TOKYO--At first glance, From Software's AC Formula Front (which will be released as Formula Front: Armored Core in Japan) looked to us like a pretty standard third-person, one-on-one mech-combat game. After spending a little time with the game (and a helpful From Software representative), though, we can report that it is more strategy-oriented and actually quite intriguing.

As we discovered, you won't actually control any of your mechs directly in AC Formula Front. Your job will be to build a team of five mechs using a large selection of different parts and weapons, paint those parts in different colors, upgrade your mechs' abilities by spending points on any of around eight different attributes, and then give your mech (or its pilot) its own personality by moving five slider bars, which determine such traits as its aggressiveness and whether it prefers to battle by initiating attacks or by counterattacking enemies that are on the offensive. Once we'd built ourselves a mech (an ugly green thing with four legs, a small head, and as many guns as it could carry), we added it to the four that were already in our team lineup, and altered the order in which they'd be fighting so that we could see our creation in action.

Before the fight, we were required to go through a list and pick five different attack types or strategies (at least we think that's what they were) that our mech would employ in the fight, then it was time to put our non-existent knowledge of Japanese text to the test on what turned out to be a pretty sparse battlefield. What followed was TV-style coverage of a one-on-one mech battle that was scheduled to last for three minutes. We weren't able to interact with the game at all at this point, but it was actually pretty satisfying to see our mech hurling missiles at the enemy--especially when the From Software representative pointed out that our mech's health bar was significantly larger than the enemy's about midway through the contest. We were afforded three different views of the action at regular intervals during the encounter, including a pretty standard camera that moved around a lot, a black-and-white camera that looked a little grainy and was invariably positioned directly behind our mech, and a slightly overused effect that divided the PSP screen into nine and basically showed the same camera view in each of the boxes.

Although the battlefield that we saw was quite featureless, AC Formula Front actually boasts some impressive visuals. All of the mechs were quite detailed, the weapons looked suitably powerful, and the ever-changing camera angles (complete with lens flare) definitely served to keep the action interesting. Whether or not watching mech battles will remain interesting after extended play, of course, remains to be seen.

For more updates, be sure to check GameSpot's coverage of the Tokyo Game Show 2004.