Okay, before I kick things off I wanna address something. I get the feeling the dudes who gave this game a bad review (I.E. the 4 and FA veterans) played the game for all of an hour or two, then quit. This game is NOTHING like the previous AC games in that gameplay is based around running, gunning, flying, and fast finger work. VD forces the player to actually stop, assess the situationOkay, before I kick things off I wanna address something. I get the feeling the dudes who gave this game a bad review (I.E. the 4 and FA veterans) played the game for all of an hour or two, then quit. This game is NOTHING like the previous AC games in that gameplay is based around running, gunning, flying, and fast finger work. VD forces the player to actually stop, assess the situation and plan an attack that'll dispatch the enemies while you take minimal damage, your skill as a pilot is determined in how effectively you can deal with these enemies while taking as few hits and staying as unpredictable as possible. You gotta be smart and skilled if you wanna take on the monstrosities from software left waiting for you in this game considering everything you face has the real threat of killing you in a matter of seconds depending on how your AC is built.
Story wise, it's pretty simple, if not lacking. There's 60 missions but only 10 of them actually show progress in the story, the rest are filler to unlock the real story missions. That's not to say they aren't easy or interesting, most of them are gonna be fighting another AC, and if you're not careful they can just as easily mop the floor with you as you can to some of them. The real story missions however, are an utter joy to play, they either introduce some cool new AC to fight against, or an army of allies to back you up against impossible odds. It gets crazy pretty fast, but that shouldn't be anything new to you by the time you reach mission 3.
Customization's been completely overhauled too, making literally every part bolted on your AC an integral part that can be possibly crippling to the mech if so much as one part doesn't suit your combat style. For example in my history of AC, I've never actually spent a good 5 minutes seriously contemplating which FCS to equip, since each one has a dramatically different setup, making the one that suited me that much harder to figure out. Back in 4 and FA it felt like the smaller parts were...well smaller in that they weren't as important, sure FCS dictated range for lock-on and all, but VD feels much more refined in that the FCS, generator and even the boosters split up in three different types makes perfect sense, hell it's necessary to figure out how each one works if you wanna build the perfect AC. An interesting design choice though is that there aren't anymore back-mounted weapons or radar, instead there can be 2 sets of handheld weapons while radar and stuff is built in the head, making them that much more important. The game also gives an interesting value to legs never really seen before, in that reverse-jointed mechs can jump better and are more stable, while tank legs don't require the mech to stop and enter a sniping mode for the heavier-duty weapons like auto cannons and enormous howitzers. The parts all just come together better to make up the AC, it gives me a genuine sense of pride every time I see the mech I spent hours and hours tuning and setting up to make sure it perfectly suits me, right down to my emblem.
Then the gameplay just makes everything feel so real. It feels to me like one of the most realistic attempts every made at a mech combat game, right down that loud echo whenever you fire a rifle. Sure flying's out, which makes the new mechanic of wall jumping that much more important to getting out of a hairy situation quickly instead of just relying on quick boosting your way out. Another addition is scan mode, which lets you analyze an enemy mech and check out which of your weapons'll hurt them most. It adds to the strategic value of the game, making it feel realistic. There isn't a whole lot of realism in just flying in guns blazing, wiping out everything and anyone to me.
Yes, there are problems. The main colors for every background is either brown or grey, and the graphics are PS2 era, which I'm assuming is to reduce lag. And this game is brutal on newcomers, considering the menus take getting used to, and they start you off with an AC chock full of junk parts. I'm not even gonna go into how complicated it is to program the UNAC drones either, since I still can't figure it out after months of playing! Thank god they have pre-set ones that are pretty good at what they were designed for. But anyone who digs mechs should give this game a chance, it may seem dated in some regions, but the charm of the game more than makes up for it. I feel a genuine sense of giddiness every time I sent my mech into battle, laughing like a madman while jumping past barrage after barrage, turning every mech on the map into a smoking crater.… Expand
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