Would like to get this game, need some general info.

[Foxxy kyle]

Just wondering how you guys feel about the game and whether or not I should Buy it, Rent it, Or pass.

[Mercury]

Two days ago I would have said rent. Now I just voted "buy." Today, I joined a 20-man clan (the max you can have), where our team level is at 151 (and rising quickly). Let me break it down a bit.

The game is always online (I wouldn't know what happens if you have no internet connection). Your clan is always posted on the right side of the screen. In my clan, there are always at least 4-6 people on; at one point, we had 13 people on.

Now, when you start the game up, you are at this big world map. All your clan members who are not on a mission are able to talk (basically a huge party chat). This might seem like a problem (13 people trying to talk at the same time), but it's actually fucking awesome and quite coherent. From this world map, there are many options. You can run story missions alone or with a clan-mate or mercenary. You can run "order" missions, which are small side missions (which get a lot harder over time) that you can run with the same options (alone or with someone).

When you select a mission, your clan is notified with a "Rendevous with 00" - 00 being your internal clan designation. Moreover, you can run large territory missions with up to 5 players: 4 combatants and 1 on overwatch, who can spot enemies for the people playing. Finally, you can battle other clans for ownership over a piece of land in a territory; once you own enough of those, you can own the entire territory. So basically, it's like taking over cities in a state to control the entire state. Everybody online sees this. You can either choose to attack or defend these areas.

Every mission you complete adds to your team score. So essentially, you are always improving. Now, that's just the multiplayer. Wait until you try customizing your mech. It's fucking sweet as well. So many options, so much detail. It's insane. Fuck renting this game, you'll keep it for too long IMO.

End game review.... I could have gone for another 3 paragraphs about customization.

[Worhammer]

Originally Posted by Mercury

Two days ago I would have said rent. Now I just voted "buy." Today, I joined a 20-man clan (the max you can have), where our team level is at 151 (and rising quickly). Let me break it down a bit.

The game is always online (I wouldn't know what happens if you have no internet connection). Your clan is always posted on the right side of the screen. In my clan, there are always at least 4-6 people on; at one point, we had 13 people on.

Now, when you start the game up, you are at this big world map. All your clan members who are not on a mission are able to talk (basically a huge party chat). This might seem like a problem (13 people trying to talk at the same time), but it's actually fucking awesome and quite coherent. From this world map, there are many options. You can run story missions alone or with a clan-mate or mercenary. You can run "order" missions, which are small side missions (which get a lot harder over time) that you can run with the same options (alone or with someone).

When you select a mission, your clan is notified with a "Rendevous with 00" - 00 being your internal clan designation. Moreover, you can run large territory missions with up to 5 players: 4 combatants and 1 on overwatch, who can spot enemies for the people playing. Finally, you can battle other clans for ownership over a piece of land in a territory; once you own enough of those, you can own the entire territory. So basically, it's like taking over cities in a state to control the entire state. Everybody online sees this. You can either choose to attack or defend these areas.

Every mission you complete adds to your team score. So essentially, you are always improving. Now, that's just the multiplayer. Wait until you try customizing your mech. It's fucking sweet as well. So many options, so much detail. It's insane. Fuck renting this game, you'll keep it for too long IMO.

End game review.... I could have gone for another 3 paragraphs about customization.

Couldn't had said it better myself.

[Foxxy kyle]

Originally Posted by Mercury

Two days ago I would have said rent. Now I just voted "buy." Today, I joined a 20-man clan (the max you can have), where our team level is at 151 (and rising quickly). Let me break it down a bit.

The game is always online (I wouldn't know what happens if you have no internet connection). Your clan is always posted on the right side of the screen. In my clan, there are always at least 4-6 people on; at one point, we had 13 people on.

Now, when you start the game up, you are at this big world map. All your clan members who are not on a mission are able to talk (basically a huge party chat). This might seem like a problem (13 people trying to talk at the same time), but it's actually fucking awesome and quite coherent. From this world map, there are many options. You can run story missions alone or with a clan-mate or mercenary. You can run "order" missions, which are small side missions (which get a lot harder over time) that you can run with the same options (alone or with someone).

