TGS 06: Armored Core 4 Impressions [UPDATED]

TOKYO--"Is this playable?"

For all intents and purposes, it's a rhetorical question we're asking to the nice Sony representative on our left. Not only is there no controller anywhere to be found near this display of Armored Core 4 for the PlayStation 3, but the rep we're asking probably doesn't speak a whit of English. This is the Tokyo Game Show, after all. So we're not surprised when the nice young man bows politely and shakes his head, apologetically. No, his gesture says, Armored Core 4 isn't playable today. Sorry about that, American game journalist. So that's bad news, but then he gives us a smile and brightens our day considerably with a simple phrase, "Maybe tomorrow."

So, there is that to look forward to, then. We've been fans of the From Software folks for a ages now, and with the recent release of Chromehounds for the Xbox 360 still fresh in our gaming minds, we came to Tokyo to see the fourth iteration in the series that has been From's bread and butter for many years: Armored Core. So while we're disappointed that all we got to see was a brief trailer of gameplay, we're holding out hope that we actually will be playing the game tomorrow.

But, let's talk trailer. The roughly two-minute clip showed a blasted, ruined city, filled with skyscrapers that had been completely engulfed by massive sand dunes, which was a nicely bleak contrast to the relatively pristine urban environments found in older AC games. The mech unit itself was unremarkable from a design standpoint, yet it was fast on its feet and featured a nice mixture of ranged and melee weapons to keep enemies at bay. And enemies were never in shortage. We watched as our heroic mech took out not only mechs its own size but also smaller land-based machines, as well as an entire fleet of battle copters.

As for the graphics, the battle seemed be taking place in the early evening, just as the sun was dipping down the horizon, which meant that the tops of the skyscrapers cast long shadows on the sand that was swallowing them up. While the overall color palette was dark, the occasional swashes of light from the mech's energy sword, or the blast effects from its rocket pack, served to add some variety to the environment. One of the most interesting aspects of the game was a long horizontal row of text on the left side of the screen, which was constantly updating things such as weapon readiness and lock-on for enemies. We're not sure if that will be part of the actual gameplay, but if it is, we wonder if it will be a distraction from the regular mech-shooting action.

In all, we don't know much about Armored Core 4 other than what we saw in the trailer. And, of course, we know that we want to know more. Hopefully, our new Japanese friend's prediction will come true, and we'll be able to play the game tomorrow. If so, you can expect a full report from the TGS show floor.

[UPDATE] As we alluded to in our initial preview of Armored Core 4 for the PlayStation 3, the game has been playable for the past two days. We stood in line for a good hour before getting to play the game for ourselves, such is the enthusiasm from the Japanese game-buying public for From Software's next entry in its famous fighting mech series.

The playable demo level took place in the some arid, and dark landscape that was featured in the trailer. The shadows are so intense in this level that many of the buildlings are completely obscured by shadow, their walls only lighting up if you fire your machine gun or let loose with a rocket in the vicinity. The light and self-shadowing featured on the mechs themselves was impressive work as well, all advertising some powerful graphical hardware underneath the PS3's shell. About the only drawback we saw to the graphics were the occasional frame rate hitches, which were sometime severe, especially during big explosions that went off nearby.

Other than that, however, Armored Core 4 is running fast and furious on the PS3 hardware. The bursts of speed you can initiate with the trigger buttons cause your mech to instantly travel at ludicrous acceleration. One of the coolest tactics we used when taking out the mechs, or copters in the area was coming in behind their field of vision and then bull-rushing them from behind, firing our weapons the entire time and then laying them to waste with a quick swing of our energy sword.

The stark landscape featured in the TGS build of Armored Core 4 had its bleak charms but we look forward to seeing more of the game in the future and checking out some variety in the landscapes, as well as exploring the different modes in the game. Look for more on AC 4 in the coming months.