Armored Core 4

Armored Core 4 brought the long-running series of mech battles to the new console generation while also partially restarting its game systems. The player builds their own mech from dozens of parts — legs, weapons, generators, and other equipment — and fights other mechs and large bosses in arenas and story missions. Compared to older entries in the series, the game sped up the pace of combat by introducing so-called boost drift, which allows for smooth flying maneuvers and quick aerial movement, making the battles feel more like fast aerial acrobatics than the slower ground-based skirmishes of previous generations.

On the Xbox 360, the new generation showed mainly in the scale of the battlefields and the sense of speed — the mechs move more nimbly, the camera reacts to sharp turns, and environmental destruction along with the visual effects of explosions and lasers reached a noticeably higher level compared to previous entries on older consoles. Still, the game retained the steep learning curve typical of the series: assembling a mech requires understanding the relationship between weight, energy, and armament, and it can easily discourage beginners before they grasp the basic principles of building a machine. The audio side is filled out by an electronic and orchestral score that reinforces the feeling of a cold, technological future in which the story takes place.

Contemporary reviews praised the faster, more action-oriented approach to combat and the graphical leap, while also pointing out that the game remained fairly inaccessible to newcomers and that the story is told in the terse, fragmented way typical of the entire brand. For loyal fans of the series, it was nonetheless a welcome restart that paved the way for further entries on this console generation. Today, Armored Core 4 is interesting mainly as a precursor to FromSoftware's later work and as an example of how the mech genre can be adapted to a faster, more action-oriented style of play.

Why play it: For fans of mech combat and anyone curious about the roots of FromSoftware's later work, who won't mind swallowing the terse storytelling and the steeper demands placed on newcomers.