Armored Core: Nexus

released on Mar 18, 2004

Years have passed since the incident at the Silent Line, and with it the collaborative effort began by the Corporations in response to it is long gone. The battle between the Corporations has re-emerged and continues unabated. Now a new Corporation has entered the scene; this Corporation, Navis, while nowhere near the size of the other Corporations, does have a trump card; it has complete control over a brand new and very useful resource, and they do not intend to share. The other Corporations obviously will not sit back and let that stand, so they set up contracts with Ravens through Raven's Ark. Of course, Navis is employing the use of the Ravens as well, and a full-scale conflict seems apparent on the horizon. Once again, you are thrust into the lines of corporate warfare, but does something even more dangerous lie in wait? It is the sequel to Silent Line: Armored Core.


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Playing Gen 1 to early Gen 3 felt like a rush, as I was experiencing the incremental rise of the old formula and seeing where FromSoft was cleverly investing in the features that really mattered, but coming to Nexus, the entire game completely flips itself into a worse experience that soured the taste in my mouth, and at this point any positives I still feel for the game is just out of sympathy, besides Disc 2 Revolution, which I loved a lot.

Maybe the best one on the PS2? They actually implemented using the left analog stick to aim by this point so its great.

Habs letztes Jahr schonmal angespielt und wollte es nun auf dem Weg zu Nine Breakers endlich mal beenden.

Nexus ist... weird. Jeder Schritt vorwärts, kam mit einem Schritt zurück.
Die Steuerung ist besser! Aber auch viel schwammiger.
Die Grafik ist besser! Aber komisch verwaschen.
Die Präsentation in Missionen ist besser! Die Präsentation außerhalb dieser aber so schwach wie noch nie.
Das Spiel ist komplexer! Unter Anderen dadurch, dass nun zwei Statusveränderungen des Vorgängers suuuper nervig wurden.

Leider ist kaum ein anderes AC so un-engaging wie dieses. Die neue Missionsstruktur, Arenastruktur, die Veränderungen im Shop etc sind ganz klar ein downgrade gegenüber 3 und Silent Line.

Allerdings... ist es dadurch nicht unbedingt schlecht. Schlechter, aber nicht schlecht. Bauen, Missionen spielen, überlegen wie man Ziele angeht und wie nicht, ist immer noch pretty nice. Außerdem, uuuuh, der Soundtrack.
AC hatte schon immer mal so ein paar ziemlich coole Tracks, aber ab HIER wurds richtig gut. Ich glaube fast mit 4A und VD ist das hier mein lieblings OST der ganzen Reihe und das heißt schon was.

At a glance Nexus looks like just another PS2 Armored Core game, but beneath the surface it's probably the most willing to change things up that any AC game has done since the PS1. This is a fact that speaks more to just how conservative these games have been to this point rather than positing Nexus as some grand revolution. It's still ultimately a very similar game to its predecessors, but the winds of change are starting to blow for Armored Core.

The mission structure has changed and with it the voiced mission briefings from previous games are gone. You get only a brief summary of the mission objective before being thrown in. In their place the emails you receive are more detailed and alongside them there's a news bulletin where you can follow the events of the world happening, including how the results of your missions alter them. While some may miss the lavish production of previous games I thought this very thematically fitting. As a mercenary you feel more detached from the missions than you did before and it's only by carefully paying attention to world events that you can truly get a grasp on just what kind of impact your decisions are having, and maybe in doing so choose which jobs you want to take or not. Or you can be like me and just reject all defensive missions and accept anything else.

In place of the voiced mission briefings missions now feature considerably more elaborate in-engine cutscenes. These were extremely rare in prior titles but now feature frequently and while they're not incredible or anything some of them feature some pretty cool camera shots and even unique animations for the intros. This probably sounds pretty standard to anyone not familiar with the franchise, but rest assured that From Software have been extremely frugal about this sort of thing up to now, so seeing them in action actually shocked me the first time it happened. It's a real nice update to add some liveliness to the story sequences in game.

