A honest and accurate review from an open minded and dedicated gamer....
User Rating: 7.4 | Chromehounds X360
I really expected more from this game, I wanted a decent mech game that was similar to Armored Core because it was made by the same developers but it was a total let down. I still to date am trying to play it, find something to like about it and get my money's worth but it takes a lot of believing that the game is what you want it to be but it just lacks so much. I'll just start with the negativity since it is just too hard to ignore. The game has you playing as a mercenary soldier work for various organizations in a post WW3 scenario. You start out with various loaned mechs and must complete empty, simple and just plain annoying missions. Its like a chore to do but it is necessary if you want to get the parts to build your own mechs. The single player is not even worthy of being talked about it's just blah and barren, shoot this go here in your ever so slow mech while shooting stationary and moving objects with your mech's various weapons. In my experience it has the worse mech single player mode. Even Mechassault was more fun than this and I'm not a big fan of mechassault. The HUD is stupid, you are pretty much required to zoom into a first person view to shoot things which would of been a nice additional feature to have but there is no reticule to aim with in third person view. Most mechs move slow and it just feels very unsolid and weak corresponding to the poor level design. Now I understand that a lot of people are defending this game with the fact that it is not suppose to be like other mech games and is more strategic which is true but its not even that good of doing that job of offering a different and unique experience. The only good thing in this game is the online content which could be fun and maybe a little addictive but only if you have a lot of patience and dedication. Its not a game where you just pick up for some quick action it is solely based on a team cooperation and you need to be in a clan which could cause some trouble finding one that you like and you have to organize with other teammates to come on for matches or practice, it can be a lot of unnecessary work and quite a headache but some people like it. The custimization is done really well with a lot of detail and can be fun making them but it all boils done to having the best parts and it can be quite complex to some people and the menus are quite clunky and could been designed better. Another thing about this game in the single player is that you often do not know what to do and the game does not help you much in aiding you, as they only tell you what to do once which proves to be quite tedious in an already weak comprised mission setup which just adds more to the list of turn offs. There is not even an in game menu in which you can exit or change some options or check objectives, you have to self destruct to go back to the main menu. The graphics are pretty good both in game and in cutscenes but nothing too special, better than most mech games to date. The sound is ok in the department of weapon firing but the soundtrack is so annoying, its like 10 seconds of annoying 8 bit gameboy music that just seems to repeat, it is just annoying and ever so irritating. Overall I haved played many games and I believe I am very open minded and have good taste in a wide variety of games but this one just does not cut it and is highly a big disappointment, I really expected more out of it. Hopefully Armored Core 4 will not follow the same path of this game. What it boils down to is that it will turn off most gamers but those who are willing to put the time and dedication into it will find it to be a rewarding experience but only for the online play and only if they are willing to work with other people. 
