After three great games on the PS1 and the advent of the PS2, Fromsoft decided it was time to take AC to the next generation. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, however, they opted to refine AC1's ideas and introduce some new ones. There's a lot more mechanics to play around with this time around; you've got to manage your heat levels now to prevent overheating damage, you can now , you can overboost around at high speeds (if you manage your energy), which adds a bit more depth to AC fights, and there's a bunch of new part types. Of course, we're creatures of habit, so I was perfectly content replicating and upgrading my AC from the PS1 games, and calling it "Gravity Mk. II" (which made me feel pretty cool).

Armored Core 2 expands the Armored Core formula and greatly improves upon it with smoother gameplay, greatly improved graphics and performance, new music tracks, and new mechanics and features to enrich the experience of playing. The story is also interesting, with various corporations and factions fighting for dominance on Mars, with your character playing all sides in the conflict up to a more linear set of missions near the end. The game also calls back to the PS1 AC trilogy a lot in both the arena and main missions, which is fun to see. The Arena and missions in general have seen a lot of balancing done to make them more friendly, although I'm sure the Hard mode available at the start makes it all as tough as it ever was. Not sure since I played on Normal.
This is probably the most bland review I've ever written. There's nothing all that weird about the game (other than its slightly abrupt and confusing ending, which I won't delve into), so there's not much to comment specifically on. It's a continuation of the PS1 series into a new generation. Not much to say, but it sure is good!

the aspect of AC that might be immediately jarring for players is the control scheme. while controls are customizable within the game, it does take some time getting used to not having that right analog when you're trying to keep up with how fast-paced AC can get. my preference is assigning all attack-related actions to the triggers, AC movement to the d-pad, and camera movement to the face buttons.

the second hurdle here is keeping yourself from going into debt when you finish a mission because it costs $400,000 to fire your weapon for 12 seconds. much like the first game, going for an energy weapon build seems to be what makes the early stages a lot less daunting and allows you to save enough money to pimp your armored core.

there's a really thrilling and somewhat addicting game here if you're someone that can get through those two concerns. the missions are short, so you aren't spending too much time wondering what the hell you're doing or being frustrated by endless obstacles. the arena is challenging (these fights are actually more challenging than the main mission boss fights), but it's where you really start to figure out what kind of builds you enjoy on your AC since you're pretty much forced to make modifications based on your opponent's AC.

also, the soundtrack absolutely goes ham
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GCp9QMR5Ik

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.

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.

This is the game that first introduced me to the Armored Core series.

Okay I'm gonna be honest now, this is the only AC game I'd ever played before I decided to play as many of them as I could after they announced AC6. That means I haven't touched this game, this series, in what, 20 years?

I don't know how I stuck so long with this game as a little kid whose English was pretty bad. The structure of these games is quite unlike anything I used to play at the time, what with failure of a mission not forcing you to reload and try again, so as a kid I never finished the story or really did most of the missions.

No, most of my time with this game back then was with the arena, and boy did I have a great time. Looking back after finishing AC2 today I'm not sure how I ever got to be #1, considering even now I had trouble with the top ranks (luckily, limiter release + 50 missiles + KARASAWA will wipe almost anything).

And on that note, the Arena really is the highlight here I think. The missions tend to be really one note, so I guess I'm thankful they're usually so short. This game really shines when it's pitting you 1v1 against an opponent with similar abilities to you (something From Software knows very well), and spending hours customizing your AC to get it juuuust right so you can beat your next enemy. Also helps that losing in the arena doesn't have any monetary penalties, just a mark on your record.

Now that I've catched up to my 7-year-old self in terms of AC, I can't wait to get to the ones eveyone praises as "the best ones".

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.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

rmored core 2 is powerfully infuriating. I rarely left missions with any ammo remaining in both early and late game. I had to use specific, exact set of tools for certain missions because the game mechanics do not work well with the actual enemy design.

Every single time an enemy AC jumps or dashes, you just lose. You get an extremely short window to lock on, so that automatically makes 80% of the weapons not viable after a little bit. I don't believe you can beat the final boss using anything other than missiles, I tried for hours but I just couldn't do it. Not to mention the arena opponents, the last few I cheesed by forcing the AI to leave the designated battle area and winning by forfeit.

I cannot even begin to describe how infuriating it is to be thrown around like a toy by some of this game's enemies and their weapons, while also turning slower than a pregnant turtle, while also having the turning interrupted by an undodgable enemy shot, while also having an enemy move in hyperspeed behind you and blade you to death!

Was some of this present in the PS1 games? Yes! But it was much more manageable. For the arena, you were provided with a location specifically to counter the jumping fucks, ones with a low ceiling. The boosts would only propel them in one direction, not around you. Why push this system even further? It worked, and now it doesn't.

Are there some cool missions? Absolutely. A bunch of fantastic designs too, the robots have never looked cooler. The final boss looks so good, ohmigoodness. So many cool new parts. But the memories of pure frustration prevail. Moments where I had to stop playing from sheer anger, from the game continously removing my ability to do anything. I don't even rage at games, this is the first in years. The feeling of hopelessness, not knowing what you did wrong, what can you do to fix it, what opportunities you missed. All to be met with "just build this mech, otherwise you won't win." Just bad vibes.

I recently replayed the game, and wow what a shock after playing the Playstation games right before. This game is such a massive improvement it showcases everything you want in a full fledged sequel.

The game is massively larger than the previous ones, far more missions and the arena while not perfect is far better balanced and challenging. There's of course an increase in parts for your AC, and types of parts too. The missions are a fair amount more varied than the PS1 games. The scope is much bigger too. Just about everything is improved.

