Armored Core 4

TGS 06: Armored Core 4 Impressions

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.

Gamespot