11-09-2007, 09:00 PM
There are a number of reasons why Armored Core does not get the same amount of players as say Tekken, or Those arcade racing games (Initial D, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune).
"Armored Core is a competitive, combat oriented, complex mech combat game built for the console market."
Think about what I just said and look at the specific key words that immediately narrow down the amount of people that will actually play the game. Competitive, Combat oriented, and the game's complexity.
Poor Single Player campaign
Armored Core has been predominantly a competitive gaming title with diminishing emphasis on its single player aspect, when it is this particular element of the game that gave rise to its popularity. Single player missions have taken a back seat in favor of its PvP game modes when people outside the established AC community would only see this feature as a secondary reason to get into the game.
Single player missions such as The massive MT mission in the first game was "You're the best boss fight ever!!!". But when you repeat the formula of AC over and over again, which is simply "destroy all enemies" more than anything else, it becomes pretty repetitive. Repetition of the same formula drove the franchise down as missions in later games seem all too familiar to previous games, showing the lack of innovation of the franchise per title while only adding incremental improvements to game physics (For instance, we've been seeing the same part sets for ACs from AC3-LR... 5 different games all using the same models and textres with the additional of half a dozen new parts per title). Other complaints include short missions which often take as little as a few seconds or as long as 3 minutes tops and seemingly mediocre story and mission presentation which makes the whole game feel a bit bland.
In connection to the blandness of the story is the seemingly shallow characters, which I feel should be the cornerstone of a good plot for a game. You have only faceless opponents throughout the whole franchise even when their descriptions (at least for plot characters appearing in the in-game arena) do slightly flesh out their personalities (Royal Myst in particular from AC3 had some nice though shallow personality buildup through the Email exchange in the game), they still pale in comparison to iconic game characters like Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series. The only exception to this would probably be Nineball (the AC itself, not even the pilot Hustler One) which has become the only iconic character in the whole series which people can easily identify with Armored Core.
In any case, the poor single player game is what prevents the franchise from accepting in new players into the community.
I actually have more gripes to write about, but I'll save them for later as I have a new freaking idea for an AC game which involves the story of Nineball as the central character for the game and I'm automatically compelled to think of a particular mission route for the storyline.
"Armored Core is a competitive, combat oriented, complex mech combat game built for the console market."
Think about what I just said and look at the specific key words that immediately narrow down the amount of people that will actually play the game. Competitive, Combat oriented, and the game's complexity.
Poor Single Player campaign
Armored Core has been predominantly a competitive gaming title with diminishing emphasis on its single player aspect, when it is this particular element of the game that gave rise to its popularity. Single player missions have taken a back seat in favor of its PvP game modes when people outside the established AC community would only see this feature as a secondary reason to get into the game.
Single player missions such as The massive MT mission in the first game was "You're the best boss fight ever!!!". But when you repeat the formula of AC over and over again, which is simply "destroy all enemies" more than anything else, it becomes pretty repetitive. Repetition of the same formula drove the franchise down as missions in later games seem all too familiar to previous games, showing the lack of innovation of the franchise per title while only adding incremental improvements to game physics (For instance, we've been seeing the same part sets for ACs from AC3-LR... 5 different games all using the same models and textres with the additional of half a dozen new parts per title). Other complaints include short missions which often take as little as a few seconds or as long as 3 minutes tops and seemingly mediocre story and mission presentation which makes the whole game feel a bit bland.
In connection to the blandness of the story is the seemingly shallow characters, which I feel should be the cornerstone of a good plot for a game. You have only faceless opponents throughout the whole franchise even when their descriptions (at least for plot characters appearing in the in-game arena) do slightly flesh out their personalities (Royal Myst in particular from AC3 had some nice though shallow personality buildup through the Email exchange in the game), they still pale in comparison to iconic game characters like Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series. The only exception to this would probably be Nineball (the AC itself, not even the pilot Hustler One) which has become the only iconic character in the whole series which people can easily identify with Armored Core.
In any case, the poor single player game is what prevents the franchise from accepting in new players into the community.
I actually have more gripes to write about, but I'll save them for later as I have a new freaking idea for an AC game which involves the story of Nineball as the central character for the game and I'm automatically compelled to think of a particular mission route for the storyline.
