The next game i've also finished is Front mission 3. A turn based Strategy RPG. The plot revolves around a stolen superweapon (MIDAS) and the political powerplay of the various factions to acquire it. i found it pretty good.
Content wise there are 2 different campaigns and by god there there are a lot of maps. My first play through clocked in at nearly 50 hours and thats just ONE campaign. From my understanding the campaigns are quite varied as well. Allies in one campaign will turn up as enemies/rivals in the other and the journey varies. it gives some perspective that perhaps, the various factions you face off against aren't really bad guys, due to different circumstances you're forced to fight good people.
Gameplaywise if you're familar with the first 2 front missions you'll have a rough idea what to expect with turned based combat with robots. Damage mechanics if you're familiar with battletech, you have a rough idea what to expect, individual bits have its own HP and blowing them limbs cripples them etc. Whilst its fine, it can be very daunting to play at first and i'm not going to lie, i saved scum like hell playing it. Part of the problem is that weapons miss surprisingly frequently and most weapons feel weak. Take for example the ubitquitous machine gun, it can do 200 damage over like x6 shots. The problem? it will deal damage randomly to the enemies various bits, spreading the damage. Tha'ts assuming they hit at all... it can feel at times like a war of attrition especially when you try to pick of units with high hp resistant to your damage. you can't manually target bits unless you trigger a skill.
Top tip, taking pierce resistance will pretty much recommended and in later game take a shield instead of a second weapon. The problem with the combat is that its very grindy. Sure, every character can use any weapon, but if you want them to be any good at it, you have to use them and exp is only granted when you destroy parts or kill wanzers outright and that takes a while. The other option is to force the enemy to surrender or alternatively, kill the pilot and their wanzer is yours to use and your prize after the fight.
The second advantage are special skills, again, these are randomly activated/unlocked when you reach a certain criteria. They can be seriously useful but a pain to unlock or to trigger. Some of the better ones rarely activate, but a popular strategy is to just take a load of level one skills and make them combo/chain up so essentially rather then one attack, you could do more then one (i've had it chain 4 times once). its incredibly satisfying when in one attack you blow the opponent to pieces with no damage to yourself. Or how dual shot allows you to fire 2 weapons in one go - double shotgun shots makes absolute mincemeat on damaged wanzers and vehicles.
You can customize your wanzers so they are geared for higher speed, durability etc. but its all a balancing act, as the heavier the wanzer the less power you have to arm them. So decide wisely and pick the best bits for the job as upgrading the indivudal bits will only get you so far.
What the TLDR point i'm trying to say is that there will be some grinding to be done. Sure theres only 8 characters and for the most part i just kept with the starting 4 as my main team, but after a while all 8 have to be put into action in seperate missions so you have to skill them up, get them decent wanzers loaded up and hope for the best. money wise, the only real method is selling stuff. So the more mechs left to scavenge the better as some of the best wanzer parts can be acquired without stealing it...
Outside of the main game you can surf around on the games internet of sorts reading up on news, emails but more interestingly, is when you start hacking and snooping around in confidential areas to acquire backstory and unlocking various stuff. The best wanzer and plasma cannon can only be unlocked by going onto the hacking forums and making contact with the relevant person. its a bit clunky at times, but its a nice touch to flesh out the backstory of the game world and the lore.
So do i regret playing it? honestly for a 23 year old game it wasn't bad i had fun with it even with the bugs. Speaking of bugs the game crashed a lot on my rasperberry pi. The cause is when the damaged wanzers started to spark and i identified mechs with 0 health on legs caused the game to crash. best to skip the combat sequence to avoid seeing it. But yeah, i think it deserves a reboot/remake/remaster is in order. i might go back and finish off the other campaign and more front mission games (was going to play front mission 2 but its not been completely translated...) but the later games weren't that good which is a shame.
Content wise there are 2 different campaigns and by god there there are a lot of maps. My first play through clocked in at nearly 50 hours and thats just ONE campaign. From my understanding the campaigns are quite varied as well. Allies in one campaign will turn up as enemies/rivals in the other and the journey varies. it gives some perspective that perhaps, the various factions you face off against aren't really bad guys, due to different circumstances you're forced to fight good people.
Gameplaywise if you're familar with the first 2 front missions you'll have a rough idea what to expect with turned based combat with robots. Damage mechanics if you're familiar with battletech, you have a rough idea what to expect, individual bits have its own HP and blowing them limbs cripples them etc. Whilst its fine, it can be very daunting to play at first and i'm not going to lie, i saved scum like hell playing it. Part of the problem is that weapons miss surprisingly frequently and most weapons feel weak. Take for example the ubitquitous machine gun, it can do 200 damage over like x6 shots. The problem? it will deal damage randomly to the enemies various bits, spreading the damage. Tha'ts assuming they hit at all... it can feel at times like a war of attrition especially when you try to pick of units with high hp resistant to your damage. you can't manually target bits unless you trigger a skill.
Top tip, taking pierce resistance will pretty much recommended and in later game take a shield instead of a second weapon. The problem with the combat is that its very grindy. Sure, every character can use any weapon, but if you want them to be any good at it, you have to use them and exp is only granted when you destroy parts or kill wanzers outright and that takes a while. The other option is to force the enemy to surrender or alternatively, kill the pilot and their wanzer is yours to use and your prize after the fight.
The second advantage are special skills, again, these are randomly activated/unlocked when you reach a certain criteria. They can be seriously useful but a pain to unlock or to trigger. Some of the better ones rarely activate, but a popular strategy is to just take a load of level one skills and make them combo/chain up so essentially rather then one attack, you could do more then one (i've had it chain 4 times once). its incredibly satisfying when in one attack you blow the opponent to pieces with no damage to yourself. Or how dual shot allows you to fire 2 weapons in one go - double shotgun shots makes absolute mincemeat on damaged wanzers and vehicles.
You can customize your wanzers so they are geared for higher speed, durability etc. but its all a balancing act, as the heavier the wanzer the less power you have to arm them. So decide wisely and pick the best bits for the job as upgrading the indivudal bits will only get you so far.
What the TLDR point i'm trying to say is that there will be some grinding to be done. Sure theres only 8 characters and for the most part i just kept with the starting 4 as my main team, but after a while all 8 have to be put into action in seperate missions so you have to skill them up, get them decent wanzers loaded up and hope for the best. money wise, the only real method is selling stuff. So the more mechs left to scavenge the better as some of the best wanzer parts can be acquired without stealing it...
Outside of the main game you can surf around on the games internet of sorts reading up on news, emails but more interestingly, is when you start hacking and snooping around in confidential areas to acquire backstory and unlocking various stuff. The best wanzer and plasma cannon can only be unlocked by going onto the hacking forums and making contact with the relevant person. its a bit clunky at times, but its a nice touch to flesh out the backstory of the game world and the lore.
So do i regret playing it? honestly for a 23 year old game it wasn't bad i had fun with it even with the bugs. Speaking of bugs the game crashed a lot on my rasperberry pi. The cause is when the damaged wanzers started to spark and i identified mechs with 0 health on legs caused the game to crash. best to skip the combat sequence to avoid seeing it. But yeah, i think it deserves a reboot/remake/remaster is in order. i might go back and finish off the other campaign and more front mission games (was going to play front mission 2 but its not been completely translated...) but the later games weren't that good which is a shame.
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