Sega Nerds

Armored Core 4 Hands-On Preview

by Warren on March 4th, 2007

 

As you may or may not have heard, an Armored Core 4 demo for Xbox 360 has recently made it’s way to “our office” by way of Xbox Live. Sure, we both know that anyone with an Xbox Live account can download it, but just use your imagination. We’ll just pretend that Sega shipped the Sega Nerds a preview build … sealed with a kiss from both Love and Berry.

and Chuck D. Head.

Accross 10 training missions, you’ll learn how to pilot your shiny new AC. The controls are some thing like this: RT is a quick boost to dodge incoming enemy fire, (boy, will you ever get used to pressing this) LT activates your AC’s thrusters, you have to hold the button to ascend, release to descend. The bumpers swap out weapons your right and left weapons respectively, while firing the weapons is assigned to A and X. B unleashes your AC’s shoulder weapons and Y activates a reserved “over boost”, I suppose this is to get you out of really tight spots, but it never came in handy much in the demo. The rest of the controls are sort of standard FPS style, Right stick aims your weapons and left stick moves your AC.

Anyone who has played Armored Core’s predecessors will instantly notice how faster and more agile the AC’s are. I was reminded of From Software’s other Mech game, Murakumo, quite a few times. Well, It surprised me anyway, having not played an Armored Core title since 2001’s Armored Core 2: Another Age. I also noticed that the AC’s don’t over heat any more, you do run out of boost and are forced to recharge, but you aren’t faced with any “Crap, I boosted too much” moments where you’re frozen and the AI get’s tons of free licks in.

As I said before, any one that wishes to have any sort of success on harder missions would do well to master the art jamming the right trigger like a madman. Another helpful tip: Auto-aim everything that moves. You can do this by clicking in the left stick for “auto-sighting”. When ever the player auto-sighting a screen appears with the target on it, sort of like Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Tony Hawk’s Project 8 or XIII (any one that remember that gem?)

Unfortunately, the demo features absolutely no AC customization, but it’s a Armored Core staple and I’m sure it’s return will be most triumphant. (Yes, that was a Bill and Ted line) To remedy this, you can select 7 different AC’s each of different types and with different weapons.

After the training, you’re faced with the very easy “First Presentation” mission. This is where we can get a nice look at the graphics, which in the first mission are nice, if nothing outstanding. The AC’s look great, they have lots of detail and the lighting is nice as well. Buildings and other surroundings aren’t anything special, but later missions do look better then this one.

“Desert Wolf” is our next mission, a 1-on-1 battle akin to older Armored Core titles. I would use the word epic for the fight, since the level has great lighting and mood, but the fight lasts about 20 seconds. Just lock the sucker and keep ramming that X button and he’ll be flat lined in no time (Do mech’s even have heartbeats? Sounds like a Philip K. Dick novel) I’d recommend backing off a bit and making the battle last longer, you’ll be treated to some great visuals.

Two missions that are easy as cake…then it hits you: “Water Gliding.” A very nice looking flooded city with some impressive water effects, but you you’re going to get sick of seeing the sights quickly, the difficulty just got jacked up to ‘I Am Death Incarnate.’ This mission is one of the hardest I’ve ever played in a trial version of a game. However, if you keep your eyes on the prize, you’ll have it beaten in a mere 4 hours worth of retries…actually just select the Type-Hogire AC and slash each submarine to ribbons with your sword, then swap to your missiles and take out the carrier. I think that may be the only way to actually pass this mission with the 7 AC’s you’re given on the demo. It is still tough however, so keep at it.

I’m liking what I see so far. Armored Core 4 is very solid, like it’s predecessors. While the game feels much different from previous versions of the series in terms of speed and control, I think it will deliver for fans of the series, as well as to draw in a whole group of new fans when Sega ships it later this month.

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POSTED IN: Microsoft Xbox 360