When you select a mission, your clan is notified with a "Rendevous with 00" - 00 being your internal clan designation. Moreover, you can run large territory missions with up to 5 players: 4 combatants and 1 on overwatch, who can spot enemies for the people playing. Finally, you can battle other clans for ownership over a piece of land in a territory; once you own enough of those, you can own the entire territory. So basically, it's like taking over cities in a state to control the entire state. Everybody online sees this. You can either choose to attack or defend these areas.

Every mission you complete adds to your team score. So essentially, you are always improving. Now, that's just the multiplayer. Wait until you try customizing your mech. It's fucking sweet as well. So many options, so much detail. It's insane. Fuck renting this game, you'll keep it for too long IMO.

End game review.... I could have gone for another 3 paragraphs about customization.

Seems nice. Never played any of the previous games before but it looks pretty sweet. But do you think the community will stay with it for long? Or will the community only be there for a few months and then die off?

[Mercury]

Originally Posted by Foxxy kyle

Seems nice. Never played any of the previous games before but it looks pretty sweet. But do you think the community will stay with it for long? Or will the community only be there for a few months and then die off?

Long time. All that stuff I mentioned resets after a while. And there are achievements related to it. (Edit: First reset is happening March 28th, so everybody will have a chance at claiming areas).

Many people in my clan have said this reminds them of how Chromehounds worked, and they aren't going anywhere. I personally know I'll be playing this game for a loooong time, until the next AC comes out and replaces this system. Only thing I could wish for is more parts for my mech.

[Worhammer]

Originally Posted by Mercury

Long time. All that stuff I mentioned resets after a while. And there are achievements related to it. (Edit: First reset is happening March 28th, so everybody will have a chance at claiming areas).

Many people in my clan have said this reminds them of how Chromehounds worked, and they aren't going anywhere. I personally know I'll be playing this game for a loooong time, until the next AC comes out and replaces this system. Only thing I could wish for is more parts for my mech.

Yeah I'm a little disappointed myself in the mech parts department. You get the widest variety at Team Level 50 (which is pretty easy to get....) and the selection is lacking compared to previous games in the series.

[Foxxy kyle]

Sounds good. And the game looks pretty sweet. I will definitively look into buying the game. Little short on cash right now between gas prices, and insurance, and being a student. Good thing my parents pay for gamefly .

EDIT: By the way, thanks for the responses. Very helpful

[the real a 0bsolete]

i bought it, and i am not disappointed one bit.

[DJH4311]

Big fan of the AC games, have been since the demo of the first one came out on demo disc 13 of the PSOne games mag back in the late 90's (think I was nine lol). Glad to see a return to the original feel of the series, although I will admit that 4 and FA were a fun kind of intense for me. AC3 was easily the game I spent most of the time on, and AC5 plays a lot more like that, easily a win for me lol.

The perpetual on-line multi-player is interesting, though any new players will have a hard time breaking into the conquest unless they start talking to any mercenaries they've hired. I've met a few, and joined a merc's team to give us a grand total of two "7th Battalion", if anyone is interested in getting started.

There is a point that I'm wondering about, that I haven't been able to find any info on yet;

1st up, is the "Ineffective" icon that pops up, I'm guessing that this is related to target armour, and that you need to break though? I've noticed that my weapons tend to start doing damage after a few shots from a high power sniper rifle I keep on my hanger. I've seen a particle explosion, and I'm guessing there is a collaboration between the two.

And are the Gatling Guns worth their weight? I'm always a fan of the KE weapons in the AC games, Gatling Guns usually being my staple next to missiles. But most of the enemies I'm fighting tend to be able to render them useless thanks to the "ineffective" quandary.

[Shinobi273]

The x360a review ripped it a new one. http://www.xbox360achievements.org/g...core-5/review/

[the real a 0bsolete]

Originally Posted by Shinobi273

The x360a review ripped it a new one. http://www.xbox360achievements.org/g...core-5/review/

none of the other AC games got very high ratings either. you either like the series or you don't

[the real a 0bsolete]

1. i have never noticed the "ineffective" icon, but different weapons (ke, ce, te) have resistances based on the armor the enemy has. for example if you are fighting a mech with high KE resistance, a KE weapon will do very little damage.