I've been pretty lax when it comes to discussing soundtracks in these titles as I don't consider myself very skilled at criticizing music. I do however know what sounds good to my ears and Nexus easily has the best soundtrack featured in any Armored Core game yet. Beyond that though it also features the best use of music in-game, with great track selection and variety throughout the missions.

Gameplay has been changed up in both subtle and more overt ways. This is easily the largest number of parts we've seen in a non-expansion AC game, though it did have the foundation of 3 and Silent Line to build from. Everything has been rebalanced however, for better or worse. The movement mechanics have also been changed up leaving Nexus feeling just a bit slower than either AC3 game. The heat mechanic has been changed too to require the player to more carefully manage their heat as just about everything generates it now.

I expected to dislike this going in, but ultimately found it to be a pretty enjoyable system, choosing your radiator and parts based on cooling is actually something I paid close attention to when I never had before and in general I felt like I was more mindful of my build in this game than previous entries in which I would just slap on whatever parts sounded good and jump in. Your mileage may vary though about whether this is good or bad.

Everything sounds pretty good so far right? What's the catch? Probably the biggest one is that this game is the easiest title in the series yet, but more than that has the biggest disparity in quality between missions. I ultimately didn't mind Nexus being on the easy side as it's not like every previous game was super-difficult. AC3 was only a little harder than this game and I didn't mind it. The missions are more of an issue however. While there's plenty that are fun and worth playing there's also a notably high number of extremely short levels offering little or no challenge here. Missions where you shoot down a small handful of weak MTs, and most notoriously of all the huge abundance of 'test' missions in which you do some lab work for what is basically a free payout with no risk.

Speaking of risk From seems to have given up balancing the economy at all anymore. It was never much of a factor since the introduction of the arena in Project Phantasma, but at least it was still possible to lose money during missions so you could pretend you were trying to go for high payouts if you ignored the absurd arena bonuses. Now though mission payouts are so generous you'll usually make a profit even if you fail a sortie. And as far as the previously mentioned arena goes this is definitely the worst implementation of it yet. I was personally never a big fan of the arena so this bothered me relatively little, but it could be a big sticking point for those who loved that feature.

Ultimately the good still outweighs the bad as there are plenty of missions worth playing here, but it's easily the game's biggest failing and the one that prevents it from being an incredible game instead of merely a very good one. Of course this is all in reference to Disc 1: Evolution. But what really elevates Nexus is the presence of Disc 2: Revolution.

Nexus' second disc features a remake of a large assortment of missions from Armored Core 1, Project Phantasma and Master of Arena. These are lovingly recreated with fully voiced mission briefings and play great in the new engine. It's strange how the production quality on these can often feel higher budget than those of the supposed 'main game.' If anything the exception selection of old missions highlights just how uneven disc 1's quality could be.

It doesn't stop at just remaking sorties though, as they also feature optional extensions of these missions as well as the opportunity to play them from the opposite side. These were fantastic additions that build upon the stories of these old levels by adding in new background details. It's always a risk to add in new story elements to old works, but I always found these to be respectful and fitting in tone with the source material. On top of that there's a ton of remixes of classic Armored Core tracks all throughout, taking what was already the best soundtrack in the series and elevating so far above everything else it's not even a contest anymore.

You can feel the love for these classic games pouring out in every single aspect of the Revolution Disc. AC1 was 7 years old by the time Nexus had released and From Software treat it with the utmost respect and adoration here. As someone who loved the PS1 Armored Core games this was a huge treat and the quality of these missions (amounting to nearly 40 total sorties when including the original missions and their extensions) injected some much-needed oomph into Nexus. It's a labor of love that emphasizes Nexus' as a marriage of new and old ideas and when combined with the uniqueness of Disc 1 leaves it as the most refreshing title AC has had in a long while.

Tempering expectations for 'Armored Core: Nexus' did not come easy for me. My adoration for how well served I had been by its predecessor 'Silent Line: Armored Core' left me in a position both wanting and not wanting more at the same time. That sounds fucking stupid I know so, please, indulge me.

