E3 '10: Front Mission Evolved

I was quite worried about Front Mission Evolved prior to this year's E3. As a huge fan of the series' tactical roots, the switch in genre to a third-person shooter sounded like blasphemy. And though I can't say that the end result will necessarily please series fans, with Front Mission Evolved Square-Enix has made one excellent mech shooter.

Square-Enix prepared a multiplayer demo for E3, so I hopped right into a match. For the demo there were a number of pre-built classes of wanzers, Front Mission's name for mechs. They ranged from shield carrying defenders and missile launching attackers to snipers and the shotgun wielding engineer. There were also several slots open for custom mech designs to build from a wide variety of parts in the final game, but this customization wasn't available in the E3 demo. For my first match I was stuck with a brawler class, which isn't exactly my personal style of play. Every mech can be equipped with two arm weapons mapped to the triggers and two shoulder weapons mapped to the controller's shoulder buttons/bumpers. My little brawler had a baton on each arm for attacking and a shoulder-mounted anit-missile launcher for defense, meaning my only mode of attack was to dash in close to an enemy. Thankfully, the dashing was simple to pull off and control, which made hit and run guerrilla tactics manageable. Each mech also has an ability mapped to the B button, which in the case of the brawler was a health regenerating ability that saved my life more than a few times.

Wanting a better chance to see how gunplay works in Front Mission Evolved, I started a second match with a medium assault mech equipped with a machine gun, baton, and missile launcher. This was much more my style with a full menu of attack options at any range. The missiles weren't particularly powerful, but by holding the shoulder button down I was able to lock up to 8 missiles on to as many enemies as I could move my reticule over, making it quite effective in group battles. One big difference I noticed between the assault and brawler mech was how they used the same baton weapon. The brawler being equipped with two batons was able to pull off a double punch attack that took off a significant amount of health, whereas the single baton of the assault mech was a single punch that was best used as a close-range last resort.

One big element from the tactical Front Mission games still plays a big part in this new action design: every part of the mech has its own health bar. This means that how you position yourself on the battlefield still has a big impact. If any part of your mech takes damage, then the weapons attached to those parts will lose effectiveness or stop working altogether. Leg damage lessens mobility, and if the torso is destroyed then your mech is scrap metal no matter how much health the other parts have. When I was in the medium assault mech the missiles presented a unique opportunity because I could lock-on to an opponent then turn my mech's body so that the baton arm took the brunt of any incoming damage. The defender mech made a particularly difficult opponent because of its enormous shield arm, but maneuvering around it left its back wide open and defenseless.

I only had time to play around in the multiplayer mode of Front Mission Evolved, but I was assured that the single-player story would be just as deep as past games in the series. I can't say that it felt like natural evolution of the Front Mission series as the name would suggest, but Square-Enix has convinced me that Front Mission Evolved is a game that needs to be in my gaming library when it releases September 14 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.