By James Hawkins
Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 8:30 am
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| Front Mission Evolved could use a boost. |
Sometimes it was the scale, or the wide span of weapons, or the maneuverability. There was something there that kept the games afloat and towards the forefront of the market. But they haven't evolved with the rest of the gaming world.
Which is sad, because the guy giving me the Front Mission Evolved tour was really, really enthusiastic about it. And I just couldn't match him.
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That wouldn't be a problem if you could pick up guns or something like that. But you get one gun that you must use for the entirety of the match, no matter how much you want to put down your rocket launcher to assault or if you want to lay in the cut and snipe.
The levels had large buildings that were approachable only because of the mechs' giant size. Hovering up onto the upper levels of the structures was a neat little facet of the game, but it was nearly impossible to use the vantage point to your benefit -- the mechs took a lot of shots to bring down, and could zip away before you could finish them off. Now I wasn't a sniper or a heavy-weapons mech, which definitely could've made a difference, but I can't imagine it would've been able to overcome the hurdle. I felt like a big block with a gun that was shooting another big block with a gun and I just had to wear down him until he died.
Which is what some people like, I get that.
But the nature of mech games is that they are trudging and slow, and in the current gaming climate, a clunky, straightline shooter like Front Mission Evolved falls short. And I admit that for fans of the mech-shooter genre, it might be something totally different, but to someone on the outside, I didn't find much to inspire or hold my attention.
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