A Strategy Geme Not for Everyone
Front Mission 4 stays true to the series, tons of options and customization, I found the game to be a little complicated with the different customization options, all the different settings and parts for your wanzers, computer upgrades, and your pilots upgrades can make a casual gamer give up to play this game, but the fans will find a game where they can sink their teet into, I enjoyed this game from beginning to end, this game can suck your life it is that large, maybe not as large as FM3, but definitively on the 60-70 hours range, at the beginning you have two different stories the more you advance the two stories get linked, I really had much fun with the story and mechanics of the game, since I´m a fan of the series I can tell you that Front Mission 4 is one of my all-time favorites now, Darril the hero of the story may not be a character that likable, but fill the story with the rest of the characters nicely, end Elsa the french rookie play well on the story, which is the one that you start with.
Once the stories get linked you get really involved in the story, the funny part I found is that how a group of natives (luis and friends) get to ride a wanzers with that clothes! just imagine a native Indian in a F-14 get the idea?, anyway the strategy is just like any other strategy game the fun part is the link system and the abilities that you can use during this linked battles, they can be devastating, but also if you don´t learn how to use it the can be used against you and believe me after a 1 hour battle you loose it can be pretty frustrating if you´re not well prepared, thankfully you can replay the battles you already fought in training sessions, which you need to use from time to time to get experience and ability points, which can be very useful when leveling up.
Another addition to the mechanics of the game is that you can call on a air strike from your mother ship, and can be done not only for an air strike, but for supplies and to change the type of armor of your team, the supply drop is really needed on long battles, you must be carefull when you call an air strike since it will take several turns to take effect and most of the times the enemy moves from the selected area, so use it on steady enemies.
The story is well done, but nothing out of the usual stuff, an army wants to create a global conflicts and get an advantage from that, the boss battles are ok, when you see those really big wanzers you know there´s a long a hard battle coming, but if you´re prepared everything is going to be ok, but remember this is a strategy game, so be prepared to come up with a good one, once you learn the mechanics, I suggest take on the wanzers with the radar on the back, this guys can be really annoying, since the open the range of the radar to the enemy wanzers with missiles, and they´re devastating on your team, but you can also do the same so make sure you are well prepared for the next fight.
The sound is what you can expect from a game, songs that reminded me of Final Fantasy VIII, music is well suited for the environment and type of battle the gun sounds and rockets are not the best I´ve heard on a videogames but they´re not that bad.
Front Mission 4 may not be for everyone, but the ones that like mechs and strategy can found a large an immersive game, one of the best I´ve played, even though I finished the game twice I play it from time to time, and believe me not every game have that effect in me.