Multiplayer is enjoyable enough for the key excuse of showing off the NEXT design you worked so hard on to other players (and there’s even a facility for trading designs – but sorry, this doesn’t mean you can use parts from other player’s designs that you haven’t unlocked yet), but beyond that, I find every match just degrades into a generic-feeling melee between a bunch of players. Even the team battles tend to get a bit boring, leaving me wishing they had effort into some more creative and abstract gameplay modes. Considering how Chrome Hounds from the same company turned out, I was hoping for something with a little more tactical slant to it.

For those who have purchased every game released in the series to date, there really isn’t anything I can say that would stop you from purchasing this latest game; nor should there be anything. Quite simply, this game succeeds in doing what every other game in the series has done by carrying on the same basic gameplay formula and tweaking it enough to keep things interesting. While the cramped, short missions and extensive load times give the impression that the developer has about hit the limit on what it can do with this game engine, the game is otherwise an Armored Core title through and through.

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you .