I didn't get on great with 'Nexus' off the bat. As much as I now understand them to be so obviously superior, I wasn't a fan of the controls and found myself slipping up a lot because of how long it took for me to rewire my muscle memory. I found the missions to be samey and done-before, the UI totally balmy, the heat mechanic overly oppressive—as despite the game having otherwise some of the best customisation and quantity of parts in the whole series, heat can really straddle the selection of certain parts—and the story lacking much in way of a hook. It took me a while to appreciate the detached and unceremonious nature of which the humans had penetrated the Silent Line, the nonchalant emptiness as a feeling is excellently congruent with the aimless ascension-ism they have been characterised with previously. With how much generation 3 built up the location, 3.5 knocking it all down without a flinch is almost nauseating as you are quickly shuttled into the same grove we were just in a game ago. Same systems, same mechanics, same destruction sans ethics and reason, wasn't something supposed to change? Something other than the mission select screen into something for a PC game? There's an understated and yet all consuming nihilism that underpins so much of the first half of 'Armored Core: Nexus', it's not just that the tone is noticeably bleaker, it's the connotation of everything you're doing feeling so similar. I'd whinge about the mission design being hackneyed but that almost feels like the point, culminating in an utterly hopeless ending which some could see from a mile away, because IBIS' remark so clearly means practically nothing now in the face of the systemic issues driving humanity. Of course the corporations dig too far, of course it means an apocalypse, that's not a spoiler, that's me doing your pattern recognition for you.
I respect this bleakness, it's powerful, and I appreciate how the obviousness of the missions aided this feeling in a truly immersive way, but that does not mean some of these missions aren't rushed or just flat out confusing on why they're even in the game. 'Nexus' was made very quickly and you can feel it in a lot of places, like when the same desert mission where you destroy tanks is split into two for some reason? It feels like this is where a normal 'Armored Core' level would just have you resupply, or not even that if we're talking 'Silent Line', and you do them so quickly after the other that it feels the most glaring. Also, on this note, FromSoftware has—for lack of better phrasing—totally fucked up the Arena here. There are maybe 10 encounters with it you have across the story and about four of those fights are memorable, genuinely not sure what they were doing here, it's like the worst interpretation of what 'Master of Arena' was doing in 1999. This sounds harsh, so I'm hasten to remind that 'Nexus' does have its strong sorties that are very much worth playing, particularly its final one which uses the apprehension felt for the impending doom very well alongside a really excellent final encounter with a... potentially familiar face. Top the game off with an excellent final gameplay section which embodies the moment and you have an all time classic here.

The game is helped a fair bit by the fact that certain presentational elements have clearly been mastered by this point. The game looks and sounds great, cutscene animation in particular is much more well done and the music is fantastic. Kota Hoshino is absolutely deserving of his legend status in the fanbase with these thrilling techno and rock tracks. The qualities from the third generation of great sampling and catchy groves are still here but with much richer instrumentation and more impassioned compositions, simply excellent work.

'Nexus' also has a bonus disc which might be worth mentioning, basically containing a selection of remade developer favourite levels from older 'Armored Core' games. It's a fun novelty with some neat B-Sides, but can be a little annoying or bland at points. I would only recommend it if you're a fan but, as that's what I am, I enjoyed it. A sentiment which may be applicable to all of this, but this is still a very strong title which has left the story in a powerful position.

The fact that I hate this game is a meme, I don't actually hate it. Ok maybe I do? Nah. It's just that Armored Core: Nexus is a game filled with ok or bad missions, everything sucks (tank legs are good though), the new controls are great but the arena is ass, the game is easy but sometimes frustrating for the wrong reasons (the bridge mission was conceived by a sadist). There's much to say on this game, the ending is one of the best in the series and the second disc starts great and finishes in a good way but the middle PP missions with the flying flowers could have stayed in that game and no one would have missed them.