ic-games Review - Armoured Core 3 - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - Armoured Core 3 - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

Armoured Core 3

Information
Reviewer: Andrew Lobley
Developer: FROM Software
Publisher: Metro 3D
Reviewed: Playstation 2
Genre: Third Person
UK Release: 30th May 2003
Article Date: 27th Jul 2003
Difficulty: Medium
Retail Price:
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 86%

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Pros

Stunning positional sound

Great Graphics

Cons

No Xbox Live

Control system can be frustrating

Screenshots

1 of 5

Armoured Core 3 is a Mech based combat game, set in a post-apocalyptic future that is ruled by a super power called The Controller. The Controller dictates everything that occurs in the AC3 world, running peoples lives, and providing work and safety for the population. As time went on, large corporation’s started to fight each other as they looked for absolute power. The Controller monitored the conflict between the corporation’s, and thought he had it under control, until he lost control and the forces of chaos took over. This is where you come into the fold; the corporation’s started to hire mercenaries, called Ravens to settle their disputes for them. You are a new recruit working for a firm called Global Cortex, who are in the business of ‘dispute resolution’, hiring out Ravens to the highest bidder. In return for working for them, Global Cortex provides you with a Mech (or AC), shop facilities and a garage to maintain your Unit.

The game has two main single player modes, Mission and Arena. The Mission section of the game follows the storyline of the rises and falls of the various corporation’s, as they hire you to do work for them, ranging from evicting employees from a closed down factory unit, to protecting dignitaries. Every successful mission is rewarded with cash which allows you to improve our Mech, by buying parts from the vast arsenals available in the shop facility. One nice feature of the mission section of the game is the ability to hire other Ravens to help you, if you feel you can not complete the mission alone. They don’t come cheap; so a balance has to be met between keeping all the reward money for yourself, or splitting it in exchange for help in the mission. There are over 50 missions in AC3, which should be enough to keep you playing for sometime.

The second single player section in AC3 is the Arena mode. This is effectively a one on one ladder tournament, with all Ravens ranked according to their skills and previous successes or failures. As you are the rookie on the Global Cortex books, you start at the bottom of the ladder, and have to fight your way up. Victories in Arena matches are rewarded with new parts for your unit. The Arena mode provides a useful way of upgrading your Mech with new features, leading to more success in the missions.

Aside from the single player pursuits in AC3, there is a multiplayer mode, involving a death match style battle between players in split screen mode. Two players can play on a single machine, and up to four can play with two linked PS2’s. Four player DM on AC3 would be a good laugh I think, as the multiplayer maps are well laid out, and not too large, so it should be a constant fight. It is a shame that From Software chose not to make AC3 online capable, as fighting your own Mech unit against the rest of the globe would have been a valuable addition to this game.

Although the aim of AC3 is to complete the missions in order to see what happens to the corporation’s and to The Controller, the real aim for me is to see how cool I can make the Mech I’m piloting. AC3 accommodates for every aspect of modification you could possibly want to make to your unit. First off, the bit we are all interested in: Weapons! Armoured Core 3 has quite an arsenal at its disposal including shell rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, bazookas, shotguns, energy shotguns, missile launchers, pulse rifles, laser rifles, plasma cannons, grenade cannons…. I could go on! Then there are numerous designs of legs for your Mech, including hovering, six legged and also ones with tank tracks. For every feature of the Mech, there is a better version available if you have the cash, they are totally customisable. To make the modification process even better, every change you make to your unit has an implication in terms of power consumption, weight, defensive capabilities and firepower, so a balance has to be met, to create a unit that suits your style of play. Once the mechanics of your AC have been finalised, you can then change its colour and add a number of different logos to it to make it truly your own.

The graphics on AC3 are very nice. The Mechs look really good, they move as a large robotic unit should, and the lighting effects on the metallic surfaces are surprisingly good for a PS2 game. Every change you make to you Mech is visible when you commence a mission, and the added parts don’t appear to be ‘stuck on’, they look like they have been there from the start.

The game uses Dolby positional sound, with is great as you get a real feel for where you are being attacked from, and where your enemies or fellow ravens are situated. This coupled with the games soundtrack, makes AC3 very kind on the ears.

The controls are a minor sticking point in my opinion though. The movement of the Unit is pretty cumbersome, and not as simple as it perhaps could, or should have been. The left thumb stick controls the movement of the AC, and strafing is allocated to R1 and L1, this is not the problem. The problem lies in the fact that the up/down movement of the camera is controlled by R2 and L2, not the right thumb stick, which would seem more sensible to me. This means that it is very difficult to shoot targets that are either higher, of lower, than the screen position, as this makes it tricky to move the camera. I found myself moving backwards to bring higher enemies into view, rather than attempting to alter the angle of the camera in a vertical plane.

To conclude, Armoured Core 3 is a very enjoyable game and fans of the Mech genre will certainly not be disappointed. The Mech modifying and 50 plus missions should give AC3 a decent lifespan, and multiplayer death match is always good for a laugh, even after the game is completed, the minor niggles with the controls and the lack of online multiplayer stop it from being a classic, but for a quick blast now and again, you really can't go wrong.

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