Front Mission Evolved Review: SMASH ‘EM WANZERS TO BITS!

Front Mission Evolved is the latest installment from Square Enix in the Front Mission franchise. The game diverts from the usual tactical turn based battle system and puts players in the actual cockpit of a wanzer. The game drastically changes into a third person action shooter but still retains a lot of elements that defined Front Mission from other mecha games.

So don’t expect any gundam-ish mechs, or almost “too human” movements on evolved (However there are SOME gundam elements ingrained into the system though that would be explained later on).

spoiler alert– in an attempt to associate the game with a lot of gundam elements there will be spoilers, you have been warned.

Plot

Before I get into the gundam allusions, I’d want to focus first on the game’s plot. You’re Dylan Ramsey, a wanzer technician from Diable Avionics who happens to be on New York city when an attack on the orbital elevator occurs. It just so happens that the research facility near the orbital elevator houses your father who invents the new system that your current prototype wanzer has (the story rings any bells?).

As soon as the attack commences your character heads off to save his father. His foray into “saving” his father pushes him to save allies and defeat enemies until he meets up with another “officer”. The two then tag-teams and reaches their destinations however Dylan was too late and he believes his father’ dead. So in short after that spectacle he was “invited” to join the army as a specialist going to one mission after another till the inevitable “supposedly epic” end.

If you’re the type who likes their stories tidy and well made, I must say that evolved’s plot has a lot more holes than swiss cheese. Also the first few minutes into the game it felt like I was playing through Square Enix’s version of gundam. Notice the subtle elements taken from Gundam stories:

• orbital elevators or humanity reaching to space – seed/destiny
• situation made protagonist into a warrior – kira yamato (seed), amuro ray (gundam), banagher links (unicorn), kamille bidan (zeta)
• father complex – banagher links (unicorn), kamille bidan (zeta)

These are just a few of the things I noticed all linking the game to gundam series, however, the correlation is not only on the story itself as you will see later.

I am pretty disappointed with the game’s story, but I wasn’t really expecting too much since action games tend to have very flimsy stories. There were a lot of “wth?” moments because as the story progresses you’d have more questions rather than answers. I must say however that evolved’s attempt of tying gundam elements into the story does not hamper the action the game delivers.

Gameplay

Front Mission Evolved’s gameplay divers greatly from it’s predecessors. Evolved zeroes in on the action of being a pilot wanzer rather than the usual tactical turn-based strategy the game is famous for. Evolved uses the same gameplay controls you’d often experience in armored core games whilst retaining a lot of gameplay elements from the Front Mission Universe.

One example is the battle system in evolved. The game retains the special “active” skills you’d find in front mission games however, evolved added a twist. The battle skills are triggered randomly whenever you use the weapons corresponding to the weapon. The buffs will remain for an elapsed period totally unlike in old front mission games where you can use the skill whenever you still have points for it.

The parts destruction system is retained in the game. To make it work however is not through your wanzer’s stats but more on your skills as a pilot. Yep, that’s right, the evolved has become more of a skill-based game rather than stats related.

One gameplay element that I liked in evolved is that the game doesn’t superglue your ass inside the cockpit. There are moments where you’d be out and about in your flight suit and shoot some enemy heads just because the story tells that you do. I do appreciate that the game tries to at least give you a different perspective by putting you on foot. However, it’s still the same when you’re on or off a wanzer, SHOOTING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT.

E.D.G.E. SYSTEM

Of course evolved didn’t just bring elements from front mission games into the third person shooter world, (because that would be just plain boring) the game also brings in a new wanzer system into play. Called as the EDGE system, this special wanzer capabilities allows pilots to react faster than the normal reaction time. Think of the trans am system in Gundam 00 but instead of the pink hue of the gundam you get a metallic glow that surrounds your wanzer or the bullet time system in Max Payne where instead of slowing time on you and the character’s world, the edge system boosts your speed so instead of the notion that the world slows down you are the one moving too fast.

The E.D.G.E. system provides a lot more of combat options for you specially in tight situations where you are outnumbered and out gunned (trust me in the first run there will be moments like that).

A.I.

Even with the E.D.G.E. system in place the game isn’t a cakewalk even on the normal level. The feeling though is only felt in your first run where you have been given the “weak” or rather the default part options. In some missions the game practically throws everything at you (even the kitchen sink) just so your metallic behind is cooked. The game’s A.I. is not really that hard to beat, but they’re not stupid either. While they may not be the smartest A.I. out there, there will be times when the game makes you remember that you’re in fact facing a computer.

Conclusion

Single player wise, Front mission Evolved sucks in it’s story telling. I believe Square Enix could’ve done better with the story if they were just a little more creative. The action on the other hand is pretty intense on both single and multiplayer. The awesomeness is huge enough to at least make me appreciate the game as a whole, even the flimsy plot-hole ridden story. I can say that the single player campaign of evolved is more of a “filler” to appease the fans and for those achievement hogs such as yours truly. The beauty of the game is more reliant on it’s multiplayer and that’s the central feature for the game’s longevity.

Evolved is better played for its multiplayer rather than it’s single player campaign. Because that’d be the main reason why you’d keep on playing the game anyway. The game could’ve done better, but right now I have no complaints– evolved has filled my mecha warfare hunger for a while.