2. the gatling guns are great in story mode. not too sure about MP b/c i don't play it very much. the USG-23/H absolutely destroys weaker enemies and ac's that have weak KE resistance

[Foxxy kyle]

Originally Posted by Shinobi273

The x360a review ripped it a new one. http://www.xbox360achievements.org/g...core-5/review/

I usually dont follow them to much anyway. Some of them they give are just such a ridiculous rating. And some them I think are biased, like The kinect Star Wars review. I saw so many negative comments about it from staff members from the site before it even came out, I think they had it in their mind that the were going to rate it bad even before the played it (Not trying to bash you or anything as being a mod). And they don't average all the scores together to give the final score. Which is silly. I prefer user reviews and I takes bits and pieces from what people say and decide whether to play it or not.

[Dervius]

The "Ineffective" is as you thought, an indication that the enemies armour is deflecting most of your weapons damage, however I have sene the same particle explosion so perhapos these resistances have vertain limits where they can completely ignore damage and the n after that they take a reduced damage level?

The Gatling guns at this point are one of the most overpowered weapons in the game, the higher power gatlings have the same damage as the higher end rifles, weigh roughly the same and have similar ranges yet fire massively faster, this barrage of mid range damage (resistances or not) devastates most enemies online or off. So yes they are worth it, although I use them begrudlingly.

Beware however we are currently on the 1.01 version of the game, the japanese servers have recently moved on to the 1.03 version where there are a number of changes regarding weapons that may well change the balance of the game.

Personally I'm a fan of the high power, high capacity laser rifles, noone seems to have high TE defense because of the popularity of KE gatlings and CE battle rifles.

[Dervius]

This game is a definite buy, you'll spend more time figuring this one out than you will 1King a modern shooter, and then it gets good.

Value for money I say.

[DJH4311]

I've been using the sniper cannons of late, as I am currently 7th Battalion's main sniper unit, (shameless plug :P) The particle explosion has occurred a few times when I've hit a number of tank ACs, didn't have time to test whether or not this breached their armour for lower power weapons, but I suppose there is always something we could put together to test this out.

[DarkReign2021]

I haven't liked an Armored Core game since the early PS2 titles and I've always preferred games like Mechassault, Mechwarrior, Phantom Crash, and Chromehounds, but with the lack of mech games this generation and the last decent one being Front Mission Evolved. Since this one seems to be a lot like Chromehounds in design, I'll have to check this out when I have the cash. Is the customization like AC where you can stack weapons on weapons and customize weapon inputs?

[Shinobi273]

Originally Posted by DarkReign2021

I haven't liked an Armored Core game since the early PS2 titles and I've always preferred games like Mechassault, Mechwarrior, Phantom Crash, and Chromehounds, but with the lack of mech games this generation and the last decent one being Front Mission Evolved. Since this one seems to be a lot like Chromehounds in design, I'll have to check this out when I have the cash. Is the customization like AC where you can stack weapons on weapons and customize weapon inputs?

Oh God Mechassault? No. Mechwarrior? More please.

I only played AC4 and that one didn't have stacking weapons like Chromehounds. Compared to AC4, the gameplay is very similar. Changes to ACs include: Switching on the fly hangar weapons without purging, heavy weapons require no movement and enter a special stance, no more flight ACs, shoulder weapons are single only (makes controls easier), much longer story missions similar to CH but longer, Order missions are much like AC4 missions and data packs.

AC designing is very similar to AC4, you have two hands, two hangars, and a shoulder weapon/equipment. You no longer need to balance weight on the AC and the 'point' system (FRS) for customizing ACs is also gone. One significant change to AC5 is a callback to CH with KE (Kinetic), CE (Chemical/HEAT), and TE (Thermal/energy) damage and armor. Being weak in one of the 3 makes the corresponding weapon effective against you. All the energy weapons got rolled in to TE damage so I imagine online will have all 3 unlike CH where everyone ran CE.

Definately don't pay full price for this. You can check youtube on what it looks like. It is a heavy wrencher game where you are going to spend hours tweaking your AC. Still no retry or restart from the mission score screen. They make the missions so hard but make you go through all the screens to make another run.

[DarkReign2021]

Originally Posted by Shinobi273

Oh God Mechassault? No. Mechwarrior? More please.

I only played AC4 and that one didn't have stacking weapons like Chromehounds. Compared to AC4, the gameplay is very similar. Changes to ACs include: Switching on the fly hangar weapons without purging, heavy weapons require no movement and enter a special stance, no more flight ACs, shoulder weapons are single only (makes controls easier), much longer story missions similar to CH but longer, Order missions are much like AC4 missions and data packs.

