I'm pretty big Front Mission fan. I've played all of the series from FM 1,3,4, and 5. Even played FM: Gun Hazard, the only action game in the franchise till this recent game I'm about to review. The short version of the review: Utter Disappointment. Here's the long version:
Graphics:
- 6/10
Sure, it's shinier and details are more crips than the older games, but that's given for a game on the newest console vs the PS2 games of the old. The design and environments are pretty dull though. There's hardly any details or polish done to the design of the surroundings or mechs themselves. Battle damage effects were pretty rough, and I would've expected little more depth in that regards, since mechs are the focus of the games. I expected some bullet holes, burn marks, chiseled platings. What I got was shiny new paint mech -> blown parts. The weapon effects are also pretty stale.
Sounds:
- 6/10
Pretty standard fair. The sounds are same as the old FM game, but it just feels empty. Maybe I'm spoiled by Bad Company 2, but if I'm engaged in combat, I expect some radio chatter going on. Since the environment design was devoid of any variety, I didn't get any decent ambient sound either. The voice acting was alright, but the music score was terrible.
Gameplay:
-5/10 on Mech
-3/10 on Pilot/FPS
If you're going to do half-ass job on your main game play mechanic (mech), then why bother doing a worse job on your second one? First, the mech combat was really boring. Sure, the controls were "okay", but it just got repetitive real fast. You fight the same number of mechs in the same variety in the same situation. The enemies scale linearly as do your weapons and parts, so the customization is nothing but a "chore". The missions and scenarios are devoid of any creative work. Occasionally, you get 1-2 allied mechs, but you can't command them and they tend to block your shots all the time. The boss fights are hilariously bad. Again, utter lack of creativity. Dodge obvious attack pattern, spam a few shots, rinse and repeat.
The mech combat was bad enough. The on-foot/FPS portion of the game was even worse. You get a choice of SMG or Shotgun for primary, and a rocket launcher, also a few grenades. You fight huge array of enemies consisting of 2, yes total of 2, different enemies. Ones wielding SMGs and ones with Shotguns. I don't even know why they bothered to waste time on this part of the game. I'd have more fun playing original DOOM. At least I had more than 2 weapons to play with and more than 2 different types of demons to shoot at. At first, I thought I'd get to play mix-arms combat with infantry and mechs, but no. I only got to take on 1 mech on foot, for the entire game.
Plot / Story:
- 3/10
WTF... I had no idea what was going on for most of the game. In all of the previous FM games, they provided great wealth of story materials (obviously, due to RPG nature). I didn't expect the same amount of story content, but holy crap this game is utterly devoid of it. The game hardly explain anything about anyone. In one act, you fight against a pair of enemy pilots and in the next act, they're your allies! All without any reason other than "They're with us now". The "plot" is also taken directly from FM: Gun Hazard, almost word for word. The characters are empty husks. The dialogues are maddeningly bad.
Conclusion and Final Score - 4/10
I think Square Enix just did themselves a disservice. It's been 5 years since a Front Mission game came out to consoles ( 7, if you didn't import the FM:5). They farmed out the work to some mediocre dev with very little quality control. Switching the genre to action would have been interesting, had they actually decide to put some ideas and quality behind it. The lack of polish and rushed nature of the game was apparent at every moment. The game has little or no depth that went into every FM game I've played. I used to be pretty good fan of SquareEnix's games, but I'm not so sure anymore, after this tragedy and my other disappointment in FF 13.
Graphics:
- 6/10
Sure, it's shinier and details are more crips than the older games, but that's given for a game on the newest console vs the PS2 games of the old. The design and environments are pretty dull though. There's hardly any details or polish done to the design of the surroundings or mechs themselves. Battle damage effects were pretty rough, and I would've expected little more depth in that regards, since mechs are the focus of the games. I expected some bullet holes, burn marks, chiseled platings. What I got was shiny new paint mech -> blown parts. The weapon effects are also pretty stale.
Sounds:
- 6/10
Pretty standard fair. The sounds are same as the old FM game, but it just feels empty. Maybe I'm spoiled by Bad Company 2, but if I'm engaged in combat, I expect some radio chatter going on. Since the environment design was devoid of any variety, I didn't get any decent ambient sound either. The voice acting was alright, but the music score was terrible.
Gameplay:
-5/10 on Mech
-3/10 on Pilot/FPS
If you're going to do half-ass job on your main game play mechanic (mech), then why bother doing a worse job on your second one? First, the mech combat was really boring. Sure, the controls were "okay", but it just got repetitive real fast. You fight the same number of mechs in the same variety in the same situation. The enemies scale linearly as do your weapons and parts, so the customization is nothing but a "chore". The missions and scenarios are devoid of any creative work. Occasionally, you get 1-2 allied mechs, but you can't command them and they tend to block your shots all the time. The boss fights are hilariously bad. Again, utter lack of creativity. Dodge obvious attack pattern, spam a few shots, rinse and repeat.
The mech combat was bad enough. The on-foot/FPS portion of the game was even worse. You get a choice of SMG or Shotgun for primary, and a rocket launcher, also a few grenades. You fight huge array of enemies consisting of 2, yes total of 2, different enemies. Ones wielding SMGs and ones with Shotguns. I don't even know why they bothered to waste time on this part of the game. I'd have more fun playing original DOOM. At least I had more than 2 weapons to play with and more than 2 different types of demons to shoot at. At first, I thought I'd get to play mix-arms combat with infantry and mechs, but no. I only got to take on 1 mech on foot, for the entire game.
Plot / Story:
- 3/10
WTF... I had no idea what was going on for most of the game. In all of the previous FM games, they provided great wealth of story materials (obviously, due to RPG nature). I didn't expect the same amount of story content, but holy crap this game is utterly devoid of it. The game hardly explain anything about anyone. In one act, you fight against a pair of enemy pilots and in the next act, they're your allies! All without any reason other than "They're with us now". The "plot" is also taken directly from FM: Gun Hazard, almost word for word. The characters are empty husks. The dialogues are maddeningly bad.
Conclusion and Final Score - 4/10
I think Square Enix just did themselves a disservice. It's been 5 years since a Front Mission game came out to consoles ( 7, if you didn't import the FM:5). They farmed out the work to some mediocre dev with very little quality control. Switching the genre to action would have been interesting, had they actually decide to put some ideas and quality behind it. The lack of polish and rushed nature of the game was apparent at every moment. The game has little or no depth that went into every FM game I've played. I used to be pretty good fan of SquareEnix's games, but I'm not so sure anymore, after this tragedy and my other disappointment in FF 13.
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