This game is okay I guess. I played it as a child and never beat it, so I bought it on sale to finish as an adult. Although I do have a tremendous soft spot for this game because I liked it so much when I was younger, playing it now I can definitively say... it is okay? If you get it for $5 on sale, expecting an early 2000s game, then you will be satisfied. For my play-though, I played on Normal difficulty.
The balance of the game is basically all over the place. The missions give you just enough money to be able to upgrade your Wazer (mech) to be able to keep up with the enemies. However, if you want to try a new loadout, or if you upgrade your mech incorrectly you may be stuck. I'm not sure if replaying past missions gives you money, but if that's what you have to do, that is still annoying. This issue is made worse by the fact that certain missions require certain parts, and the game will not clearly tell you what you need. So you could drop a couple grand on a pair of legs, just to have to buy another set (totally not talking from experience). That being said, there are a ton of different mech parts and weapons to try to find your perfect play style (though keep in mind that some loadouts may work better than others).
The missions are fine. Pretty much what you would expect out of an early 2000s shooter. Linear, the occasional turret section, then usually a boss fight at the end of a mission. To give the game credit, the landscapes are pretty varied. From deserts, to snow, you see it all. My biggest issue with the missions are the boss fights are totally ridiculous. For the boss fight against the mercenary group (the chariot or whatever), I found myself having to rely on the AI of the bosses tweaking out for to beat it. Something that happened often enough for me to abuse it. Oh also, the game likes to throw in on foot sections for some reason. These are just bad.
Onto the story (spoilers ahead). I have no prior knowledge of the Front Mission series, so I cannot comment on that front. But, the story, again, is pretty average for a 2000s shooter. You can pretty much guess the plot points before they happen. The game does randomly drops plot points though. Like, the mechanic lady seems to like the main character, but after a while, this point is just forgotten about. Or like the main characters work with some guys from another factions, and we know nothing about them besides they come that faction and they quote Sun Tzu. Also the villain's motivation makes zero sense. He starts war because... he wants to (honest to God the reason they gave). So war breaks out. Then we wants to kill everyone for fighting. What? One positive for the story... It is short I guess. Including crashes, this game took me like 6.5 hours, so it just barely doesn't overstay its welcome.
Tips for the Game
If you are like me and do not have a mouse with side buttons, this is loadout I recommend (because pushing Q and E in a game where movement was so important was awkward). Use a sniper as you main weapon, and make pressing scroll wheel your precision aim. The sniper will use both of your mechs hands. Stay back as much as possible and, well, snipe enemies as much as you can. Then for you RIGHT shoulder (this one specifically), have a rocket launcher. Have this be tied to your other mouse button. This will be you point defense gun for when those melee mech guys get too close. Then for you LEFT shoulder, but a missile launcher on it. Have this tied to Q or E. This will be to shoot helicopters or far enemies or whatever. This recommendation is not exhaustive, but its how I got through the game.
Tips for the Final Bosses (Spoilers)
The four chariot people are dumb. Prioritize the lady with the rotary cannon and the lady who charges you, making sure to move around the perimeter of the map, and pick up the health drop as much as possible. I think the code for the rotary cannon is busted, because she just melts you. Try to save you E.D.G.E. and kill one of them as fast as possible. One those two are gone, you can use range to kill the missile guy and the bazooka lady. Prioritize the missile guy because his missile are lock on and the bazooka lady is easy enough to dodge. Once missile guy is gone, just sweep up bazooka lady.
The E.D.G.E. final boss has a big difficulty spike in his second phase. His missiles can one shot you if you are not careful (I was using the last unlocked mech torso). For his first phase, just ignore his machine gun fire and try to headshot him with you sniper as much as you can. Then when he activates his E.D.G.E. dodge the missiles. Try to build up your E.D.G.E. meter as much as your can in this phase. Do this until you get him down to his second phase. For this phase, do not even boost until he activates his E.D.G.E., because if he hits you, it will stun you, and the missiles will then kill you. All I can say is try to kill him as fast as possible with well placed sniper shots and your E.D.G.E.. Then for the third phase, you can play as normal.
For the final AI Boss guy. For phase 1, I don't know if killing the lady affects the story at all, I didn't want to replay it, and she didn't do that much damage so I just ignored her, Again do not boost at all. Wait until the Boss goes to shoot his mega laser thing (this takes a couple seconds to activate), then boost to avoid it, avoiding the emps. Your arms will likely be broken the entire fight, just try to preserve your legs and torso. When the laser is done you have a couple seconds to shoot the core. Repeat until phase 1 is done. The lady will try to shoot you, but she seems to only target your arms, so it doesn't matter.
For phase 2... this phase is tricky. I don't really know how I beat it because a lot of the attacks seem unavoidable. Also the health pick up takes a while to respawn so there's that. So stay on the top layer and start with the power cores on the bosses chest. All the while, make sure your legs don't break. Again, your arms will be broken the entire fight, but if your legs go, you're more than likely going to die. Once the 4 cores across the top of the chest are gone, go for the three on the bottom. These ones are weaker then the top 4. They have shields so you can't clearly shoot them from the top of the arena. The middle of the 3 bottom cores can just barely be shot from the to of the arena of you shoot the very bottom of it, so do that. Try to spend as little time at the bottom of the arena as possible, because... I don't know what attack it was, but it killed me a lot when I was down there, so yeah. Anyway. When those cores are killed, there will be another core/laser, like from phase 1. I think this one is weaker. Do the same strategy as with the phase 1 core/laser.
Good job. You beat Front Mission Evolved.
