Playstation 2 Front Mission 4 (PS2)

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 Fun game for turn based strat fans
For those who've never played a Front Mission game before: Enormous mechs. Tons of weapons, armor and computer options. Turn based strategy. The Front Mission series alone incorporates all three, and thus has a collection of players devoted to it. If you don't like all three, however, the chances are slim that you will fully enjoy this game. The game has much more serious involvement than your average turn-based strat game: even by the end, you will continually be discovering new ways to customize and operate your wanzers. There's no way to jump into the game and immediately be good at it: "trial and error" is a phrase you will get used to, and very quickly at that. For those who've played previous Front Mission games: The game, while remaining fundamentally the same, has changed in enough ways to mark it as an entirely different approach to the same ideas. The most obvious change is the Link system: it introduces a new variable when deciding where, when and how to use your wanzers and forces you to take the enemy's linking abilities into consideration when choosing your defensive tactics. With enough AP and the right positioning/turn order, a single wanzer can attack upwards of 6 times in a single turn (the highest I've seen is 9, with a shotgun). The other marked change is in the way characters progress: no more gaining proficiency with a weapon through repeated use. Instead, you purchase upgrades to your computer system through a pre-planned route, which may be expanded upon by purchasing computer upgrades in a store. If you stick to the pre-planned route, you will find your characters locked into a set path based on the skills they receive: lots of shotgun abilities and evasion skills obviously points toward a lightweight, evasive wanzer armed with shotguns. The benefits and detriments are obvious: the game starts you with a fairly balanced team that works well, but also makes it annoyingly tedious to change the fighting style of ANY of your wanzers. Expect to repeat simulations like crazy in order to fully customize your team. OVERALL RATINGS: Graphics: 6/10. The FMV is nice, but the in game graphics are reminiscent of very early PS2. Character portraits, while animated, are still portraits. Animation is, however, smooth, and almost all the cutscenes are accomplished with excellent use of the in-game engine. Sound: 8/10. The voice-overs aren't spectacular, but are more than acceptable for a video game and help to fill out the characters' personalities. The music is very well done, although there wasn't nearly enough variation. The actual sound effects are fantastic: metal against metal, etc. is very accurate sounding. Controls/Interface: 5/10. The controls are great and mostly intuitive, but the interface itself is a mixed bag. The combat interface is pretty intuitive, although at times your eyes will get confused as to which part of the display you should be looking at. Combat between similar looking wanzers gets confusing, especially when linked teammates are all fighting (whose bullets are those?). The non-combat menus are what get really annoying. My biggest problem is the seperation of the purchasing screens from the organization screens and the load times between: you can de-equip and purchase/replace equipment for all your wanzers at the same time, but you can't equip a weapon/part/item you already have from within the same screen. You can set skills, purchase new ones and upgrade computers from the same screen, but if you want to purchase a new skill set, you have to go to the computer store, and at the computer store, you can only see a bare-minimum of information about the pilot you're buying skills for. ANNOYING! Gameplay: 9/10. Although a beginner could pick up the game and survive the battles, in order to truly progress and make the money necessary to customize your wanzers and pilots, you have to utilize an enormous level of strategy which makes playing the game fun. A dozen different elements make your choices in each phase of combat exciting. There's no way to effectively summarize the gameplay other than to play it, so rent it if you're unsure. Storyline: 6/10. I've come to expect a level of quality from Square Enix that this game doesn't match up with. While better than the filler that generally occupies turn-based strat games, the story had so much more potential than was actually realized. Replay value: 5/10. My save file said 36 hours when I beat the game, although at least 3 hours of that was the game sitting around while I ran errands or ate. I did, however, plow through the game with a minimum of grinding (so I didn't do a lot of customization, etc.), so those dedicated to creating the ultimate wanzer team will find they have plenty of time to do so. The catch, however, is that you can restart the game with your old team once you beat it: those who already took the time to maximize their teams will find little to do on a second playing, while people like me still have places to go, so the net gaming time is probably about the same. FM4 is the kind of game you won't want to replay for a month, but will seem fresh and exciting again after that month has passed.
Submitted by platinumplusforever (Tampa, FL)
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