The front mission series has come a long way from its first release on the super nintendo. Front mission 4 manages to keep the classic front mission set up but fails in trying to change some of the key points that made front mission shine. The game takes place after front mission 3. All new characters and a very intriguing story line that was done perfectly and added a little twist. During the story you are introduced to two different groups of wanzer pilots. You alternate between them, which allowed for some interesting lay out of the story. The games turn based and RPG elements mix perfectly and it allows you to grow some what attached to your team. Picking out characters you like better than others and finding ones you despise. At points there is voice acting and at others there is none. It was kind of annoying going through that. Another problem is that only the main characters had voice-overs and all minor characters didn’t. It did bring more focus onto the major characters but the minor characters just seemed to left without a personality. The voices for the characters were excellent, the accents for each one were very nice and made each characters distinguishable just by voice. One of the best points of front mission 4 was that fact that it allowed you to control many wanzers. Up to ten wanzers on some missions. Of course this did come at a cost. That means just more enemy wanzers. The movement of the wanzers was quite slow, thankfully that added in a button that speeds up the movement of them. The huge battles were fun and added a lot of strategic depth to the game. Controlling two groups of wanzers was quite riveting for me. The graphics for the game were pretty good. The wanzers were nicely detailed. The weapon detail was something that caught my eye the most. The wanzer animations were very smooth and clear. Allowing you to see each visible bullet that comes out of the gun and where it hits the enemy was a very nice added feature. But the battlefield seemed to lack much detail in some levels, although some were bland some were nicely enriched with detail. The city levels were gorgeous. The musical scores were nice. They had a nice mix of them so the music wouldn’t get tiresome and repetitive, during it would immediately repeat after it ended so there was no awkward silence during the missions. The sounds of the guns were pretty good considering there were different sounds for each gun and with twenty plus guns. I could have done without the little bleep that comes after you tell your wanzer to go from one point to another. The main bad points of front mission are that customization seemed discouraged through out the game. They had pre built wanzer setups that were cheaper than buying each part individually. So I never got to mix at match wanzer parts to find the perfect match since money isn't easy to come by. The customization problem wasn’t just for the wanzers it was for the pilots also. It limited strategies that could be done by a lot. Each pilot is pretty much "pre assigned" a job. Through out battles you can gain experience and get pilot upgrades and battle skills from a list of choices. Of course the computer shop which allowed you to buy new abilities from different classes ex Sniper, support, assaults. The computer shop was very costly and the extra experience needed to learn the ability lead to me doing the simulations over and over again. One good thing is that the abilities are split up into three groups, basic, advanced, and expert; each one has its perks and you are not obligated to buy every one. Every so often you gain a simulation of a previous battle. These simulations give you money and experience. You will head to the simulations if you want one of the characters to change class it is very costly and time consuming. When you have a six on fifteen simulation things can go pretty slow. I ended up putting at least ten hours into simulations so one of my characters could change class. I did it to the extreme and allowed him to get every ability and every sniper upgrade. The front mission series has always been about complete control of every aspect of your wanzers. I felt limited in doing it. The weapon selection for the wanzer’s was very big, ranging from machine guns to missile launchers. The additions of rockets and bazooka’s were very nice, as were the additional backpacks. The backpacks put an emphasis on teamwork since most the backpacks aided other characters. The repair pack seemed a little out of place. Although it was very bulky it was required through out the whole game. It was able to fix strategic errors by just repairing your wanzers. It just didn’t seem right to me. The weapon selection did have its problem. While vast some things were just done wrong. At times the club would be available but the spike would not. Each one carries a different damage type, impact for the club and piercing the spike. If your group consists of a lot of impact then it would seem reasonable to buy the spike but the option wasn’t always available for the melee characters. The gameplay is solid for the front mission 4. And makes a very worth while game that won’t be an easy victory through the mission. Its length is above average I clocked about thirty-five hours into the campaign. It is a must buy for fans of turn based strategy games. It has its strong points and its faults. In the end they balance each other out.
Good evening! Front Mission 4...ahhh...it is a truly magnificent game. I don't know when I first got it - obviously after release and between now, heh - but it was worth ti on so many levels. First off! Graph... Read Full Review
While Front Mission fans know whet they are getting into when playing Front Mission, that´s not the same case as the rest of the gamers that are not familiar with this type of games, if you are a fan of the series ... Read Full Review
