The AC series is styling on PS2, but not much has changed since the original.

During the PlayStation era, From Software became a known developer early on for their work on the slow, but entertaining, King's Field series and the mech based combat title, Armored Core. In the following years, From Software continued to bring out new incarnations of Armored Core in the way of expansion packs, including Armored Core: Master of Arena and Armored Core: Project Phantasma. Neither changed the Armored Core style of gameplay, only adding new parts and features that would appease fans of the series. The strange thing is, despite Armored Core's continued success, is that From Software never created a full-fledged sequel - until now. The introduction of the PlayStation 2 and its powerful hardware, has made it fit for From Software to take their highlight series and bring it to the next level. It's 67 years after the events in Armored Core: Master of Arena, and now the main Raven operations has turned toward the red planet of our solar system, Mars. The corporations that so brutally battled each other for power and money have left Earth, now dazed and confused and attempting to recover from near eternal destruction, and are out to exploit the new opportunities that Mars possesses. You're a newcomer to the Raven group starting at the bottom of the totem pole, and will take much to prove yourself to both the corporations who create your paycheck, and to your fellow Ravens.

From the moment that the rendered introduction kicks in to the first time you enter the battlefield with a mech, Armored Core 2 is undoubtedly one of the most impressive PlayStation 2 titles out there. From Software has created a fast, great looking engine that has few hiccups, even when there are over seven enemies firing swarms of missiles and bullets all at the same time. The frame rate never drops to a noticeable point unless under extreme conditions, and the amount of detail seen in the mechs is unmatched. The animation found in the mechs as they glide through the air and collide with other buildings is realistic. At least, about as realistic as piloting such a giant robot should be. Similar to a few other PlayStation 2 titles, there are some odd times where Armored Core 2 will suddenly seem to drop down to a lower resolution and become incredibly pixelated for a few moments, making it hard to judge what's happening on-screen, before returning to normal.

Starting at the original Armored Core to the PlayStation 2 incarnation, there has been one problem that's still a hindering factor for the game: its control scheme. For one, and easily the worst of the bunch, is that aiming is handled through the use of the shoulder buttons. This was forgivable and even expected on the PlayStation because not all owners of the PlayStation had analog controllers, but with the PlayStation 2, it has manifests itself into one heck of an annoyance. There's simply too much of a learning curve in order to figure out how to properly move the 'aiming box' and keep the mech going in the desired direction. Not only this, but From Software included no analog support at all, which is incredibly puzzling; nigh all PS2 titles support analog, and in this case it hurts the most, since Armored Core 2 would gain much from the feature. Armored Core fans will be right at home with the control scheme, but newcomers could be easily pushed away from the game because of it.

Not much has changed in terms of single player in Armored Core 2, but From Software has added deleted and tweaked features all around. There's a plot line going on, but the heart of the game, as always, is creating the ultimate Armored Core and pitting it against the best opponents that Mars has to offer. In order to do this, though, there's the essential goal of earning cash to fund the efforts. There are two different ways to go about this. The most obvious is to complete the missions that are offered. Each mission is worth a certain amount of cash, and through completing the mission objectives; the corporation will fork over the money. What has to taken into consideration, however, is that whatever it takes to fix up the damage on your Armored Core and refill ammunition counts are taken out of the total cash amount. In addition, some missions give 'corporation points', and the more points you have for a particular corporation, the better missions and more money you'll earn from that corporation. The other method is through the Arena, where you are one of 50 competitors heading for the top spot in the Raven ranks. The advantage to this is that you don't have to pay for ammunition or repairs after the battle is over, and there's no penalty for losing. The Arena is also a great place for basic practice and testing out new weapons and upgrades.

Although I understand the logic behind it, it would have been nice of From Software to include some type of way to retry a mission, instead of having to either reload a previous save or suck it in and lose over $30,000. Beyond that, the missions in Armored Core 2 are a bit iffy. Sometimes there will be stretches of extremely easy missions that take no more than a minute to complete, while other times there are missions that are too much on the complicated side of things to undertake, especially so early on in the game. Many times failing missions was caused by the control scheme's problems, while other times it was because the mission objectives were not clearly explained it's too hard to sit down and decipher once the mission starts.

Despite the sequel status, there have been no significant changes made to the Armored Core series with Armored Core 2. Obviously, the graphics have received a huge overhaul for the better, but other than that, the troubling control scheme is still there, and the rest of the game is the same as it ever was - but isn't necessarily a bad thing. Fans of the series will be in love once again, but novices might want to give this one a rental and even see what Working Designs' GunGriffon Blaze has to offer.