Front Mission 4
Little more than a graphical upgrade, but it's as good as the series has been.
Published: July 25, 2004
The strategy genre has gotten a nice little boost in recent years, with releases like Rome: Total War on the PC, the Game Boy Advance rebirth of Final Fantasy Tactics, and the hugely underrated Disgaea and La Pucille: Tactics at home here on the PS2. Plenty of advances in presentation, innovation and overall style have helped update the genre that a year or two ago, would probably have just passed off as fodder for Blizzard's Starcraft or Warcraft titles.
So is it actually possible for a series that hasn't really changed since the last game to hang with the crowd? Sure, if you've already been bitten by the Front Mission bug in the past. While Front Mission 4 is almost nothing more than a new graphical sheen rolled across Front Mission 3's incredibly tight strategy guts.
For those that haven't yet heard of or gotten into the Front Mission series, it's a different story. By most accounts, you'll either get hooked or you'll pass after playing the first couple of turn-based battles that emphasize carefully planned moves over just taking the traditional RPG level-up-and-beat-the-snot-out-of-everyone direction.
Giant walking tanks called wanzers (that's pronounced vahn-zurs, like you've got a nice German accent) are the highlight of the not-too-distant future's armies. The world has essentially collapsed into two tenuously grouped world powers. The UCS, or Unified Continental States, which make up most of North America and the EC, or European Community, encompassing all of Europe and some of Asia, play nice, but underneath the surface, something is stirring.
When a base in Germany is attacked (spectacularly, I might add) by a mystery group of wanzers in a lengthy opening sequence, accusations begin to fly, with the EC blaming the UCS, and the threat of war looming heavily over most of the world. To help investigate, the Durandal, an elite civilian research group that just gets all giddy when it comes to wanzers and their new technology, is sent in to solve the mystery of the attackers and their motivation.
On the other size of the world, a trio of UCS Army grunts stumbles across a downed plane with a cache of millions of dollars. Deciding to take the money for themselves and beat metallic feet out of the country, things suddenly get complicated as the increasing guerilla attacks in the Sounth American countryside present an interesting blockade to the deserting soldiers.
As the game progresses, the two seemingly unrelated story threads intertwine, creating an opportunity for the story to shift from one bit to the next just when something interesting happens. It's a good way to keep those into the story, well, into the story, but also gives the series the opportunity to flex its new voice cast in the many, many pages of dialogue interspersed throughout the battles.
The battles themselves are always designed to be a challenge, with units essentially equal in abilities to your own units, and while it does add a bit of tension to each fight, there's also the feeling that your units aren't really progressing in strength all that much. This is alleviated a bit by the fact that you can delve into simulations of past battles to ensure that the abilities and parts you can upgrade the different wanzers with are all equipped, but it's still a bit of an uphill battle.
This also means, however, that the main gameplay element of moving your units and planning the battles flows much like a chess game, which is appropriate, because much of the core gameplay itself plays like a game of chess. All units, enemy or friendly, move around the environment in a grid, meaning you can only move so many squares at a time. All actions; movement, attacking, counter-attacking, etc. all use up action points which then replenish a bit at the close of each round.
Suffice it to say that regardless of whether or not you've played Front Mission 3, you should pick it up before playing this game because the gameplay is more or less identical, and trying to lay it all out here would require far, far more space than is really necessary. The only major changes from the FM3 formula come in the form of linking, which allows you to form bridges of support or retaliation against units that attack or come under fire. The linked attacks work both ways, so enemy units can chain together a series of blows that add an interesting mix to the usual plodding attack/counterattack gameplay.
The one area I wish had been preserved from Front Mission 3 is noticeably absent, however, that of the virtual internet that Square had crafted for the third game. While it was nothing that really contributed at length to the core gameplay, the fact that you could zip around and hack into the servers of some governments and corporations gave a fun little mini-game aspect to the events without making it seem tedious. It also helped build upon the whole idea of different corporations building and delivering parts for the wanzers, something that's merely skimmed across in the game's painfully cumbersome upgrade menu system.
Simply put, FM4 is FM3 with a 128-bit graphical upgrade, and even that isn't much. Sure, the battlefields have grown exponentially in size and scope, with entire cities now serving as fodder for your advancement, and the different elevations mean a nice set of on-the-spot opportunities to take cover. The core graphics engine, however, doesn't appear to have much more than slightly higher res textures. All the effects, from explosions to sparks, all seem brought over part and parcel from the PlayStation versions of the series. Even the in-battle cutscenes and animated bits feel photocopied from Front Mission 3.
In fact, aside from the incredibly impressive opening CG movie, the game itself just feels like a higher-res version of Front Mission 3, and from a developer Square Enix, there's no reason why this game couldn't have been a shining example of flashy, stylized mech combat on a wide scale. Instead, it feels painfully dated.
The audio follows suit, with the chimes, confirmation tones, mechanical clomps and whizzes feeling like they were dragged and dropped from the last game. Even the much-ballyhooed voice acting doesn't add too much to the whole presentation. It's a welcome addition, sure, but it's also rather spotty, cropping up in some cutscenes and falling absent in others. The deliveries are well done, even on the accents of the multi-ethnic cast (though I doubt anyone will buy that all these people are Baltic, French, or South American in real-life), but it's nothing that adds an especially powerful punch to the mix.
I'm probably not going to tell you anything you haven't already heard here. If you've played Front Mission 3, play Front Mission 4. There's more game, more strategy, and a slightly better presentation, but done expect anything new. For those that haven't, the game can be a little imposing at first, but given enough time, the battle system, storyline and characters can grow on you. This is best thought of as Front Mission 3.5, and if you haven't played any game in the series, it may be best to give this a rental first and then a full-on buy. For fans of the series, though, this is as good a hold-over as we're going to get until Front Mission Online or the next game in the series proper hopefully ups the ante like it should.
