Based, apparently, on a popular Japanese strategy game, Front Mission Evolved is a solid, if uninspiring, shoot-em-up.
Californian developers Double Helix have taken the original tactical RPG format and, basically, scrapped it in favour of flat-out robot wars – with a few side missions to give some variety.
The plot is pretty standard stuff. There's been a mysterious invasion of one of the world's superpowers by another superpower's mechanical warriors. Only you, as a droid-building scientist can save the day and, in the process, discover just what part your dad played in all of the current shenanigans. Ad lib to fade.
At the start of the game you're testing your fighting droid – known, quite amusingly, as a "wanzer" – which is mostly an excuse to run through some basic training. Here you learn how to move, shoot, melee, and all the other things that you'll need to get through the next few hours of gameplay.
The majority of this is fighting other wanzers while stomping around – or skating – in your own wanzer. Skating is something you will have to master, if only to maintain your sanity: it speeds up your travel time and, if used in conjunction with the mechanical-hand-to-mechanical-hand combat, increases the damage you can inflict.
The game's ingenuity becomes apparent the more you play for, while early levels can be rattled through thanks to your arsenal of heavy weaponry or by brute force, later levels require some thought. Not a huge amount of thought, admittedly, but some, as different opponents can only be taken out in different ways, some being more susceptible to rocket strikes, for example, while others require some carefully aimed bullets for the long-distance removal of wanzer limbs before you zip in for some good old fashioned pummelling.
Variety comes from some evasion levels – lose the suit, run like hell – or, CoD-style airborne gunplay, while the multiplayer options – deathmatch and capture the flag – provide some limited fleshing-out of the title. There's nothing revolutionary here (and certainly nothing to explain why the release date was delayed by six months), but it's all jolly decent if you like this sort of thing.
