Armored Core 3 Portable (PSP)
2009 FROM Software

The Short Version- Remember what I said about Last Raven Portable? I don’t take it back, it turns out that game is just dickishly hard. AC3 is a much more reasonable/satisfying game.

The Long Version-

So, a while back, I decided since I loved Armored Core: For Answer on the PS3 so much, I would get one of the portable AC games the Playstation Network had on offer. Going solely by the number of parts available and the assumption that the most recent spinoff of 3 would be the most polished, I went with Last Raven.

This was kind of a huge mistake. All the AC pilots you encounter are superhuman badasses who would probably still destroy you utterly even if they weren’t equipped with blatantly cheating parts, and the Arena is similarly, but not as bastardly difficult in that I can actually clear a few ranks in it. LR seems to assume that you’re already intimately familiar with the game’s ins and outs, and it probably doesn’t hurt to begin the game by converting the save from a prior game, either.

Yet, dammit, I wanted a mech game on the go. After a few too many Youtube videos and scrutinizing reviews, I finally decided to give AC3P a try- the ur-game of the Portable Armored Cores (which oddly exclude AC: Nexus- bad reception from fans?)

I’ll just say it up front this time- AC3 is probably one of my favorite PSP games now. It’s sitting on my memory stick alongside Yggdra Union and Z.H.P (as well as Last Raven, but mrrr), and it’s been weeks since I actually loaded the UMD game also in the system. (I think I was giving Riviera a replay, but it doesn’t have GIANT ROBOTS!1) The mission maps and overall presentation feel a lot more solid, and somehow even when you are stuck replaying a mission on a recycled map, it doesn’t feel too terribly rehashed because the objectives vary so much. Rather than the typical seek and destroy and escort missions that most mech games revolve around, AC3 mixes things up nicely with lots of infiltration-based missions (You’ll be spending a lot of time running around corridors in large complexes rather than circle strafing things in the desert for 15 minute stretches, for example), and even one mission where one of the companies hire you to help test guided missile systems by making yourself a living target dummy. That said, you WILL be doing plenty of destroy-all-enemy scenarios and escort missions. Just to remind you that you are, in fact playing a mech simulator.

Story-wise, the game takes place in the underground city called Layered. Peoples’ day-to-day lives are guided in nearly all aspects by a supercomputer called The Controller (or DOVE in Japan), and the more direct face of oppression are three corporations vying for power and control of the city, not particularly caring if anyone is caught in the crossfire. But even they bow before The Controller, since it basically keeps Layered habitable, and you don’t want to screw with a HAL-9000 wannabe whose duties seem to include summoning rainstorms underground and making sure a sector of the city remains a designated ‘Wasteland.’ Unfortunately, over time it starts to become apparent that giving a computer total control is a really bad idea, and it falls to you to take down the Controller- whatever that may mean for those who have depended on it all their lives.

Here’s basically why this game clicked for me so solidly; It’s basically Shadowrun with giant robots. Corporations hire skilled mercenary pilots (Ravens) to do their dirty work for them while appearing outwardly legit. In some cases you’re even encouraged to involve civilians to undermine people’s confidence in their rival Corporation. You’re encouraged to be as efficient as possible, since every round of ammo and every tick of damage you take comes out of your final reward for the mission, and you want that sweet, sweet cash for upgrading and customizing your Armored Core. AC’s are built around a Core (duh), available in Overboost (capable of short bursts of high speed movement, with an anti missile laser built in the chest) and Exceed Orbit (removed the features of the other and replaces them with floating, auto-firing gun drones) varieties. From there, there are various types of arms, legs, heads and boosters you can equip, as well as more ‘subtle’ parts that really let you tweak the machine to your tastes. FCS let you change the size and shape of your targeting reticle, as well as how many targets it can lock onto at once, and you’ll find that your generator and cooling abilities make as much of a difference in your customization choices as what weapons you equip. You’ll be doing a lot of part swapping on the fly, as missions dictate, but you can save up to 5 preset AC’s in your Garage to speed things up a bit. There’s also a new game+ reward Optional Part, but you’ll still need to pull off a few tricky feats to fully unlock its broken-ness.

Since this is the Internet, though, I suppose I should start piling on the negatives here. The game does have something of a learning curve, and all it gives you in the way of a ‘tutorial’ is literally air-dropping you into a hostile area without so much as a chance to see or customize the controls- which you in all likelihood will want to do. (see prior article for the defaults- I wound up adopting a pseudo-dual analog scheme using the nub to move and face buttons for camera, mapping boosters to L and my gun to R)

I strongly recommend seeing how far you can get in the Arena before starting missions, so you have some prize money to blow on new upgrades, as well as get a feel for combat. Missions are done on a sort of ‘no second chances’ basis, in that failing advances a ‘timeline’ of events and you still get charged for your wasted ammunition. Fail too many times and the mission is no longer available, though some have a smaller window than others. And if you completely suck, you can actually be fired as a Raven and given a proper Game Over.

Another pretty major issue is probably just one that other games spoil me with- your mapping abilities. Only some sensor setups allow a proper map, and even then, you have to pause, load a 3-D map of the area, rotate it around, zoom out enough to see if a target marker is nearby, then try to figure out again, where you are and what way you’re facing. There is a TARGET arrow that appears over objectives… when you’re already close enough to have seen them, and sometimes you aren’t even given one of those, which means you can be running around in circles like a jackass, blasting things at random until your operator says “Ok, good enough.” Better radar or a ‘compass’ a la Fallout 3/NV would make things a lot easier.

If you’re a mecha nut like me or like a game with a lot of customization to it, AC3 will suit you well. Its difficulty level is a lot more uh, sane than that of Last Raven for a portable system, since they didn’t make many concessions for the PSP being an ergonomic nightmare. (most of my heated sessions would end when my left thumb pretty much went completely stiff from the ‘nub’ while trying a lot of fancy manuevers.)

As a final note- I seem to basically be playing the series backwards, as rooting around in the closet yielded the barely-touched copy of Armored Core 2 I found in a bargain bin back in the olden days of EB Games. 3 seems to hit a sweet spot for me, but 4A still has the most ‘friendly’ control setup and the setpiece battles are damned impressive.