Game Description

The Armored Core series represents the most comprehensive mech simulation on the PlayStation, and Armored Core: Master of Arena was designed to uphold that detail-oriented, yet quick-moving, simulation tradition. Play through a new set of missions with a new story, and build up your Armored Cores (known as ACs) to get your pound of flesh as you take the role of a young AC pilot who's sworn vengeance on a mysterious, terrorist AC, who killed your family. All that matters is catching the AC with the 9-ball emblem.

Your search for the enigmatic AC puts you straight into the Ravens' Nest, complete with the useful AC garage. You'll get orders via e-mail from your sponsor, and earn money by completing the assignments that also serve to further the storyline. The mission areas are large, polygon worlds in the underground cities of this post-apocalyptic future where clever AC design and construction demands clever piloting with equal usage of all available attacks, including energy swords, rocket launchers, shields, hand lasers, and really big energy cannons. Adding parts to your AC results in better performance and drastic changes in the appearance of the AC itself by letting you design your own AC emblems and color schemes to personalize these engines of destruction. The customization features come in handy when you take your labor of love into the arena against your friends' custom ACs to determine the best gear jockey.

Fans of the past games will instantly recognize some of the music. The garage theme, for example, is straight from Armored Core, and From Software stocks the game with all the requisite mech game sound effects. So if vengeance is a dish best served cold, Armored Core: Master of Arena allows you wait until the alloy cools, and isn't that all anyone really wants? ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide

Roots & Influences

MechWarrior gave rise to the idea of a mech simulation with its tabletop role-playing action. Armored Core borrows from that, but ignoring the sluggish American view of how mechs would handle, adopts the faster pace of Japanese mechanized combat. ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

The missions and the arena fights are challenging; even the garage feature keeps you occupied for quite a while. ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide

Production Credits

Executive Producer: Yasuyoshi Karasawa

Producer: Toshifumi Nabeshima

Designer: Shoji Kawamori

Programmers: Atsushi Yanase, Hiroyuki Arai, Masaaki Sakamoto

Graphice and Textures: Mitsuhiro Okamura, Miho Ohno, Junichiro Ishino, Yasuhiro Kamimura, Noriyasu Hirose, Michiteru Okabe

Writer: Eiji Matsumoto

Voices recorded and produced at Webtone Productions, Campbell, CA, U.S.A.

Voice Actors: Rebecca Wink, Roger Jackson, Jeff Kramer, David Nowlin, Erin Clark, Roberta Kennedy, Colleen Quintana, Greg Weber ~ Joe Lamb, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

Armored Core managed three updates without getting to a true sequel, reserving THAT for the PlayStation 2. Still, From Software has managed to build a cult following for the Armored Core series by blending a complex mech creation system with a fast paced battle environment that draws comparisons to the all-out action of Virtual On, even with the added complexity a simulation demands.

Armored Core: Master of Arena affirms the respect the series has drawn. While maintaining the same mechanics of Armored Core and its updates, Master of Arena adds a new collection of missions and an arena battle segment, while players of past installments get the added ability to import their lethal creations. Play though search and destroy missions, retrieval actions, and other assignments suitable for a walking engine of doom. As you gain a reputation in the field, you'll get invitations to participate in arena fights. While these tend to be more focused sorties, the action is more intense when you square off against other AC pilots at your own level. (If you haven't imported the ultimate AC from a previous title.) The more intimate fighting and encounters with many of the same characters in the standard missions draw you into the game in a remarkable fashion.

The levels are usually large with full three-dimensional structures, which tend to look clean and stylish, throughout a game that also runs at a solid frame rate. Unlike some games that just toss you into an area consisting of interconnected rooms with little variation, levels here will vary widely and demand thinking before charging in blind. Radar showing enemies in an empty room means you'll have to destroy a grating or ceiling. Additionally, the levels frequently mix action and puzzle segments. Besides that, the constant demand for thinking of optimal AC arrangements, and improvising when other AC's appear, you have a game that's rife with detail and strategy, in addition to the action elements, a rather involving yet enjoyable change of pace.

Your AC will change in appearance as you reconstruct it for better performance, and handling will change depending on the parts you introduce. New weapons bear their own unique pyrotechnic displays: enhanced radar results in fancier readouts, and new power plants allow you to fire energy weapons and activate boosters for longer periods. This visual feedback is a nice touch and it makes upgrading even more rewarding.

The music consists of the same techno-rock that marked the first two editions. Some decent voice acting and music (with a good amount of bass) keeps a quick pace to help you get into the action. Your backer will chime-in with tactical updates and other AC pilots will taunt you as they close for a fight. Sound effects like solid laser blasts, gunfire, and the mandatory massive explosions, also work well. So, if you have a soul of silicon or an affinity for such, Armored Core: Master of Arena should quickly get you into an alloy rending, energy sword waving mood. If you're just getting into the series, don't worry, this game stands on its own nicely. ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

There's a solid and versatile graphics engine at work here. The only downside is that the apocalyptic future tends to lack colors. ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

Nice soundtrack and voice acting develops the games' solid personality; sound effects work to impart a strong sense of pseudo-reality. ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

While it's really easy to lose yourself in the finer points of AC construction, the story is good enough to warrant a play or three. ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

The manual's in color and takes you through the basics, but could have used a few more screenshots for the explanations. ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)