I can't imagine what 'Armored Core 2' would be like for someone who skipped the expansions to the first game, but speaking as someone who didn't, this is about as standard as sequels come. If we are to assess this game without the 1997 and 1999 instalments in mind, it's a fantastic and thrilling breakthrough, but if this is not the case then it is merely a more polished more of 1999s 'Master of Arena'. Lucky it is, then, that I found FromSoftware's exit piece for the Playstation so moreish, because I felt no more provoked by this game than I have any of the previous, which is maybe why I sound so down on it in the introduction, so let us lighten up a little.
'Armored Core 2' has just as well a compellingly pulpy set up as any other entry, a mission to Mars! The new human solution to the industrial consequences which trapped all underground previously is a new colony setup on the red planet. Lax on regulation as an emerging setup is to be, this is where the Ravens come back into the picture, working on the corp offering the carrots each passing hour—you, no different in structural entrapment to any other forcefully integrated into the economic cesspit, a hopeless vulture with no agency. The brutal, nihilistic corvid. What proceeds is, in terms of levels, an almost remake of the first generation games, with many sections operating as straight up remastering down to the cutscenes, moving, say, the desert train mission of 'Armored Core'—where planes crudely nipped at you from angels that jank had refused elegance—to a personal favourite. But such good spirits had the understated tingle of a game running out of ideas, which is the real shame, for half of the levels in 'Armored Core 2' are far in away the best the series could offer by the turn of the millennium, but the other half are simply half hearted or seen before too recently. Mechanically, the game is stronger than it has ever been, with overheating adding a new layer to the carefully formed tapestry of AC building first weaved in those focused Playstation titles, the addition is just as considered, but so little of it's company is. Customisation has more here than ever, and yet, the game never challenged enough nor felt long enough to warrant such investigation on anything that hadn't been present in the prior generation anyway. A waste of good metal, since the effort here might be the strongest innovation setting this sequel apart from what came before.
On difficulty, as was perhaps illuminated earlier, '2' is a strange mecha duck. Still challenging yes, but also quite easy up until the abrupt shift in the second half which felt like the game coming back up to speed with the adversity felt in 'Master of Arena'. Now, here's a funny thought, have I really gotten that much better at 'Armored Core' between 'Project Phantasma' and '2', or is my almost immediate abandonment of tetrapods going into the first hour of this sequel and sharp dedication to a light sniping mech with little resistance or major effort from me compared to the last entries all the way through to the end maybe a sign that the balancing in this one wasn't amazing? This adversity I sought had nested itself very comfortably in the Arena mode of course, for what was an excellent but truly brutal experience. Of course it, like 'Phantasma' before it is loaded with small potatoes, quite literally small in the case of the child you murder in the first 10 placements, but when you get stuck on an Arena fight in the top half of the list it can be a real fabric chewer.
Now, while the missions of the game didn't take nearly as much focus as the previous, '2' still has a fair few pretty thrilling moments. So as Mars develops, authority makes itself known. The Frighteners work as an effectively intimating force ludically at first, with the Fortner's handing you off a guaranteed failure on a sortie and later an excellent 2 on 1 fight, but Klein, while loaded with some very daunt dialogue that does him a lot of favours, is a complete pushover. The final encounter itself is great for sure, with his final design being something truly otherworldly, but he stands no chance and could've definitely been a more gritty challenge, no matter how appreciable his noble end is.
With the end of the independent attempts at controlling Mars, whether they be some earnest attempt to end the libertarian dystopia or some grotesque market warfare, the red planet bleeds and it was all upon your hand as a Raven. Klein asks a sly question in "what is it that you wish for?", as the brutality of the status quo came back again and again to those who systematically helped enforce it. Victims too are the Ravens when it comes to the making of fate, the fence-guard of capital and its inherent material and psychological nature leaves them, cruelly, unable to wish. The bird flees change not because of anything genuine enough to be called visceral or cerebral, it flees because it does not know anything else.
'Armored Core 2' has just as well a compellingly pulpy set up as any other entry, a mission to Mars! The new human solution to the industrial consequences which trapped all underground previously is a new colony setup on the red planet. Lax on regulation as an emerging setup is to be, this is where the Ravens come back into the picture, working on the corp offering the carrots each passing hour—you, no different in structural entrapment to any other forcefully integrated into the economic cesspit, a hopeless vulture with no agency. The brutal, nihilistic corvid. What proceeds is, in terms of levels, an almost remake of the first generation games, with many sections operating as straight up remastering down to the cutscenes, moving, say, the desert train mission of 'Armored Core'—where planes crudely nipped at you from angels that jank had refused elegance—to a personal favourite. But such good spirits had the understated tingle of a game running out of ideas, which is the real shame, for half of the levels in 'Armored Core 2' are far in away the best the series could offer by the turn of the millennium, but the other half are simply half hearted or seen before too recently. Mechanically, the game is stronger than it has ever been, with overheating adding a new layer to the carefully formed tapestry of AC building first weaved in those focused Playstation titles, the addition is just as considered, but so little of it's company is. Customisation has more here than ever, and yet, the game never challenged enough nor felt long enough to warrant such investigation on anything that hadn't been present in the prior generation anyway. A waste of good metal, since the effort here might be the strongest innovation setting this sequel apart from what came before.
On difficulty, as was perhaps illuminated earlier, '2' is a strange mecha duck. Still challenging yes, but also quite easy up until the abrupt shift in the second half which felt like the game coming back up to speed with the adversity felt in 'Master of Arena'. Now, here's a funny thought, have I really gotten that much better at 'Armored Core' between 'Project Phantasma' and '2', or is my almost immediate abandonment of tetrapods going into the first hour of this sequel and sharp dedication to a light sniping mech with little resistance or major effort from me compared to the last entries all the way through to the end maybe a sign that the balancing in this one wasn't amazing? This adversity I sought had nested itself very comfortably in the Arena mode of course, for what was an excellent but truly brutal experience. Of course it, like 'Phantasma' before it is loaded with small potatoes, quite literally small in the case of the child you murder in the first 10 placements, but when you get stuck on an Arena fight in the top half of the list it can be a real fabric chewer.
Now, while the missions of the game didn't take nearly as much focus as the previous, '2' still has a fair few pretty thrilling moments. So as Mars develops, authority makes itself known. The Frighteners work as an effectively intimating force ludically at first, with the Fortner's handing you off a guaranteed failure on a sortie and later an excellent 2 on 1 fight, but Klein, while loaded with some very daunt dialogue that does him a lot of favours, is a complete pushover. The final encounter itself is great for sure, with his final design being something truly otherworldly, but he stands no chance and could've definitely been a more gritty challenge, no matter how appreciable his noble end is.
With the end of the independent attempts at controlling Mars, whether they be some earnest attempt to end the libertarian dystopia or some grotesque market warfare, the red planet bleeds and it was all upon your hand as a Raven. Klein asks a sly question in "what is it that you wish for?", as the brutality of the status quo came back again and again to those who systematically helped enforce it. Victims too are the Ravens when it comes to the making of fate, the fence-guard of capital and its inherent material and psychological nature leaves them, cruelly, unable to wish. The bird flees change not because of anything genuine enough to be called visceral or cerebral, it flees because it does not know anything else.