This game makes me feel miserable.

The first official sequel to the first Armored Core game and it's pretty much the same as how it always was with the exception of having nicer graphics. So what's so awful if it's supposed to be the same as its predecessor and especially when I liked the original, alright so what made me enjoy the original was that its a pretty neat mech game from the PS1 era so seeing the same thing pulled out 3 years later and also with the yearly released spinoffs of the PS1 games which all were standalone expansions of the original game therefore also being the same thing.
But you know what's bad? When you copy your predecessor but fail to be as good as it used to be, this game has horrible missions which are either frustrating or just too hard, the quality control in this game is inexistent, and I keep seeing people defend the arena game mode and I respect them enjoying it but all I'm seeing is that I'm battling against dogshit ai that just jumps around and the only difficulty comes from them spamming op bullets at me, there is no strategy it's just a competition of who bought the best upgrade and whose gonna last the longest alive.

This game did not age well and I'm already terrified to check out the sequels. Should you play it? Not really, I'm pretty sure there are better entries that come after, or so I've heard, and sincerely hope.

A pretty safe sequel that brings the franchise to the 6th console gen. Considering this was a PS2 launch title and coming out just a year after the previous AC game one can't really complain about it's shorter length.

It has some new mechanics like the heat gauge and extensions, but overall it feels like a prettier AC1: PP, due to it's shorter length and added arena that consists of one ranking list.

Music was pretty good, I liked the way it looked and found the difficulty on normal to be quite manageable. Definitely helped that I went through the entire arena at some point and had absolutely no money problems anymore. Plus you could always do a human plus run if you wanted.

Good times, just kind of unremarkable in the sense that there aren't that many new interesting weapons and the final boss being a little lackluster. Curious about Another Age.

Also might be worth mentioning that I played this with the dual analogue stick mod which improved the controls significantly in my opinion.

I wish I liked Armored Core 2 more because it does make a lot of much-needed improvements from the 1st gen games. The story is more involved, the levels have more variety, the difficulty of most of the game is increased without the final level feeling impossible again, etc. But look beneath the surface and most of these changes begin to feel superficial, and there remain many areas in which AC2 fails to improve or actually falls below AC1/MoA.

For a PS2 launch title, it looks great, and the opening cinematic is particularly incredible. I rewatched the whole thing every time I launched the game just to see the bit where the locks explode off the capsule and the mechs come out, it's so cool. Maybe not quite as good as the Omega Boost opening video, but it's still cool. Still, I can't help but feel the smooth, refined aesthetic here is weaker than the blocky grit of the PS1 games. I don't mind the visual departure from those games entirely, it suits this game's new setting and story taking place ages after the first, but considering most of the parts and mecha designs are still completely in line with the 1st gen stuff, it kind of falls flat. Of course, the style of those games was so effective because of the technology they existed on, and there isn't any point in trying to recapture the PS1 aesthetic in a PS2 launch title, but I do wish they committed further to a sleek, futuristic look instead.

As for the gameplay, I finished playing this like half a year after I played the first-gen games so I can't really comment on any minute differences in the control scheme or whatever. On a broader scale, there were two things that stuck out to me. One, there are a few missions here that have no inherent reward for their completion, most if not all of them being mandatory. This means any damage taken or ammo spent will be drained directly from your money rather than cut out of your reward, meaning at a few points in the game you have to lose a good amount of money to continue. This is a smart decision, it makes the mission reward system more interesting and forces you to consider what missions you are taking and when. Ideally, it means you will spend more time taking on non-mandatory missions to build up money rather than speeding through the story, but in reality, you don't have any way of knowing what missions are mandatory, when missions will leave the board, or when new ones will arrive, so unless you are using a guide this doesn't really work. Beyond that, there were a few missions here where I took so much damage and used so much ammo that the amount I had to pay was more than my reward anyway, something that never happened in the first three games. I think either of these options (ramp up the difficulty so you can lose money even when completing missions, or adding non-rewarding mandatory missions) would work to develop the money system in general, but they happen so rarely that together they both feel half-baked.

Two, coming off Master of Arena, the arena in this game feels almost non-existent. I think I played it a little bit when I was playing this last year, but the game never even once prompts you to explore it. I don't think it needs to work exactly the same as it did in MoA, where you had to progress through it to unlock more missions, but some method of blending the missions and the arena on a deeper level feels necessary after that game. Maybe they improve on this in later gens, we'll see.

