First things first, ...this plays differently to previous Armoured Core games. It plays much more like Zone of the Enders, only better. Seriously.

It' s available only on the Japanese XBL and weighs in at 790MB.

The Demo consists of a tutorial and 3 missions, one of which is a boss fight, and 7 mechs to choose from depending on the mission.

The game opens with a cool stylized sepia-toned CG cinematic. Very high production value, realistic looking CG. It' s very very nicely done.

The game is technologically impressive. It' s pretty much what you' d expect from a seasoned Japanese developer and destroys NAMCO' s Gundam efforts with ease. I' ll list the...

PROS

Constant 60fps.

No aliasing.

No vsync/tearing issues whatsoever.

Superb " character" modeling.

Great animations.

Amazing heat distortion, motion blur and particle effects.

Fantastic use of filters, colour palettes and depth of field.

Great lighting and reflections.

...and the...

CONS

Unimpressive flat environmental textures.

Fogging.

Unconvincing environmental damage modeling.



I' m impressed with the game visually. It' s super-stylized and employs heavy use of filters and colour palettes making each level look unique. HDR lighting is put to good use and the motion blur, heat distortion and particle effects from the various boosting methods are the best i' ve seen yet.

CONTROLS/HANDLING

The handling is extremely fluid and responsive. I couldn' t invert the X (?) axis and so pushing up meant i looked up which really gets on my nerves, but there wasn' t an option to change it and even then i probably wouldn' t have known how because of the Japanese text :/

The game handles like most 3rd person games with the left stick controlling movement and the right controlling the camera.

The game is as fast as you want it to be, but the quicker lighter mechs are blindingly fast with rapid turning circles while the larger heavier mechs are slower with sluggish turning circles, but obviously they can take more damage and carry bigger weapons.

The left trigger is the normal thrust enabling you to essentially fly or glide as speed for a good period of time. It' s even possible to fly continuously as long as you use it carefully. The right trigger is for the boost dodge which comes in really handy when avoiding incoming missiles and other weapon fire. (Y) engages ' over boost' which briefly (maybe 2 seconds) powers up and then thrusts you forward at high speed for a short-ish distance. The boost effects as i' ve already mentioned are superb.

The right and left bumper buttons switch the right and left arm/shoulder weapons respectively and (X) and (A) fire them.

I haven' t identified what (B) and the d-pad do yet.

AVAILABLE MISSIONS

The game starts with a [skipable] tutorial that takes you though the basics. It' s rudimentary stuff but worth playing through once to accustomize yourself with the games basic controls.

For the first mission you can choose one of three mechs. Upon completion you unlock a further four mechs meaning that for the 2nd and 3rd missions you can choose from seven. They' re all very different and all worth trying.

Mission 1 is set during the day in a cityscape. It' s very bright and full of grey blue hues. You' re tasked with destroying 3 enemy mechs but between you and them there' s tons of cannon fodder such as tanks, helicopters and smaller sub-mechs.

Once you' ve beaten the first mission two more are unlocked and can be done in whatever order you like.

The 2nd mission is also set during the day and is a blue/green sunken city environment with the tops of buildings rising out of what are apparently floodwaters. You automatically hover above the water but ofcourse can still fly and jump onto any of the buildings. The level is noticeably harder with many more enemies and a greater rate of incoming fire. There are airborne enemies and water-based enemies but no mechs. You need to destroy several frigates and then a super-destroyer which is super-hard.

The 3rd mission is essentially a boss fight set in a dessert with more sunken (?) skyscrapers. It' s set during dusk/sunset and the distance is heavily silhouetted. There' s an awesome heat shimmer i the distance which makes the buildings look like they' re fire (?). It' s hard to describe but it looks badass. You are up against a sole mech which has a lot of health and moves like lightning. Part way through a friendly mech joins the fight and just watching the two of them is as cool as playing the game. The way the mechs move and dash is stunning. They wen into the distance and became silhouetted, affected by the heat shimmer and the blasts of laser fire lighting up sky looked unbelievably cool.



Having played this demo i' ll certainly be buying the localized version upon it' s release. I mean Chrome Hounds did nothing for me. It had nicer explosions but was lacking in many other areas. I found it slow and cumbersome, boring and lacking any real art direction and while i can see the online appeal i far preferred the kickass mechs in Lost Planet and Armoured Core 4 does them even better.

I loved the first two Armoured Core games and then went off them. I' ve played the PS2 games but never been seriously impressed with them. The PSP game also sucked. This however not only plays differently but is far more enjoyable than the previous games. If you liked ZOE and it' s sequel then i can' t see you not liking this. I just need to find out if it' s going to be online...