The game is totally not what I had hoped for.
Game design: The game graphics are at an acceptable level.
Once you start the game you will go to the main menu screen.
There is the garage, where you can create your own machine called AC (Armored Core). The customization is pretty deep, which is what mecha games are all about and is what a mecha fan would want.
Building your own mecha can be pretty interesting, since not only the looks of the parts count but you will have to balance the inputs and outputs since it might affect the performance of your machine in combat.
Apart from parts there are also optional parts to install as well as paints and logos.
There is a training mode with many different courses to practice using your machine, there is arena mode where you get to combat random foes, each battle will increase your ranking and you will have access to better parts, environments range from deserts to marine bases.
Game play: Mastering an Armored Core can be very difficult since it will test your patient a lot.
You move your machine with the left analog and aim your guns with the right, you can activate special weapons and features and can boost at any direction. How your machine performs depends on how you build them. The machines move pretty sluggish, giving it a more realistic feel to it, but the machine's aiming is to slow for its own good.
Sound: The music is totally not appealing and I think it's totally inappropriate for a shooting game such as this.
There are voices but they are computer generated voices so listening to them the entire time can be a pain.
There are a lot of frustrating things about the game.
1st- While your machines move slow and sluggish your opponents seem a lot faster than you, and once you lose site of target its over, because not only is their aiming so super accurate they are also super strong, around 7 to 8 hits will destroy your machine.
They did add a radar but it totally doesn't make sense and it's pretty useless, and if you try to move the aim they will just end up out of your site in no time.
2nd- The game has lots of content but they are all the same. All you do is fight and unlock new parts, only to fight again and again and this will go on and on, its almost like an online shooter only that you fight all alone, there is absolutely nothing interesting about this game, no interactive environments, nothing.
3rd- The loading time of this game will absolutely kill you. Imagine this, you start match, loading screen, they tell you your objective, in game loading, finished objective, in game loading telling you mission objective complete, then loading screen telling you either lost or won, and since you will lose a lot you will wait the entire time just to hear that you failed your mission, and hearing that multiple times will cause you to throw your controller in frustration.
This game was definitely not what I had imagined, and I don't think any mecha fan will find anything to like about this game.
If you stay for a long time you will eventually get the hang of it; that is if you can take getting destroyed a lot because your opponents have insane advantages over you.
I don't know what they were thinking when creating this game, I guess fans of the series might find something to like about it but others should best stay away if they want their PS2 in one piece.