Mostly, Armored Core 2 feels safe. It doesn't change much in most areas and doesn't change at all in others. Its few new ideas feel half-baked (like the hover legs), and the downgrades from MoA are very apparent. It isn't what I want out of the series at all, but as a basis for expansion, it isn't much better or worse than the first Armored Core. That game ultimately led to Master of Arena, which I really enjoyed, so I'm hoping Another Age is a similar improvement to AC2.

Armored Core fully formed.

...As in, I really, really do not need to play the next ten or so of these games, because they're all really, REALLY similar.

Anyway, if I were buying my PS2 on launch day and could only afford one launch title, I do not think that I would be disappointed at all with this.

booting this game up for the first time after finishing the ps1 games had me going wild over how much better it seemed at first, but after actually playing it for a short time you realize its... still basically the same game. this time however, it seems a lot more balanced, but i feel as if thats to its detriment since the previous games sort of masked some of their awful mission design with just how strong you could be, while this one is just brutal in an extremely frustrating way. unlike the previous games, i didnt 100% this one, the arena was far too difficult, maybe thats a skill issue though.

Armored Core 2 é um salto bem ambicioso do primeiro jogo. Além da evolução óbvia dos gráficos pela mudança de console a jogabilidade se torna mais fluída, as missões se tornam mais variadas e a ideia do jogo fica mais clara.

Mais variações de peças e resoluções para problemas, e diferente do primeiro título não existe nenhuma build necessariamente OP, você vai ter que se virar e aprender a jogar de várias formas - ou só atacar com tudo que não deixa de estar errado. Essas maneiras variadas de jogar se tornam mais claras ainda no modo Arena, em que cada lutador tem táticas e fraquezas diferentes.

Me diverti legal jogando, o nível de dificuldade em algumas missões acaba frustrando mas com o tempo e costume se pega o jeito. A missão do submarino vai ficar um tempo nos meus pesadelos.

I went into this quite excited, really dug Gen 1 in just about every regard, even if AC1 was the peak.

However, I feel like this game fell kinda flat. The arena and gameplay is a total improvement, music's pretty nice too. Although from an aesthetic/story perspective I can't really consider AC2 better than Project Phantasma or Master of Arena, I found most of the missions to be unmemorable save for a key few. Leos Klein is kind of neat from a conceptual standpoint, but could've used a bit more fleshing out, then again you're not gonna top Nine-Ball.

The ending genuinely goes hard though.
Raven? Where will you? What will you do?
Uhhh I'm going to play Another Age

It sounds hyperbolic when I say it, but I don't think there's a single thing this game does that I didn't enjoy more in the PS1 trio of Armored Core games. The one thing it unquestionably does have over them though is that the game runs at a smooth 60fps which feels very nice coming from the low-framerate PS1 titles. Outside of that though the quality of this sequel is extremely dubious.

Gameplay feels more sluggish in general than in the first generation AC games. Even the faster core parts don't seem to have the responsiveness of the prior title. Any sense of arcade-like speed and action is dulled down. The one major movement mechanic added is the overboost, a high speed dash that drains your meter quickly. Outside of Arena matches though its uses are relatively few as it's an unwieldy maneuver and many stages take place in cramped quarters where its utility is limited.

While the jump from the PS1 to PS2 hardware is impressive and AC2 is probably one of the better looking launch titles I still can't help but prefer the art direction in the prior game. It's a shame since moving from Earth to Mars seemed like an opportunity for all sorts of beautiful colors, but this is rarely taken advantage of. AC1 had bold, strong color choices that helped to accentuate the game's atmosphere, whereas 2 has far more muted tones that turn many missions into a muddy soup of grey and brown colors. There's nothing here that wowed me like the Moon Arena stage from the previous generation of titles. It's an unremarkable-looking game.

Mission design is probably where Armored Core 2 suffers most compared to its predecessor. Many stages feel drawn out and involve fighting waves of weak enemies that filter into the map slowly. It feels as though there's less creativity and variety, with more defense missions taking place over smaller maps. There's nothing as interesting as venturing into an insect hive to destroy the queen, or the trek through a base full of corrosive acid to disable it. The stage bounds felt very restrictive and arbitrary as well, as I found myself accidentally moving out of bounds a number of times, something that was never a problem in the original three games.