I was worried about the visuals coming back to the game, and coming off fresh from the originals, which have a distinctive and well aged aesthetic, but boy was I wrong. AC2 is peak early 6th gen visuals, totally soulful. In fact, looking at this as a generational leap makes you realize how much diminishing returns (or worse, negative returns) have been a standard since 6th gen. It's a game with a 4x resolution increase, a 3x increase in framerate, incredible texture work, incredible lighting, massively improved controls and camera, and so much more. What happened to gaming where not only did stuff like this happen, but was expected? That aside, really, the only thing worse is IMO the music, but still very fitting and listenable, and I generally prefer the new sound effects. The story also holds up, but the original Armored Core is a masterpiece of paranoia sci-fi so what can you do?

With the generational leap this game takes place on Mars, a world that's a frontier, in contrast with the Earth of the previous games, where the only place to build was down. This game features much bigger wider areas, as opposed to Earth's endless corridors, taking advantage of the superior hardware. Along with the clearer, better visuals it makes the game feel grander. The story is on a much larger level too, a very fitting follow up to the original game, tying back into it in various ways. It's impressive too that despite everything being much bigger and grandiose, it never loses sight of the original tight vision that you are a mercenary, a single person, not a hero, in a web of much larger forces than yourself when it very easily could have.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this game is markedly more difficult than the previous ones. Maybe to its own detriment. But, I really do think the difficulty is appropriate especially if you're already experienced. The game does in fact expect you to make different ACs for different missions, but that's fine because selling parts gives you the exact money you get from buying them, it's almost like needing to respec stats than managing finances for a build. This game does not hold your hand and expects you to keep up. The beginning is a fairly big spike in difficulty, and then it ramps up much more in the last third of the game. The game never quits, and it's one of the few games where the story is that people actively want to kill you, and then ACTUALLY try to kill you. It's rare at first when an enemy AC appears unprompted in a mission, but at the end of the game it becomes standard that multiple ACs will swarm you. It's such a satisfying difficulty increase that looking back I'm impressed with my 10 year old self beating this game.

Overall, it's everything you want from a sequel and then some. A generational leap, truly. This game's contemporaries are landmark 6th gen titles like Final Fantasy X, F-Zero GX, Gran Turismo 3, it is exactly like in line with these huge games in how big of a jump it is. Looking back on this game it's actually surprising it is niche, though perhaps the difficulty is the reason why. If you want to get prepared for ACVI (or want to go back to the old games after playing it in the future from this review) play this one, provided you are willing to sweat through it. I would recommend this game to any gamer wanting a challenge and a game with robots.

The 1st Armored Core title on the ps2, is a very early installment ps2 as well so keep this in mind for this review. Let’s start off with the setting of the game, Mars, a big red rock planet with heavy weather. This leads to many of the missions and areas in the game being indoors, meaning many areas are laboratories or factories. While it can feel like a bummer to some people as the many open areas are found in the ps1 games. Here it checks out since the missions that DO have you outside, the weather is often rough like being at Mar’s poles, having to search and operate in a snowstorm. I find the areas overall good and fit with the setting, while there’s nothing to write home about for a gen 6 game.

Now let’s talk about the feature everyone loves dearly, the arena! I would sink in hours on end in the arena, going from rank 50 to 1 nearly all at the beginning of the game as there were no restrictions from stopping me. I feel rather conflicted about this game’s arena. On one hand, with the arena areas to choose from, I found myself swapping between them more often than I did with any AC title I’ve played as each has its own pros and cons. I love going to Falna Craters to give a large, almost flat arena to battle a fellow AC for example.

Now on the other hand… the AI in this game is dumb, I mean REALLY dumb. While yes, the difficulty curve for the arena is excellent in its own right. The AI placed in the areas given just doesn’t mix well. As you may know, areas are limited and if you leave the area borders, you fail. This same logic applies to the enemies, so you can beat ALL of the arenas by not shooting a single thing at an opponent. Can totally cheese by ringing out the opponents. The easiest to do this is by playing Abandon Highway. I say to give this a try as it’s hilarious, but the idea of being able to ring out even rank 1 AC by doing this is mind-boggling. This applies to the missions too, I personally have gotten an enemy AC trapped on my head in a corner and we’ll have an awkward moment together. While this is a clear flaw in game design, it being a solo experience makes the flaw not as bad if this problem existed in modern gaming.

Gameplay? It’s literally the same as the ps1 games but with better graphics. Don’t fix what isn’t broken I guess.

Music! The music in this title is good, full techno vibe for this title and great remakes of the 1’s ost. My favorite menu/garage theme without a doubt!

The story in this title is great and far better told than the previous entries. This time, the antagonists feel like a genuine threat and like you’re the only hope for the people on Mars, that feeling of being at a disadvantage the whole way through. Each mission has actual relevance to the story, unlike past and later titles where the plot only happens near the last half. Pleasant story and worth checking out for it alone.

Overall, this being my 1st AC game I tried it out years ago and gave up on it as it was too hard. Now back with 4 AC games under my belt and knowledge now going back into this game. This game is really really fun and what more can you ask from a video game?

It's decent... I mean, after the three gen 1 AC games which I liked a LOT, this game delivers a lot on some aspects and completely face plants on others. The good parts are; good graphics, smooth gameplay and good missions but the first two of these compliments aren't really that big of a compliment because it's an obvious biproduct of going from ps1 to ps2. Mission difficulty was wildly inconsistent, being ball bustingly hard on some and piss easy on others. Also the arena mode had the same problem with simply just some unfair enemies. The story was good though and I enjoyed being immersed in Fromsoftwares rendition of a mars colony.