Definitely not amazing, but it's worth the money spent.
Front Mission Evolved is another game in a really old franchise I know nothing about. I'll just put that out there right now. However, I am a fan of mecha games in general.
Many critics of the Singleplayer will say that it's far too easy with an absurd plot. Ok, I agree that the plot is pretty fail, and the voice acting to go with it is really awkward at times. Seriously, did those voice actors get told the wrong things to emphasize or something? However, in terms of gameplay it's fairly rewarding. Yes, easy is faceroll, normal is easy and hard is mildly annoying, but you can still have a blast playing it. Some of the bosses are simply cheesy (I didn't have any trouble at all vs. the mobile fortress) while others will have you tearing your hair out with frustration. There are also the gunship and on-foot segments. The gunship is like a rail shooter, and while the earlier ones are fairly easy and don't have much stress, the last one does put you in a situation where yes, you could have been blown out of the sky if you didn't do better. The on-foot segments are rather underwhelming and feel very tacked-on even on Hard, but they aren't too frequent and don't take up too much time.
I have no idea why people thought the grunt AI was fail: they use cover, are rather accurate and in the wrong situations they can easily overwhelm you. Well, the on-foot AI is fail, but then again even on Hard these guys get shredded and it's hardly the main component to the story. I did notice that the AI seems to target you exclusively, and that your AI partners barely suffice as mobile walls due to their lack of damage output, mobility (these guys are actually pants-on-head retarded) and you can't even hide behind them because somehow shots just pass through them.
After 7-ish hours for one playthrough (that's how long I took for my first try on Hard) the singleplayer is very underwhelming if you were expecting a plot, but the general combat and the surprisingly varied situations it puts you through are enjoyable enough.
Before I get into the Multiplayer, I'd better cover customization first. Your mech is comprised of a Torso, Left Arm, Right Arm and Legs. Your weapons can be used in Right Arm (2H weapons), Left Arm (no 2H weapons), Left Shoulder, Right Shoulder and Backpack (why this isn't in Mech customization I'll never know). I've noticed that for the most part you just pick a core that a) has enough power for the weapons you want, and b) looks the way you like it. Armor matters, but when the difference is +-100 you tend to stop caring. The accuracy loss when your arms are blown off is pretty insignificant, but they do function as extra armor that keeps shots from hitting your core. Legs should have as much armor as you can afford to stick on them, since you're a sitting duck with broken legs in both single and multi modes. Maybe I'm just weird, but the mobility differences between Torsos/Legs doesn't seem to make a huge difference. I will say though that Quad legs provide far too little extra power for the downside of being ludicrously slow and having your legs be a fat target in single/multi (yes, AI goes for the legs).
Weapon-wise, we do run into some issues. I have yet to find a way to make the Light Machineguns remotely useful outside of using the best one in Easy mode singleplayer. Melee doesn't seem to do enough damage to make the necessity of closing into melee distance worth it, because in too many cases it takes too many hits to take someone down, and with the swing speed being that bloody slow you wonder how anybody with a brain could get hit. Actually, Machineguns in general don't have nearly enough output for Multiplayer, and with everybody dodging left right and center you'd never get enough sustained fire on someone to match the burst weapons (eg: Shotgun, Rockets, Rifle, Bazooka). However, they are pretty useful for singleplayer. On the plus side for everything though, the game does do a solid job of providing options for every single attack range, such that you should be able to fight people the way you want to. Well, except for melee.
And on that note, onwards to multiplayer. When you start out, USE A PREMADE. The beginner parts for your mech fail hard. Once you gain a few ranks and unlock some items, your custom mechs should do much better.
The modes are Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Domination and Supremacy. Well, I probably got the latter two named wrong, and I'll say why in a bit. DM and TDM we should all be familiar with by now. Domination is a mode where you try to blow up each others' turrets, and Supremacy is control over a moving area...or something. I haven't had a chance to play either Domination or Supremacy because, at least for PC, nobody seems to be playing anything except DM and the occasional TDM if you're lucky. Maybe I need to wait for the game to mature a bit so I can get some games in and then rewrite this chunk.
In terms of gameplay, I have one criticism: too many repair kits. The energy kits on the ground are fun, and the ammo kits spread out everywhere strike a good balance between running out of ammo and having enough ammo. However, it irks me that I can pummel a guy to within a sliver of his health, then he pops behind a building and pops back out with full health. It's not even the Repair backpack that drains all your energy: there are just too many repair kits everywhere. This situation can be countered by shooting out you're target's legs to reduce their speed, but with enough smarts he can still grab a repair kit under fire.
Controls are pretty solid. It's a shame that the shoulder weapons are mapped poorly (Q and E) but I can't really blame them for doing so since there aren't too many other ways you can map those. And thankfully, we PC users get to remap! What irks me though is the "negative acceleration" on your aiming, which is far from the conventional PC feel. It's kinda hard for me to describe it - just suffice to say that it's rather annoying.
Overall, Front Mission evolved is a good game for us starved mech fans, and a solid game if you're just looking for a TPS.