DESCRIPTION

The Armored Core series represents the most comprehensive mech simulation on the PlayStation, and Armored Core: Master of Arena was designed to uphold that detail-oriented, yet quick-moving, simulation tradition. Play through a new set of missions with a new story, and build up your Armored Cores (known as ACs) to get your pound of flesh as you take the role of a young AC pilot who's sworn vengeance on a mysterious, terrorist AC, who killed your family. All that matters is catching the AC with the 9-ball emblem.

Your search for the enigmatic AC puts you straight into the Ravens' Nest, complete with the useful AC garage. You'll get orders via e-mail from your sponsor, and earn money by completing the assignments that also serve to further the storyline. The mission areas are large, polygon worlds in the underground cities of this post-apocalyptic future where clever AC design and construction demands clever piloting with equal usage of all available attacks, including energy swords, rocket launchers, shields, hand lasers, and really big energy cannons. Adding parts to your AC results in better performance and drastic changes in the appearance of the AC itself by letting you design your own AC emblems and color schemes to personalize these engines of destruction. The customization features come in handy when you take your labor of love into the arena against your friends' custom ACs to determine the best gear jockey.

Fans of the past games will instantly recognize some of the music. The garage theme, for example, is straight from Armored Core, and From Software stocks the game with all the requisite mech game sound effects. So if vengeance is a dish best served cold, Armored Core: Master of Arena allows you wait until the alloy cools, and isn't that all anyone really wants? ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide