Armored Core 4 is a very interesting title. Starting with this iteration the franchise took a radical departure from the slower more methodical gameplay of the previous entries in favor of a much faster pace and more streamlined mechanics. In some instances it works incredibly well and in others it feels like a case of one step forward two steps back.

One thing that really upsets me about this one in particular is it removed the mail and pre-mission briefs which added a lot of flavor to the setting and agendas the various factions at play had. Instead of being this lone wolf mercenary taking orders from the highest bidder you're now sticking with one side for what's essentially one long military campaign during a world war caused by various corporations. The premise is extremely cool but the downside of this is almost every mission involves you taking down a specific mech or landmark with nothing interesting really added towards it. While past games also suffered from a lack of mission variety the background info given really helped made them memorible. A good example of this is in one of the early missions of Armored Core 3 you're hired to go take out some group of laborers going on strike, the setup you got is way overkill for the situation at hand and when you enter the factory the workers there start panicking over your appearance knowing they WILL die now. The real kicker is after the mission is over you get an email from the group that hired you saying they're aware their measures were extreme but they were forced by what's essentially a totalitarian AI that gave them the order to hire you for it.

Now one thing AC4 absolutely excels at is upping the intensity as the game goes on. While the first 2/3s are a bit of a drag the final batch of missions are freaking phenomenal with you doing stuff like rushing through a battalion of hundreds of helicopters, boats, and mechs to go take down one big fortress. By the end of the game your mission to stop this war results in the world being festered with contamination, set ablaze, and fighting the one companion you had after they had been blackmailed to kill you.

If you don't mind some rather baffling design decisions that set the game back from its full potential AC4 is a rather short but sweet game worth a go and thankfully these days it can be emulated rather well from start to finish. This run I did was done on a steam deck with only a few hickups and one crash which honestly ain't too bad considering the framerate is miles above the game on real hardware.

100/10 soundtrack go listen to Thinker if you don't believe me.