The game hides within itself, and with several paths to take and things to do - this game is a long term investment.
The Bad - Can't transfer Data from AC4. Mega Bosses are nothing new, far more challanging large bosses were in Amored Core 3 for PS2. Unlocking everything for multiplayer use can be a very difficult undertaking. Many XBOX Live Achievements are impossible to Achieve.
The Review
Amatures to the Armored Core realm will instantly rant on two things about this game, the Control and the Short Lived and vague story. This has been a common misconception since the very first Armored Core game for the PS1 - and with now thirteen solid titles under the belt - it's clear to say Armored Core has something going for it.
New comers to the series will find a game that is difficult to sink your teeth into. Armored Core has never been a game that does will to attract a new audience - and doesn't make an effort to try either. The game is difficult, but though it may appear hard to a new comer a first - the joke is that the your first run through is always the easiest.
The difficulty increases or decreases depending on how you approach the game, and when trying to achieve what all Armored Core players simply -have- to do in order to complete their stock of parts and tuning options is to fully conquer the game. That means doing everything, beating every mission, finding every story arch, unlocking every ending, and getting hired by the hard to appease secret organizations.
But what is all of this anyway? Armored Core has always been a fast-paced Mech combat game purely built around the ability to gathers mech parts, then put them together in any fashion you like, adjust them to make them unique, and face off against other nimble players in versus or online to show the world who is really the boss.
Story has always taken a back seat to the pure competetive nature of the game, but that doesn't mean a story in non-existant. On the contrary, each game is actually very rich with story - but it's never an obvious one. There are no heroes here, just corperations waring for power and the fait of the human race - and in the middle of it all you really just don't care at all.
The world could end and all humanity die, as an Armored Core pilot this shouldn't phase you one bit. The human element of the game has always been removed, and with each title this has been the goal. Even in earlier versions of the game you were rewarded with becoming more and more the cold, killing machine. The colder you were, the better you were rewarded. In short, no one is ever a good guy in this universe.
Vets of the game will find this same-old-same-old, but thankfully AC4: For Answer is more of a through back to the original AC for the PS1 where you can get different endings and appease different major elements of power through the missions you complete. It's the most linear-non-linear game story you can find. In fact, you will have to play through it, and are expected to play through the game multiple times in order to really get a feel for what is going on. That's not a flaw, it's a purposeful game mechanic.
But how does this game relate to Armored Core 4? Aside from the seeing a lot of parts and familiar battlegrounds, nothing much. In fact, the game doesn't even allow you to continue your data for AC4 which is a complete shock. Most AC games allow you to carry over data and continue, but this game seems hellbent on starting the series off on a new foot with becoming Armored Core 4 version 2 instead of an expansion pack to the original.
So you can ultimately not play AC4, as it now doesn't have much point. Everything in AC: FA is are superior, even the controls are easier to work with thanks to the new inclusions of the "Simple" scheme. Though slightly flawed at first, the Simple controls will automatically boosts your AC in whatever direction you press the joystick. The only issue is that the Strafe doesn't work right off, a Defualt feature called Auto-Assit Aiming prevents this. All you have to do is turn off the Auto-Assit Aiming and you can strafe-boost left and right freely.
A vast new selection of parts and weapons make the game fresh and new, bringing in sleeker and sexier mech parts that can make for some serious speed and flight. This game is far faster than the original AC4, and is tuned properly all you'll be seeing is constant motion blurr without even using Over-Boost. Armor mounted laser swords have also been tweaked, increasing their accuracy, and also FRS Memory; the points in which you use to turn your AC - have been increased to nearly 450 possible points to collect and distribute.
The greatest feature of the game, and the ultimate end-game and the very reason why you conquer the Single Player in the first place is Multiplayer. The improvements for Multiplayer in AC: For Answer are huge over that of AC4. Naturally, Battle Royal and 4v4 matches make a return to the fold, bringing in all the old maps from AC4 and thensome. But there are new additions to the system, such as the option to toggle Respawning and even Unlimited Ammo can seriously open up more options for the Online Realm.
Co-Op too appears, but is dissapointing limited. You can host a Co-Op mission from Single Player story mode, but there is no lobby in Story Mode to join others. You are simply left to wait for someone to join. This is because your partner in Co-Op mode can only play with you through their Multiplayer-Free-Play-Mode. Which means, they need to have already completed the mission in order to help you or play with you.
This is to say that Co-Op is not for Story Progression really, it's more of a tool to help each other attain S-Rank far more easily to help poeople get into the Multiplayer realm as faster as possible. A few other dissapointing elements of the game resides within the XBox Live Achievements. These are laughable and utterly impossible to achieve in the short term. All achievements in the previous game could be handled offline, and were challanging enough. But more than half of the points are now Online Achievements for this title.
These are not simple aither, one of them is that you have to becoem a Ranker - which is attaining one of the top 30 positions in the world. Others are attain 10,000 kills online, which is far easier than the attain 10,000 online victories. Pure insanity. This goes to show that Armored Core is a long term investment, and needs to be looked upon as such. This is not a game you pick up and drop in a week, but devote months if not years of time developing the perfect machines and facing them off online.
So Armored Core is really all about the building and the Multiplayer fighting. Single-player is a difficult after-through toward that goal, but at least that do a great job keeping you occupied with Single-Player this round. There are flaws of course, such as Overly Aggressive AI that doesn't think very well in tight spaces, and also the Large huge "Mega Bosses" are giant sitting ducks you blow away in seconds. They are just pretty to look at, but never a threat to a souless AC pilot (or Lynx as the game calls them) like yourself.