Impression: Front Mission: Evolved [PS3]

Title: Front Mission Evolved
Developer: Double Helix Games
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PS3), XBOX 360, PC
Genre: Third person shooter
Release date: September 2010

Front Mission Evolved, the third game I bought to fill my post-honours time in Aussie. To be honest the only other Front Mission game I've ever played was Front Mission 4 back then on Playstation 2 platform. And that game left me with a great impression toward Front Mission series, despite having never played the rest of the series, partially because most of them weren't available on English. Hence I was pretty excited upon knowing that Front Mission Evolved got its English release PC, Xbox360 and PS3, and after watching the gameplay demo briefly, I decided to buy the game.

Having played the game for a few hours of missions, I'd say that my impression toward Front Mission Evolve...hasn't been that good.

Pros

• Great third-person shooter system. Overall the gameplay is nice, and since I just finished playing Vanquish, it doesn't took me long to get accustomed with FME's gameplay which feature similar third-person shooter system. There are two modes - wanzer and human-control mode. Both mode used the standard TPS system employed in many other TPS games. In wanzer mode, you can equip weapons in your left and right hand/shoulder along with utility backpack that provides various advantages like speed skating, storing item, and much more. Like in previous FM series, you can equip various weapons ranging from rifle, shotgun, and knuckles. While in human mode, you play like any other TPS games with no significant feature worthy to note. Nevertheless, after being so accustomed to the old Front Mission series, this kind of TPS system is really hard for me to gulp down...

• Great graphic and mecha design. The graphic and designs of wanzer in FM4 has already impressed me much, and it doesn't surprised me that this aspects were maintained at relatively high standards in FME. Environment interactions were realistic [poor those small cars getting thrashed], and the individual mecha custom parts were nicely designed. Unfortunately, the character design was subpar for my taste.

Front Mission Evolved gameplay

Cons

• Battle system - I personally much prefer the strategy turn-based system used in FM4, and although I don't mind the 3rd-PS system in FME, I just don't feel comfortable playing the game because, for some reason i just don't get this "feeling" of playing a Front Mission series [keep in mind that I've only played FM4 before]. Everything you do in battle depend on yourselves. You can't tactically set specialized units [long range rifle, melee, recon, missile wanzer] units together in a fight. Less teamwork, more raw individual [aka player] skills. Oh how I missed the old tactical role-playing system in previous Front Mission series.

• Biggest disappointment - character design. The 3D characters looked TOTALLY, and I mean totally different than what they looked in the manual, and it was a big turn off for me. No offense, it's just look plain stupid. Nevermind the semi-emo main character, Dylan Ramsey.

• Battle difficulty - I personally found the Normal mode was relatively hard and somehow frustrating, in particular when it comes to boss fights. Early in the game you got pitted in a painful 2v1 handicap boss fights, twice. As I said before, I'm not really good with 3rd-person shooter games so maybe this is just me. Added with the fact that I'm not enjoying the characters... Nevertheless, other people might be fine with the battle difficulty, considering the Wanzer was somewhat fun to control.

Overall, Front Mission Evolved feel pretty distant to me as I just can't get this feeling of playing a Front Mission series from this game. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay was great, but I'd rather the game stick with the old tactical RPG. Well, can't blame a spinoff game I guess. Graphic was neat, but IMO the characters were poorly designed. Fans of Front Mission series might get turned off by this spinoff, but it definitely doesn't hurt for those who like action game to try this game.


verdict: 6.5/10