In 2096, mankind has hardly evolved past its need for expansion and territorial control. Wars are still fought on a regular basis, the differing factions and mega-powers are at each other’s threats, and everyone has their own little political agenda. However, a new form of combat vehicle has been introduced to augment the standard tank, infantry, and aircraft approaches to warfare: “Wanzers”. Tall, humanoid machines capable of wielding a vast array of devastating weapons, yet also allowing for enough maneuverability to enable unsurpassed effectiveness in open-ended or urban terrain far superior to that all other vehicles. After all, to quote an old Battletech passage, how often do you see a regular tank jump up and down on another tank after filling it full of holes? Put in less elaborate terms, Wanzers are your basic cliché anime-styled giant robots (though slightly less cliché than most, thanks to a gritty, realistic artistic approach), and it’s these giant robots that Front Mission 4, Square Enix’s latest foray into the turn-based strategy genre focuses around.

Taking place a few years after Front Mission 3, FM4 actually covers two separate storylines that, while taking place in the same time period (even relative to one another – during the campaign, there are occasional references to events that have occurred in the other part of the plot as the game advances and significant stuff happens), actually occur in two totally different locations. The first shows us Elsa, a Wanzer pilot from the French army who has just signed up for a new tactics research division calling itself “Durandal”. A German base has been brutally assaulted and overrun by unknown aggressors (as portrayed in the absolutely awesome intro movie), and the Durandal are quickly recruited by the E.C. (European Community) to assist their German allies in trying to uncover who attacked the base, and why. Meanwhile, in distant Venezuela, the U.C.S. (United Continental States – basically a larger version of the United States of present day) are currently engaged in a fierce liberation war against one Governor Diaz, who has attempted to secede from the U.C.S. alliance and is trying to go independent. On the ass end of the conflict are Darril, Renges, and Chaeffer, three U.C.S. soldiers who don’t really have an interest in the conflict and just want to go home. Things take a turn for the better when, while out on patrol, they witness a plane crash nearby, and upon investigating discover a huge stash of gold that could change their lives forever – if they can find a way to get it out of Venezuela. While the two storylines are almost totally separate from each other (some crossing over occurs later on in the game, however), the game simply takes a coffee break from one part of the story every few missions to advance the other element. This process gets a little jarring initially (especially when you constantly have to re-adjust to a totally different set of equipment and pilots), but is a novel way of telling a story that I don’t see very often and is quite well executed in Front Mission 4.

Being part of the turn-based strategy genre, FM4 is actually far more than a basic “move here, shoot this, end turn” kind of game, as any fan of Front Mission 3 will attest to. The gameplay revolves around two stages; preparation, and blowing stuff up. In the former element, the player has a chance to interact with various characters in the game in a somewhat limited manner (the game basically moves from scene to scene, with the player chatting people up just by going to “Talk” and selecting someone from a list), which basically fleshes out the storyline and keeps the player clearly appraised of current events (in a much better manner than Front Mission 3, thanks to some vastly improved dialogue scripting and more believable characters that actually make sense in English). When not doing this, the player has access to facilities for modifying his team. While Front Mission 4’s gameplay has a big lean on tactics, properly equipping one’s squad is more than half the battle, and there is a lot of equipment to choose from. Actually, modifying the configuration of a Wanzer almost has an Armored Core feeling to it, since there are several dozen segments to customize for a mixed-n-matched hybrid that nowhere near resembles its original specs.

Sure, your top Wanzer might look menacing with two grenade launchers on each shoulder, a high-powered machinegun on one hand, and the other arm replaced with an integrated missile pack, but all of these tools have a cost – not only in credits (accumulated by doing missions, both real and simulated), but also in overall weight and power ratings. A given Wanzer has a limited amount of equipment it can stomp around with, depending on its torso type and certain potential backpacks. Choosing a different “body” type for your Wanzer will have the biggest impact on your W / P indicator (Weight / Power), though a body with a huge amount of power output may also have detrimental stats – it might have a low number of hitpoints, or it might put a huge dent in your Wanzer’s “Evade” percentage – the number that determines how likely your Wanzer is to suddenly dodge when an enemy attacks, effectively causing him to miss. Different arms can also be chosen, which can have bonus accuracy modifiers for any hand-held weapon placed on that arm, as well as differing hitpoints and weight requirements (some aren’t even arms, but are integrated weapons by themselves). Finally, legs determine how far a Wanzer can move in a single turn, and also have a big impact on evasion percentage – there are even different types of legs, such as a 4-legged spider design, or even just a hover platform for the Wanzer to float on.