AC designing is very similar to AC4, you have two hands, two hangars, and a shoulder weapon/equipment. You no longer need to balance weight on the AC and the 'point' system (FRS) for customizing ACs is also gone. One significant change to AC5 is a callback to CH with KE (Kinetic), CE (Chemical/HEAT), and TE (Thermal/energy) damage and armor. Being weak in one of the 3 makes the corresponding weapon effective against you. All the energy weapons got rolled in to TE damage so I imagine online will have all 3 unlike CH where everyone ran CE.

Definately don't pay full price for this. You can check youtube on what it looks like. It is a heavy wrencher game where you are going to spend hours tweaking your AC. Still no retry or restart from the mission score screen. They make the missions so hard but make you go through all the screens to make another run.

I liked Mechassault for the pacing. Faster mechs and a wide variety of mech types. The arcadey feel I didn't much care for though. Lack of customization and poorly-done story was what hurt the series I think. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it and feel it had the potential to pull itself out of the hole it dug with the right developers.

I'll definitely have to check this out though. I don't really want to spend hours tweaking my mech in every little way like I have to do cars in Gran Turismo and Forza, but I would think this wouldn't be that complicated anyway.

[Mc1ovin11]

I rented this game after a friend recommended it,he is a fan of the series whilst i have never played a mech game at all and for that reason i would say only buy this game if you are a fan of the series or the genre-i just couldn't get on with it.Its visually poor graphics wise and i found it tiresome and tbh dull.Sorry Mech-fans just giving my opinion and trying to give balance to the feedback for the OP.

[xionteikiatsu]

I won't be picking it up if getting 1000/1000 isn't remotely feasible. Single player difficulty is a non-issue unless a problematic achievement is really THAT hard.

How troublesome are the online-only achievements? I saw that there was an offline alternative to obtain Ruler, which helps. Is Overlord as much of a pain in the ass as I think it is? What about the invasion/conquest/territory stuff? The mercenary ones SEEM easy enough... I have a single friend with the game, so I'm imagining we can boost these with each other.

In fact, I did play a little on his game, but couldn't really find a way to buy better parts other than the single upgrades offered in the shop. I'm assuming more are unlocked as Story/Order missions are completed? What exactly does buying workshops do? I'm a fan of heavy firepower and huge damage, is additional weapon load really worth it once I start getting higher end parts, or is a high-mobility bipedal the way to go as usual? Are all the quad legs ugly as sin? I was kind of hoping for a sleek set of legs more comparable to a spider than a horse, haha~

Anything else achievement-related(obtainability-wise) that I should know about? Apologies for having so many questions, but I'd like to have a good idea of what I'm getting into before I delve too deep and screw up my chance of 100% completion ratio. Thanks in advance.

[Shinobi273]

I have the full 1000, getting the territories can be difficult (possibly the easiest and most difficult at the same time). The way the game is set up, territories don't change hands easily enough. Without a full team to grind with, it will be so slow going you should just quit. Like the thread mentioned, if you find a team with all the territories already, it's an instant unlock with no work.

New equipment/parts are mostly unlocked by gaining team levels with everything unlocked at level 50. The ultimate weapons are unlocked by completing the story and order missions. All of those are pretty much a walk in the park.

[Gaara NL]

Is this game more like armored core 4 or Armored Core for Answer?. I realy liked the last one but 4 was playing terible

[shinobigarth]

out of those i only played 4 and IMO it plays a lot better. i hated 4, they totally screwed up the HUD and added a bunch of unneccesary parts that made it more complicated than need be. the HUD in this game is ok, not as good as the PS2 games, but at least miles better than 4's. the gameplay itself is pretty good. i like how boost-moving doesnt use up energy at all, only when you "overboost", dash boost or etc. you can "skate" around with your jets without using energy.

they took out L and R shoulder weapons and made it into just 1 shoulder, which can either be something like rockets or missiles, or anti-missile, auto attack gun or whatever. i actually like this a lot, as i never ended up using back weapons much before, much less missiles or rockets. now you have your 2 main L and R weapons and 2 "bay" weapons which sorta replaced the back weapons, as you can switch between them at will. theres also an ultimate weapon slot which is a weapon you can only use once per mission but does insane damage.

overall i think its pretty good, definitely the best of this console generation (not of PS2 though).