The arena from AC1's expansions return and is probably the least compromised aspect of the game. I had the most fun with this. Some of the high-ranking arena ACs are absolute monsters and it feels great when you finally beat their cheating asses. This is probably the most fun I had with AC2.

The plot of this one follows AC1's blueprint nearly beat-for-beat. It's a conspiracy laden plot about a dystopian post-war future full of evil corporations, power hungry players, backstabbing and the like. The storytelling is still mostly done by mail and mission briefings, though with more funny 6th gen voice acting. It feels less subdued here though. AC1 didn't need to have characters say things like "you only exists because of corporations" to get that same point across.

I feel a bit bad for being so harsh on the game. I don't think it's an outright bad game, but it's also hard to justify playing when it's directly inferior to its predecessor and does so little new. It feels like a game you can easily skip playing and not miss much.

Pretty bad transition to 6th gen. The mechs feel weightless and less tactile than the PSX trilogy's, the visual design's kind of washed-out and bland, and it's about twice as long as it needs to be. There's a big difficulty spike from those games, but because it mostly amounts to more engagement with the series' awful aiming mechanics it didn't really deepen this one. Arena load-times made this particularly agonizing.

Was delighted to find that Francis York Morgan's in the game, doing his snidest, evilest voice as one of your employers. The antagonist's sadly forgettable but there is one inexplicable moment at the end where your codec wife expresses her agreement with his plan to institute an ambiguous form of totalitarian control over the human race.

Der Sprung auf die PS2 hat der Reihe sicher gut getan, wenn auch noch nicht so ganz mit diesem Launchtitel.
Armored Core 2 ist der erste wirklich neue Schritt in der Reihe. Die Framerate liegt nun bei 60/50, die Grafik wurde verbessert, die Weitsicht erhöht, die Auflösung ist logischerweise auch höher - all das was man beim Schritt auf die Ps2 erwartet. Die Steuerung... blieb genau gleich. Der linke Stick wird zwar supportet, der rechte allerdings nicht und auch eine Analogsteuerung sucht man vergebens. Damit kam ich allerdings klar.

Ich mag wie ich mit jedem Teil dieser Reihe etwas neues lerne, was ich dann problemlos in älteren Teilen der Reihe wieder anwenden kann. In Teil 1 hatte ich z.B. die optionalen Teile vollkommen ignoriert und erst mit Project Phantasm gelernt wie broken du mit denen sein kannst. Und es dauerte bis jetzt bis ich mein Leben mit einem neuen FCS Modul deutlich vereinfachte und ich die späteren Missle Launcher zu schätzen lernte.
Die ganze Reihe baut darauf auf zu experimentieren, allerdings mit zu langsamen und umständlichen Menüs weshalb man nur selten wirklich völlig neue Setups probieren möchte. Ein Kritikpunkt den man vieleeeeeicht in den Nachfolgern angehen könnte? Who knows, aber ich werd aktuell mit jedem Spiel ein bisschen besser.

Außerdem setzt Armored Core 2 an ganz neuen Ufern an mit einem Setting auf dem Mars. Auch hier tummeln sich jede menge Firmen die im Goldrush den Mars zu besiedeln wieder eher daran interessiert sind ihre Konkurrenz auszuschalten und das zu wiederholen was die Erde überhaupt erst unbewohnbar gemacht hat, bis das Earth Government irgendwann die Schnauze voll hat und sich volle Kanne einmischt.

Ich war kein großer Fan der Story. Bzw, ich war invested, musste mich am Ende aber gegen das was ich eigentlich machen wollte entscheiden weil mich das Spiel auf einen linearen Pfad setzte der nicht so interessant war wie erhofft.

Ansonsten aber, uh, ist Armored Core 2 mehr vom gleichen, aber mehr. Dank zwei neuer Tasten (L3 und R3) gibt es auch zwei neue Aktionen und damit zwei neue Teile. Die waren ganz nett. Die neuen Models sind recht gut, die customization allgemein wurde nochmal etwas umfangreicher, es können nun auch Dinge am UI genauestens angepasst werden,
und ansonsten ist es wieder das was Armored Core die ganze Zeit schon war.