But getting into the actual weapons, there are a large number of destructive implements to choose from, and all with differing abilities, statistics, and damage types. Shotguns fire off a spread of projectiles that usually damage all components on an enemy Wanzer equally, but are fairly close range. Machineguns function better at longer ranges, but cost more action points to fire. Sniper rifles have incredible range and damage potential, but only fire a single shot and have an elevated AP cost (and also take both of a Wanzer’s arms to wield – if the supporting arm is destroyed, accuracy basically drops by half), while melee weapons only function at point blank range, yet are extremely cheap AP-wise to use and can really knock the hell out of somebody. Bazookas are another long-ranged weapon (and also take both arms to carry) that actually do secondary damage after the initial explosion, but also suffer from terrible accuracy. For the defensive player, shields can be selected as “weapons” to be used to absorb damage, or even in some circumstances be used as a weapon with certain battle skills. Finally, there are three types of shoulder-mounted weapons that can be used for support purposes, including missile launchers, rocket launchers, and grenade launchers - basically indirect fire weapons with an incredibly huge range and destructive potential (some even do splash damage to all units near the impact zone), but a high AP cost and very limited ammo. Yes, unlike previous games in the series, Front Mission 4 now keeps track of ammunition for all units. While most machinegun / shotgun groups won’t have to worry about a spray-and-pray policy for a quick mission, longer scenarios will force players to pick their fights more carefully and try to ensure enemy targets go down with a minimum of effort and expenditure.

Fortunately, there are a new array of backpacks to help offset this. Backpacks are portable add-ons that can be placed onto a Wanzer to expand its capabilities. These can be simple item backpacks to store additional ammo packs, repair kits, and other tools, or elaborate kits that they effectively turn Wanzers into their own unique classes, such as the incredibly handy repair backpack, which can repair damaged parts and even restore destroyed components (but not downed Wanzers), but takes up so much weight that the equipping Wanzer basically has to be stripped of most of its other weapons and be reduced to a back-of-the-line “medic” class before the thing can be mounted. There are also several other totally unique backpack types, such as EMP packs (which can be used to disable an enemy Wanzer’s systems for a number of turns, and even prevent it from attacking), sensor packs, which work together with a guided missile launcher from another Wanzer to boost its range, jetpacks, to allow Wanzers to scale walls and cross obstacles with ease, and radio packs, which call in airstrikes and supply drops a limited number of times during a mission. Between all the different parts, weapons, and backpacks, trying to set up the perfect Wanzer from scratch can almost be overwhelming at first, but paranoid players will be relived to know that it is fully possible to get through the game by just upgrading the basic components, with a complete Wanzer overhaul never being necessary. And yet still, there is more than enough room for hardcore players to improve their experience by totally changing each and every aspect of their entire team to suit their play style (like, say, a team of crazed zergrushing psycho-Wanzers armed to the teeth with dual melee weapons that simply surround an enemy and pummel him to pieces), so everyone is pretty much covered. Wanzer customization gets cooler still, however, with the ability to modify paint jobs (admittedly from a pre-set selection of textures and hues, with no direct RGB modification) and even give them names. Definitely a lot of room for personalization here.

