0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Armored Core

      

Armored Core (アーマード・コア) is the first entry in the third person shooter mecha simualation game developed by Japanese studio FromSoftware which would go on to have at least twenty releases in the series with three appearing on Playstation. FromSoftware published the game in Japan while Sony Computer Entertainment handled the European release Agetec published the game for its North American release.

Armored Core was directed by Toshifumi Nabeshima a regular member of the development team for Armored Core throughout the series life he would also more recently be a writer on Dark Souls II. In addition to Nabeshima, Armored Core was produced by Yasuyoshi Karasawa who worked as an artist on King’s Field and King’s Field II.

Armored Core would release first in Japan in July of 1997 with a North American release the same year in October, while the European release was a full year after the Japanese release coming in July of 1998 the game did decently enough selling an estimated 400,000 copies

Armored Core also received a Playstation 3 release in 2007 in Japan on the PSN network and a North American PSN release eight years later in 2015. The same year a PSP and PS Vita port of the game was released via the PSN network.

Armored Core opens with the player undergoing a test to become a part of the Ravens Nest involving the player taking out two Muscle Tracers or just know as MTs which is a type of mech. Once the two mechs are destroyed and the players own mech is destroyed the player has passed the test.

The player receives missions requests from various corporations and groups, with missions rewards being better the more difficult the mission is, rewards vary from cash to prototype Armored Core parts. Depending on which mission the player chooses the story will progress differently, in addition the player will receive mail from various senders and be able to observe their rankings which is based on their mission success rate.

The player is responsible for purchasing weapons and parts for their Armored Core mech do both the player must use the money aquired from their successful missions, once in a mission the player is incapable of purchasing new ammo or armour, costs or repairs and ammo replacement is taken from the players end mission credits.

The game has two game modes the first is the main single player story campaign which consists of a total of 45 missions and a multitude of parts to create around 300,000 different mechs (not been able to confirm this). The second game mode is a player vs player mode where each player controls a mech and battle it out in a large war area ranging from cities to desert plains.

Some time in a distant future the majority of the Earth’s population is wiped out in an apocalyptic war called the Great Destruction, the destruction causes the few survivors seek refuge underground for the next fifty years. During which time corporations come to power over the remaining suvivors, the two largest are Chrome and Murakumo Millennium.

The two corporate giants battle each other for supremacy over the remaining peoples of Earth, these quests for power however do nothing but reap more misery on the remaining people. The continuing hostilities between the two corporations do however provide opportunities for some including Raven, an independent  mercenary group the player is a part of this organization.

Critically the game was well received with reviews ranging from excellent down to above average, as usual we will start with the best which comes from Electric Playground who scored the game at a 95/100, praising the seamless blend of mech combat and the strategic satisfaction of build n' destroy.

They concluded with Without a doubt, it is the most successful 'mech game ever introduced for the console systems. It is also, unquestionably, one of the strongest Sony published titles for the PlayStation. GameSpot called it The perfect halfway mark between Virtual On and MechWarrior 2 in their 83 rated review.

German publication Video Games had the following to say in their 81 rated review, In Armored Core, the Battlemech addicted player will find a terrific mix of action, strategy, and tactics embedded in a highly desirable 3D environment.

They concluded with The exploration of the individual components brings a lot of excitement and motivation into the action-packed gameplay, the areas of the huge 3D landscapes are definitely more sumptuous than anything that has previously been in this area on console. IGN simply concluded with one sentence, Mech fans, rejoice! Your game has finally arrived. In their 80 rated review.

At the other end of the review scale we find HonestGamers who’s review comes from 2014, they concluded while the game is not for the faint of heart calling the game a giant jigsaw puzzle and when you first open it, and though not perfect it is still a fascinating game after all these years.

Mega Fun another German publication who scored the game at a 72/100 were critical of the fairly easy enemies, saying those who have plenty of experience with mech games will likely get bored. They did however have praise for the game concluding with the following Armored Core was fun for me, just because of the prize money hunt and the constant tuning of your mech.

Finally we have Absolute Playstation who rated Armored Core at a solid 75/100 they were largely critical of the game not appealing to no mech fans, they had the following conclusion to their review. Unfortunately, my opinion of this game wasn't a very good one.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game, but it lacked the ability to really keep me interested and excited. I don't think this is a great game for the non-Mech Warrior lover. It is difficult to learn and the graphics don't blow you away by any means. Therefore, if you don't already love games of this genre, you probably still won't after playing this game.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who will give you $10 if you are looking to trade in your copy of Armored Core, if on the other hand you are in the market for a copy of Armored Core that will set you back $19 from Gamedude.

Heading over to Retrogames.co.uk where we find that they do not stock this title, so quickly moving on to eStarland.com where we find two copies of the game available, the first is a disc only copy of the North American release, this is priced up at $8.98, they also offer a trade in for your copy of Armored Core and are willing to pay $9.

The second copy of the game that is listed on eStarland.com is the Japanese import version, this is currently out of stock but is usually priced at between $2.48 and £4.95, they also offer a trade in for this as well with eStarland paying only $1 for a used copy of the Japanese import.

Finally on to Amazon.com where we find the cheapest used copy which comes in at $11.50 is a disc only copy and is only in acceptable condition. A disc only copy in good condition is priced up at $14.95 this price increases to just short of $19 once shipping has been added in.

An acceptable condition used copy is available for a couple of cents short of $21 this is a complete copy of the game and this is the cheapest complete copy you will find on Amazon.com at the time of writing this. From here the prices take a significant jump in price with the next copy on offer is an acceptable complete copy for $40.

If you are looking for a complete copy in better than acceptable condition you are looking at a minimum spend of just short of $47 for a very good condition copy. If on the other hand you want a new copy of the game you can pretty much double that with new prices starting at $85.99 with prices reaching over $100 for a new copy.

Written by

P J Gibbon