July 17, 2006 - Ever since the days of the original PlayStation, the Armored Core series has been the perfect outlet for fans of robot battles. It borrows a lot from the Japanese anime culture and lets players everywhere live out their fantasy of piloting a giant robot. The series tries to emulate the feel of piloting a giant mech and trades fast-paced Gundam-style action for a more realistic approach. This kind of mech battle system struck a chord with fans everywhere and it’s only natural that From Software would churn out yet another sequel. Titled Last Raven, the latest Armored Core game pushes the Raven story forward in the last appearance of the series on the PS2.

Last Raven's story involves two main factions who are at war with each other. One of these factions is made up of three of the greatest companies on earth and it is called the Alliance. Its goal is to dominate the remaining Armored Core pilots called “Ravens” and just about everyone else. Meanwhile, a well-known Raven named “Jack-O” has created a faction called Vertex whose objective is to create a Utopia for Ravens. Players are then thrown into the middle of this feud and are forced to choose sides or do the dirty work of the highest bidder. Depending on the path taken, multiple missions and endings become available. The path itself also determines the identity of the final bosses; taking a particular one may make the game easier to complete than others. The game also has minor independent factions that may give you missions, but depending on whether or not you actually agree to take them, these may be wiped out at a certain point. Another feature is that players get mail from particular clients or other Ravens during the course of the story; unfortunately most of these e-mails are useless and it’s up to you to decide whether to read them or not.

Although the story may not be Last Raven’s strongest point, it is not the real reason for fans to buy this game. What Armored Core does offer is plenty of customization for your mechs. Every part of the mech, from head to legs, core, boosters, and weapons, can be replaced with different parts from the get-go. The game actually gives the player a few credits at the beginning to buy some new parts before the first mission. Every part costs credits and players can sell their current parts in order to help in purchasing new ones. There are also hidden parts around levels that must be found before they can be equipped, which are free of charge provided that you spend the time required to find them. Once you actually acquire your favorite part, there’s also a tuning function that allows players to tweak the parts in various ways such as weight, energy consumption and others, depending on which part is being tampered with.

The parts themselves are actually divided into categories but the game makes very little attempt to explain all of them. These include light parts for fast movement and heavy parts for higher health. On top of this, the robots can also be changed from bipeds to other variations, allowing players to change the standard two legs of the mech to tank bases, rocket-based levitating bases and others. Players also get a multitude of weapons that are either energy-based or utilize normal ammo. These include back mounted rockets, energy cannons, machine guns, pistols, sniper rifles, missile intercept beams and various other weapons. If that wasn’t enough, certain mech configurations allow you to have extra weapons inside the core and use the “hangar utility” to drop weapons and switch to a hidden pistol. Dropping other weapons that have run out of ammo reduces weight making your mech move faster. The game goes even as far as giving you the choice to equip dedicated radar in the back of the mech, or having built in radar inside the mech’s head. That of course may increase weight, energy consumption, and price for the head. The level of detail players have to cope with to make a decent robot is almost overwhelming and Last Raven is certainly no walk in the park.