certain stat aspects of your AC based on your choosing.

As far as graphics are concerned, this may not be the most detailed game on the market; or at least as far as the ground and buildings go. Despite cool level designs some do seem somewhat empty. Now as for the ACs, they do look impressive; I find it really hard not to spend time while playing doing things that just look plain cool. Whether it’s just flying and raining bullets down on whatever poor chap you’re facing tickles your fancy, or boosting on the ground at high speeds getting ready to blade an opponent from the back.

The controls in this game take a little time to get used to, but when you do get them down, you find it’s a pretty perfect set-up. A and X are used to fire weapons, while RB, and LB switches what weapons you are firing (Arm/Back). B is used simply for activating the Shoulder parts, which as I said earlier, don’t seem to want to work all the time. L is for normal boosting along the ground, simply hold it in when moving from place to place and you slide nicely as if on an ice-rink. If you aren’t moving and hold L you fly into the air, where as you can control where you’re going with the Left Thumb Stick, Right one to aim. R is a lesser used button, it allows you to do a quick-boost at the cost of some energy, but it really helps when needing to get out of a tight spot. Say you’re in an area you know you’ll die in, well simply tap the Y button and your AC will boost at amazing speeds to get you out of there safely.

I mentioned earlier of a second type of battle you can do during Single-Player. This is “Simulator” mode, no you don’t get a USB adapter for a Virtual-Boy and fight in your AC, you fight ACs in a one-on-one battle in a arena of your choice. You unlock this in chapter 3 or 4, and it’s a really good way to get out of the missions and gain some good easy money! There are many (I’d say 30 or so) AC battles to do, each time you defeat someone you get money, sometimes a part or two, their AC schematic, and their avatar that you can use for your own ACs. Avatars add a little bit more to the excessive color customization of your AC, making your AC, really your own.

Last but not least is the online portion of the game, where you can do a host of different game-types (well all Deathmatch). You can also trade Schematics for others to use assuming they have the required parts. 4-On-4 team battles are my favorite as its lengthy and you don’t have to rely completely on yourself to win the battle!

To sum it all up, Armored Core 4 is an amazing game if you give it a chance! Customization is more in-depth then any other game I’ve seen before between the part and color customization. And having battles with 7 other people, where everyone is using their own personalized mech at blazing fast speeds to do battle really makes it interesting! I recommend AC4 to any Mech lover 100%!

 -Cool looking Robots

 -Fun Modes+ Multiplayer

 -VERY In-Depth customization

 -Good Controls

Final Score: 8.5/10

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