Allerdings, hm, gefühlt deutlich träger. Es mag am Spielstil oder der Wahl der Waffen liegen, aber Armored Core 2 braucht wieder recht lang bis es endlich überhaupt erst in Fahrt kommt.
Anfangswaffen sind langsamer denn je, die ersten Feinde in der Arena halten vieeel zu viel aus, es gibt Ladezeiten zwischen Menüs, die Zeit bis man nach einem Arenakampf wieder im Menü landet ist viel länger als zuvor, sogar die Kamera ist schwerfälliger als noch auf der PS1.
Warum? Aha, weil es ein neues Teil gibt was sie wieder so """schnell""" macht wie in den Vorgängern, ist das nicht nett.

Später kommt das Spiel dann zwar in Fahrt, fühlt sich dann aber weiterhin nicht ideal an. Ein konsistenter Begleiter auf meiner Reise war die Munitionsknappheit. Während das Extramagazin in Project Phantasm und Master of Arena noch ein Gamechanger war, ist das hier quasi nutzlos. Es gab so viele Momente bei denen ich trotz großer Waffen einfach keine Ammo mehr hatte. "Ja, dann nehm ich halt die Nahkampfwaffe! Oh... der Gegner ist zu klein um getroffen zu werden" und all sowas.
Manchmal ein Schritt vor, manchmal zwei Schritte zurück.

Es ist das vierte Spiel dieser Reihe innerhalb von vier Jahren, die Tatsache, dass es in diesem Pace, und besonders als einer der Launchtitel, überhaupt einen Schritt nach vorne machte und nun erstmals auch large Scale Missionen probiert wurden, aber auch verschiedene Fraktionen mit ihren ganz eigenen Mechdesigns existieren, ist erstaunlich. Grafisch ist es auch in Ordnung, nicht die große Ps2 Offenbarung, aber gerade weil sich das Spiel designtechnisch noch so stark an seine Vorgänger hält ist dieser Sprung richtig gut zu erkennen. Orte sehen nun nach etwas mehr aus, die Boxy-Räume von damals gehören zwar nicht der Vergangenheit an, sind aber deutlich seltener, es gibt einige hübsche Lichteffekte, nur Animationen und besonders Explosionen haben deutlich weniger Impact als noch auf der Ps1. Es fühlt sich an als hätte man manche der Animationen interpoliert wodurch sie flüssiger erscheinen, aber eben auch etwas zu weich.

Unterm Strich bevorzuge ich weiterhin Teil 1.

Ich glaube aber allgemein, dass ich eine kurze Pause brauch bevor ich meinen Marathon weiterführe. Vier seehr ähnliche Spiele sehr schnell hintereinander, plus noch einen zwischengeschobenen Stream von Teil 1, waren vielleicht doch erstmal etwas zu viel auf einmal.

Bog-Standard good ol' Armored Core. Not much else to say, aside from this game is generally the bare minimum for what makes a solid AC game. Fun parts, cool story and aesthetic, fantastic soundtrack, enjoyable progression, so on. While it's a general step down from something as masterful as MoA, this game essentially keeps standard with what made the first two installments of Gen 1 enjoyable. A pretty good sequel if a little boiler-plate for sheer virtue of being less interesting than MoA and preceeding the directly more significant Gen 3.

Great start to the PS2 era of AC games with a single exception, somehow this game has no option for analog controls but given that it was a launch title, they haven't figured out how to incoporate it, so I would recommend to find a mod that enables these controls as it makes a massive improvment.

Now to the actual game itself not a lot of changes to the controls, you're still playing an AC game though weapon projictile seems to be a bit slower for some weapons, there's also new options to spice up the gameplay like adding decoys and anti air missiles as well as the addiition of shields (which were not for me I still prefer laserblades).

The plot is kind of insane in a good way, it reminds me of ace combat zero with how destructive it gets, the villian while not having a lot of depth is enjoyable, I only wish there were more to the characters who briefed on missions instead of being just people that tell you to do something.

Overall I quite enjoyed it this is a great game by itself with a lot to offer.

8.5/10 would blow up mars again.