Armored Core 4

released on Dec 21, 2006

Armored Core, the mech action game that defined the mech genre is back to take on next-generation platforms! Armored Core 4 reinvigorates the brand by offering an all-new storyline, new environments, and online capability. The 10th anniversary of the acclaimed franchise is punctuated with a leap to next-generation platforms that will ensure a new quality level in both gameplay and visual performance.


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VIDEO GAME PURISSIMO TÁ.

a gameplay muito gostosa e rapida esse jogo sabe te pumpar na ação, a historia é daora também mas confusa, recomendo pra quem quer vir pra franquia

A game that successfully achieves in its ambition to be different from the past and carve out a new formula that would later come to influence future entries, but incidentally, changes behind the scenes caused a sort of rift between both the main game, and its pseudo sequel where in one you can feel how its development shift had an effect on the project and consequently, making it feel very shallow but otherwise fulfilling through other means.

Took me a while to get through it due to not having a controller for a long while but I chipped off this game whenever I had time.

4th gen AC always looked cool to me from afar due to its speed and skill needed. Though you can tell this a grim game from the art style and isn't much of a looker, it has this distinct vibe that I fuck with.

Most of my love though comes from the gameplay, jeez man it's like I'm on crack playing this game. I will say though, some of the mission's definitely were easy as fuck and pretty short but in the moment to moment of it all, I dig it.

Coming just a year and a half after 2005's Last Raven, Armored Core 4 marks a turning point in the franchise. The classic AC gameplay had been pushed as far as it could feasibly go on the PS2, tweaked and refined and elevated in difficulty and tuning until it produced a marvelous diamond. To continue tinkering with a style of game they had worked on across more than ten games would have felt redundant.

AC4 took advantage of the new technology available to try and offer a new style of play. The bones of Armored Core as we knew it are still there, but what's been built on top of them is the most radical departure from the old formula yet.

The tiny arenas that featured prominently in the last few games have been replaced by gigantic maps that you traverse in lightning fast ACs that glide across the ground and zip over the skies. Building a machine that could maintain flight for a long time took careful fine-tuning in previous titles, but here it's more or less compulsory. Bunny-hopping as an abstract, player-driven technique for dodging has been replaced with the button activated quick boost.

In a fun bit of continuity From incorporates the incredible power of the new NEXT ACs into the story by pitting you up against the classic Cores of old games (simply called Normals) and letting you destroy them with ease. Those bulky, reliable machines that you spent nearly a decade piloting have been made totally obsolete by the passage of time and advancing tech. A simple swing of your sword will tear apart a whole group of them with ease now.

For as fun as its new gameplay is there's undoubtedly something a bit off feeling about Armored Core 4 and you can tell that it's their first go-around with this style of gameplay. I played with the updated 1.6 Regulations and even so there were times where maneuvering my AC to do things like get up a small gap felt more cumbersome than they out to for such slick, lightning fast machines. Still though it's doubtless that this game puts speed and maneuverability in the player's hands much more easily than before.

This game boasts more varied mission design compared to Last Raven, focusing less on AC duels and more on giving a variety of objectives. There are maybe a few too many stages, especially in the game's early chapters, that focus on simply taking out a small number of weak enemy troops. But as you progress most stages have some type of unique factor or element to them. From racing down a narrow trench full of enemies to take out a giant cannon, to a competition with another AC to take out the most foes first, to having to play through a stage without your NEXT's enhanced armor. It's a nice level of variety and I found myself liking most of them even if (as usual) there were a few not to my tastes.

When you jump into the Arena (awkwardly buried in the game's menus) it does become evident why the game doesn't feature many AC vs AC battles. And that's because the enemy AI feels utterly unequipped to deal with an even mildly competent player. The game seems unsure of what to do with all the power given to players through the new speed and a part of me started missing the older movement mechanics as I lazily blasted my way through the Arena's entire roster of ACs without ever once changing up my build. This is definitely one of the easiest games in the series yet and although I didn't personally mind this (especially coming from the very challenging Last Raven) I would have liked for the game to up the ante a little in some places.

In addition to being one of the easier games to get through a single playthrough AC4 is probably the shortest non-expansion game yet too. The cost of HD development, an issue for many developers, can be felt here as the game ends surprisingly fast. These games have always had short runtimes but this title pushes that even further and it's not hard to imagine some players feeling disappointed in the brief playtime for a full-priced title on their expensive new machine in 2006.

An area in which the game is more mixed is the visual department. There's a certain barren quality to many of the levels in AC4. Often the monochrome gray levels and the lack of geometry on ACs can make the game feel less detailed and textured than previous games. At times in certain stages though the game's art direction truly comes together in fascinatingly beautiful ways. The first time I noticed this was in the mission "Desert Wolf" in which the backdrop of a smoking, war-torn city against the dusky orange sky evoked an incredibly powerful mood, enhanced all the more that this was the game's first fight against another NEXT.

Other standout stages include "Break the White Lance" which sees you chasing down the sunset as you race through a naval blockade to take out their leader and "Firefly" in which you traverse a city at night, illuminated by flares and gunfire. It was fascinating to me how the game could look so bland at times and yet so powerfully beautiful at others and I think I ultimately came away from AC4 appreciating its unique art direction more than I disliked it. The drab gray world punctuated by moments of beauty is certainly in fitting with the tone of the series and is a match for this game's story in particular.

Speaking of story this game does away with the branching story paths, a feature of the series going all the way back to AC1 and whose absence is sorely missed. While it does make use of this change to tell an arguably more personal story than past titles (our pilot, unlike previous protagonists, has very specific allegiances and goals) it also ultimately doesn't do enough with this premise to make it worth it. It's hard not to feel like this was simply a concession toward the game's development costs.

The blow from this is softened however by the inclusion of hard mode versions of missions, a first for the series. These aren't simple number tweaks but instead change up levels by altering objectives and enemy placements to create more difficult challenges. Not only this but they go the extra mile of in some cases adding entirely new elements to the story of missions. These can totally recontextualize some plot elements and make replaying stages on hard mode a real treat and also does a little to alleviate the game's overall low difficulty level. It is hard not to feel like some of these things should have been part of the story in the first run through though and were held back for hard mode.

My feelings toward this game were really mixed as I played through it, but after playing it I came away feeling that it was a refreshing and ultimately solid entry. I respect that it tried to do something new with AC gameplay and even if it didn't perfect it on the first try the effort was far from a bad one. Armored Core 4 is absolutely a worthwhile entry in the series and an important step in its evolution. I'd encourage players not to skip it in favor of For Answer as it has charms all its own in mission design and visuals which that game doesn't always replicate.

Гений только начал, поэтому претензий ноль

Дебют у Бабадзаки вышел вырвиглазным.