Front Mission Evolved

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_Mission_Evolved

http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/216721/front-mission-evolved-review/

Has anyone tried this one out yet? It seems they tried to remake the "tactical combat RPG" of the classic Front Mission to be more like an Armored Core action/shooter.

Supposedly it was released into the NA/EU markets recently by SE, but developed by California-based Double Helix (the group that back-in-the-day did Earthworm Jim, Wild 9, Silent Hill: Homecoming, and a bunch of recent/goofy movie license games.) I want to like it (enough to try it out) because I like both the Front Mission and Armored Core series but just from the looks of it, it reminds me too much of that NCSoft title Exteel, which was nice but the gameplay wasn't so deep. :/

You could say the same about Front Mission Evolved honestly. It's nice but the gameplay isn't deep at all.

It's obvious the game was influenced by the TBS games of the series but it lacks a lot of the strategy in designing your Wanzers that the TBS games had.

Because you pilot your Wanzer and only your Wanzer, the links you could make in FM4 are gone. The Battle Skills remain but they don't seem to be all that important. In the TBS Front Mission games, when those things kicked on, it changed the entire battle. In FME they just don't feel all that important honestly. That pilots level is gone as well and instead you simply just upgrade your Wanzer as you progress through the story.

The game is a decent distraction from the main TBS series but I don't think it does the series justice at all. If Square-Enix wanted a good action Front Mission game, they should have done it themselves.

On the bright side, putting your Wanzer together is fun as well as choosing its arsenal.