So is it actually possible for a series that hasn't really changed since the last game to hang with the crowd? Sure, if you've already been bitten by the Front Mission bug in the past. While Front Mission 4 is almost nothing more than a new graphical sheen rolled across Front Mission 3's incredibly tight strategy guts.
For those that haven't yet heard of or gotten into the Front Mission series, it's a different story. By most accounts, you'll either get hooked or you'll pass after playing the first couple of turn-based battles that emphasize carefully planned moves over just taking the traditional RPG level-up-and-beat-the-snot-out-of-everyone direction.
Giant walking tanks called wanzers (that's pronounced vahn-zurs, like you've got a nice German accent) are the highlight of the not-too-distant future's armies. The world has essentially collapsed into two tenuously grouped world powers. The UCS, or Unified Continental States, which make up most of North America and the EC, or European Community, encompassing all of Europe and some of Asia, play nice, but underneath the surface, something is stirring.
When a base in Germany is attacked (spectacularly, I might add) by a mystery group of wanzers in a lengthy opening sequence, accusations begin to fly, with the EC blaming the UCS, and the threat of war looming heavily over most of the world. To help investigate, the Durandal, an elite civilian research group that just gets all giddy when it comes to wanzers and their new technology, is sent in to solve the mystery of the attackers and their motivation.
On the other size of the world, a trio of UCS Army grunts stumbles across a downed plane with a cache of millions of dollars. Deciding to take the money for themselves and beat metallic feet out of the country, things suddenly get complicated as the increasing guerilla attacks in the Sounth American countryside present an interesting blockade to the deserting soldiers.
As the game progresses, the two seemingly unrelated story threads intertwine, creating an opportunity for the story to shift from one bit to the next just when something interesting happens. It's a good way to keep those into the story, well, into the story, but also gives the series the opportunity to flex its new voice cast in the many, many pages of dialogue interspersed throughout the battles.
The battles themselves are always designed to be a challenge, with units essentially equal in abilities to your own units, and while it does add a bit of tension to each fight, there's also the feeling that your units aren't really progressing in strength all that much. This is alleviated a bit by the fact that you can delve into simulations of past battles to ensure that the abilities and parts you can upgrade the different wanzers with are all equipped, but it's still a bit of an uphill battle.
This also means, however, that the main gameplay element of moving your units and planning the battles flows much like a chess game, which is appropriate, because much of the core gameplay itself plays like a game of chess. All units, enemy or friendly, move around the environment in a grid, meaning you can only move so many squares at a time. All actions; movement, attacking, counter-attacking, etc. all use up action points which then replenish a bit at the close of each round.
Suffice it to say that regardless of whether or not you've played Front Mission 3, you should pick it up before playing this game because the gameplay is more or less identical, and trying to lay it all out here would require far, far more space than is really necessary. The only major changes from the FM3 formula come in the form of linking, which allows you to form bridges of support or retaliation against units that attack or come under fire. The linked attacks work both ways, so enemy units can chain together a series of blows that add an interesting mix to the usual plodding attack/counterattack gameplay.
The one area I wish had been preserved from Front Mission 3 is noticeably absent, however, that of the virtual internet that Square had crafted for the third game. While it was nothing that really contributed at length to the core gameplay, the fact that you could zip around and hack into the servers of some governments and corporations gave a fun little mini-game aspect to the events without making it seem tedious. It also helped build upon the whole idea of different corporations building and delivering parts for the wanzers, something that's merely skimmed across in the game's painfully cumbersome upgrade menu system.
Simply put, FM4 is FM3 with a 128-bit graphical upgrade, and even that isn't much. Sure, the battlefields have grown exponentially in size and scope, with entire cities now serving as fodder for your advancement, and the different elevations mean a nice set of on-the-spot opportunities to take cover. The core graphics engine, however, doesn't appear to have much more than slightly higher res textures. All the effects, from explosions to sparks, all seem brought over part and parcel from the PlayStation versions of the series. Even the in-battle cutscenes and animated bits feel photocopied from Front Mission 3.
In fact, aside from the incredibly impressive opening CG movie, the game itself just feels like a higher-res version of Front Mission 3, and from a developer Square Enix, there's no reason why this game couldn't have been a shining example of flashy, stylized mech combat on a wide scale. Instead, it feels painfully dated.
The audio follows suit, with the chimes, confirmation tones, mechanical clomps and whizzes feeling like they were dragged and dropped from the last game. Even the much-ballyhooed voice acting doesn't add too much to the whole presentation. It's a welcome addition, sure, but it's also rather spotty, cropping up in some cutscenes and falling absent in others. The deliveries are well done, even on the accents of the multi-ethnic cast (though I doubt anyone will buy that all these people are Baltic, French, or South American in real-life), but it's nothing that adds an especially powerful punch to the mix.
I'm probably not going to tell you anything you haven't already heard here. If you've played Front Mission 3, play Front Mission 4. There's more game, more strategy, and a slightly better presentation, but done expect anything new. For those that haven't, the game can be a little imposing at first, but given enough time, the battle system, storyline and characters can grow on you. This is best thought of as Front Mission 3.5, and if you haven't played any game in the series, it may be best to give this a rental first and then a full-on buy. For fans of the series, though, this is as good a hold-over as we're going to get until Front Mission Online or the next game in the series proper hopefully ups the ante like it should.
