Armored Core 2: Another Age

Armored Core 2: Another Age was the first entry in the series built directly for PlayStation 2, and it gave both players and developers the room the mech-building genre deserved for the first time. The story takes place generations after the original trilogy, on a colonized Mars, where the player, as an independent AC pilot, hires out their services among warring corporations and factions fighting for control over the planet and its resources.

The new hardware allowed for significantly larger and more open battlefields, smoother framerates, and more detailed machine models, which also showed in the gameplay – battles are faster-paced and arenas more spacious than on the original PlayStation, where the console's limits often confined the battlefield to a single enclosed hangar. The AC building system remained the core of the game, but new part categories were added along with finer balancing between speed, firepower, and armor durability. The campaign also offered branching missions where the choice of employer influenced the further course of the story as well as which parts manufacturers were willing to sell equipment to the player, pushing the series closer to a full RPG element within an action game.

Another Age thus wasn't just a graphical upgrade but a relaunch of the franchise for a new console generation and new players who hadn't experienced the original PlayStation entries or had been put off by their technical rawness and slow loading times. The move to new hardware also allowed for a longer, more elaborate campaign with more side paths and optional contracts than would fit on the previous console generation. For many fans, this entry is the gateway into the series, since it plays more accessibly than the older titles while still retaining the toughness and technical depth that later, lighter entries gradually lost.

Why play it: An ideal starting point for players who want to experience Armored Core in its tougher, more technical form, but without the limitations and clunkiness of the original PlayStation generation.