Armored Core 2 (PS2)

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The game play is quit easy once you get use to piloting the AC, but if its your first time playing it, you'll probably get annoyed with the controls, you also might want to try AC test or the first opponent in the Arena and hide behind buildings lol.

The game gets harder every time you complete a mission or every time you beat an arena AC. Im in rank 18 at the moment i am stuck, but this is where tactics and new AC parts come in :).

Well i dont want to spoil anyting, but to warn you of the tough challenges............As a mech fan, this is a great game and ill be looking forward to purchasing the next 4 AC games.

The mechs themselves are well detail, with loads of moving parts, and showy effects for the boosters and weapons. The vs. levels can be a little bland, but the mission levels show reasonable textures that are atmospheric and nicely capture the post-apocalyptic theme. As all the parts look different from each other you can tell (when close enough) exactly what an enemy AC is armed with. Sound is great with the lumbering jolts of landing and jumping, the boom of explosions and the whine of chainguns dispensing their loads. The only real complaint is that the levels themselves can be a little small, and the menu writing seems to flicker which is irritating at times.

The gameplay is a mix between all arcade action of say the Gundam series, and the sterile perfectionism of Mechwarrior. You can choose to utilise quick lightly armed and armoured cores, lumbering powerhouses loaded down with massive firepower or something in-between. You must develop skills to aim the slower, more powerful weapons, while dodging is essential in anything but the most heavy tank. All-in-all the balance seems excellent, "tuning" your core can be as lazy or as stringent as you feel, however the impact is similar to Gran Turismo. Be lazy with a good AC and good parts and you will do ok, but fine tune everything to the optimal for that particular configuration and good goes to great. This is half the beauty of the AC concept, the other being that apart from a few obviously better parts the style of core you choose isnt particularly weaker than another. Some matchups do favour one or the other, but mostly you can choose a style you like and play against all comers. For example while a heavy AC can have alot of armour, you will get hit more often as dodging isnt as easy. You can make a heavily armed quick moving AC, but the paper-thin defence means one or two hits and its all over, add more armour balance the weapons and you still end up fast but you might have to choose your shots more carefully to ensure you dont run out of ammo when taking down a big tank.

AC2 has some serious lifespan, that's because of the part interactions, and the fact you can make widely different feeling mechs. This virtually gives a whole new slant to the game and instantly gives the game multiple replays that do not feel stale. Again the VS modes (split screen or iLink) are a joy, and while the bot AI can be a little patchy, playing the Raven arena ladder can also be very challenging depending on the parts chosen. Linking two PS2's is especially fun, which begs the rumoured online AC3:Sigma project to be completed ASAP. All in all it's like having the customisation of Gran Turismo bolted onto Timesplitters deathmatches. Piloting 8 tons of metal has never been so much fun!

If you do all the missions and wonder thats all you can do, well your wrong because you have an arena,where you Face mechs from rank 50 right down to rank 1.Each one has different strategys on how to kill you(Way Cool).If your weapons are too slow or not powerful enough then you can by new parts and there are loads of massive parts ranging from the head to the bosters.

If you don't like robots then its not for you.

AC2 is a 3rd-person mech game. You may find the speed quite slow to start off with: I played this after having finished Zone of the Enders, and the transition from the agile orbital frames to clunky ACs (armoured cores) was a bit of a shock. After a while though, I really got into this game. The structure is mission-based, and you have a degree of freedom over which ones you choose. There is an ongoing plot, which relates to the missions in hand. These play quite well, as do the head to head Arena challenges (some of which are very tough).

Where the game shines is in the customisation of your AC. There are a vast array of weapons to choose from, and it is interesting to pit light, agile ACs against the heavily armoured ones- you will need different qualities for different missions. "4-legs good, 2-legs bad?" Up to you really! After a while you may settle on a standard machine, for which you can create your own emblem and even paint the different parts! There are are variety of special parts to be obtained, which you can't buy from the shop, adding a bit of longevity. The game also allows 2-player split screen mode, which is quite fun provided both players have some experience of piloting the AC.

Summary- it's a fun game let down a bit by dated graphics, but still a worthwhile purchase (particularly since the game can be picked up for a bargain price if you know where to look). 4 stars.

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