But Wanzer customization can only take you so far; it’s the pilots that truly matter. Unlike Front Mission 3, spending crazy amounts of time in the “Simulator” area won’t actually have a drastic impact on your combat capabilities, though it can certainly make enough of a difference to raise some eyebrows. The different playable characters in the game all have basic experience levels, which, for once, don’t actually have an obvious effect. Aside from some potential offensive and defensive bonuses (relating to some weapons and dodging abilities, perhaps), getting a “Level Up” does not actually mean that your character just became more uber. No, in fact, an increase in a pilot’s combat capabilities must be implemented by spending “EPs” in the Pilot Setup dialogue. Using this, pilots can be upgraded to gain access to a number of passive and active skills, such as the ability to fire two dual-wielded weapons at the same time in a single attack move, or use a sniper rifle to focus on a specific part of an enemy Wanzer, rather than just randomly targeting something. Some abilities also increase the pilot’s ability to evade or gain priority on who shoots first when two Wanzers square off against each other (“Speed”), while another increases the “Skill Points” amount, allowing for more purchased combat skills to actually be selected and usable by the pilot during a mission. EPs can also be spent to buy tree upgrades, which basically move that pilot further on through his or her relevant skill tree to gain better ass-kicking abilities, but the real versatility comes much later on in the game, where it’s actually possible to spend cash to buy entire custom skill sets for specific characters (so a specialized missile man can be transformed into an ass-kicking shotgun freak), which can then be set up by splurging those EPs you’ve saved up. Neat! One little carry-over that Front Mission 3 fans will recognize, but others may find annoying is that the chance of setting off a “combat” skill (the ones that trigger during a battle scene for increased damage or special attacks) is still totally and completely random, with the player having little control over when they are triggered or which ones are set off. Given the way the game is balanced, I can’t really think of a better way to handle this kind of thing, but some people might have trouble wrapping their brains around the thought of investing points into battle skills that act as more of an unexpected bonus than something that could actually be directly used to turn a battle around.

Once an actual battle gets under way, the real meat of the game comes into focus. Mission environments are all based on tiles, which are used to determine exact movement position and firing ranges. The player takes his turn first, and then the enemy does the same, with each team trying to make the most out of their limited supply of action points for each pilot, which are only replaced once the next turn rolls around. Action points are used to fire weapons (some weapons can cost a lot more AP to fire than others) and move (AP cost for movement will vary based on the terrain type, so trying to slog through water will really impede motion, while charging through an urban city environment will offer the best movement-to-AP ratio), although there’s an interesting twist to the “shoot” thing. Some weapons, specifically machineguns and shotguns have the ability to fire twice from a single attack command. This effect is automatic and uses up double the AP, but can really give an edge in battle. However, there is still a firm reason not to blow all of a Wanzer’s action points in a single move, since leftover APs can actually be used to initiate a counter-attack while the enemy is performing its move. Wanzers can move, then attack in a single turn, but not vice-versa, so choose your orders wisely. The gameplay mechanics to combat are pretty straightforward, and the game even offers over a dozen tutorials to get players oriented with every aspect of how to fight properly.

One totally new concept introduced to battles that Front Mission 3 did not have are “links”. After investing EPs in the appropriate skill sets, it is possible to set up a pilot with “links” to other pilots in the team. There are two kinds of links, attack, and defensive. Attack links basically mean that when that specific pilot performs an attack move, if the friendly Wanzer he is linked to is nearby and has sufficient AP remaining, he will execute an attack on an enemy at the same time as your current pilot, which can often lead to insanely devastating assaults. Meanwhile, defensive links are a sort of augmentation to the standard counter-attack recipe and will cause any linked squad members to automatically return fire on any enemy attacking the current Wanzer. There is a lot more to the linking system that allows for a huge amount of versatility in how attacks are pulled off (setting up a recurring attack link between two or three melee-oriented Wanzers and then surrounding an enemy can allow you to easily pummel the poor bastard to death in a single turn, for example), and this little aspect alone affords the game a lot of replayability, just from trying to figure out all the different cool link combos you can get going and maintain. I found few things more immensely satisfying about Front Mission 4 than witnessing a perfectly executed chain of attacks occur all from moving one Wanzer into position and issuing an attack order. Thumbs up for an interesting new way to pump a little fresh spice into the standard turn-based strategy formula.