I recieved my Front Mission 4 demo in the mail yesterday from Square Enix. I don’t remember getting a confirmation e-mail so I didn’t think I would get sent the demo, so it was a pleasant surprise. I’m not sure if they’re giving out anymore free demos, but here’s the link. I think I spotted FM4 listed on this month’s PSM demo disc. Front Mission 4 is my first experience with the Square-Enix’s Strategy RPG series, I think FM3 was released in the U.S., and my previous strategy game experience comes from Starcraft and Ogre Battle 64.
The demo first boots up with a nice CG movie showing a normal modern city being invaded by military forces, and a battle soon breaks out showing off the power of the armored suits/mechs called Wanzers. Once the title screen came up, I checked out the Tutorial mode to get a basic feel of the game. I was introduced to moving the units on the map, selecting weapons, and attacking. The game is turn-based with the player and enemy each getting a turn to move and direct their units. On your turn, a unit will be set to move by default as allowed by the surrounding blue game space squares in its area. Pressing X will bring up the menu where you can attack another unit within the unit’s current range, check the unit’s status, repair parts (if unit has the ability), or end the units turn. The player’s turn is over once all the units have been directed.
Each wanzer unit is made up of several parts: Body, Right and Left arms, and Legs. If the legs are lost, then it limit’s the units mobility. Loosing the right or left arms will disable the use of the weapon that was in the destroyed arm. If the body is lost, then the unit is destroyed.
Gameplay takes place on a zoomed out map, with units moving on a virtual square based grid. When a unit attacks another, the view point shifts to a close up of the map with the two units shown in detail facing off against each other. A unit taking fire will often be hit in several of its parts, although I haven’t played enough to determine if there’s there’s strategy involved so you can specifically damage a certain part of a unit’s Wanzer.
Checking out the first mission on the disc, I probably could have skipped the two tutorials I viewed, as the game starts you off easy. The first mission involves an ex-military Frenchwoman (with accent!) joining a research group for Wanzer technology in the U.K. This mission has you facing off against two practice units to get the feel of moving on the map and attacking.
The second mission involves this group investigating the aftermath of an attack on a base in Germany when they are ambushed by the enemy. The objective this time is to destroy all enemies while protecting the transport plane from being destroyed. 3 units are deployed this time, the woman from the first mission, Elsa, a unit that can repair other units within his range, and a unit with projectile attacks. The unit with projectile attacks when using his missiles can only hit units in a circle range several squares away from where he’s placed, so taking down the helicopters requires moving the unit around for his weapon to be in range.
The third mission on the disc isn’t actually a mission, but a cutscene using the game’s engine to set up the plot of the next mission. 3 soldiers in their wanzers have deserted from their rear post of protecting a government authority to relax. After some banter, a plane crashes nearby, and the 3 investigate to find a crate full of gold worth about 20 million dollars. Realizing the crate belongs to the government official and because of the situation this person is in, they realize he can’t do anything about them stealing it, so they decide to desert the army and take the gold. The game so far seems to have a strong story to go along with the tacticle gameplay to draw me into the game and world. Dialogue between characters is told by a text box with a profile picture of the character that might change depending on what the character is saying. Spoken dialogue is used to accompany the text, although it mainly seems to be reserved for cutscenes and scenes before and after missions, at least in the demo anyways. There were a few areas where there was dialogue, but no audio to accompany it. The voice acting seems great so far, the voice work seems to be from Animaze. Since the game apparently takes place in different parts of the world, the characters have appropriate accents.
The 4th mission after the plot interlude involves the three deserters stealing a truck to transport the gold. The objective of this mission is to just destroy all enemy units. This time there are two missile turrents, and terrain height becomes a factor in attacking. I’m not down on all of the technicalities of what gives a good shot, but when targeting an enemy, I notice a percentage displayed in blue for you, and one in red for the enemy. Probably has something to do with effectiveness during attack at the current range. With the height of the terrain, like that of the missile turrent squares, it will block or prevent you from attacking an enemy unit if they are covered by it. The enemy units in this mission appear to be more aggressive. If you have a unit right next to an enemy, they do an effective melee attack where they tackle your wanzer. I had to repair my units frequently this time and keep them back to stay out of the enemy’s range for a while.
So far from what I’ve played of Front Mission 4, its got me interested and I was kinda impressed by its presentation and gameplay interface. I hope it doesn’t get too overwhelming and complicated, the next mission gives you the ability to customize your wanzer units with parts and upgrades, and even change the color. I’ll have to go through the game’s tutorial, there’s a lot to learn. I’m kinda interested in this game now so I might consider getting it when it comes out, but for now I’ll play through the rest of this nice demo.
The demo first boots up with a nice CG movie showing a normal modern city being invaded by military forces, and a battle soon breaks out showing off the power of the armored suits/mechs called Wanzers. Once the title screen came up, I checked out the Tutorial mode to get a basic feel of the game. I was introduced to moving the units on the map, selecting weapons, and attacking. The game is turn-based with the player and enemy each getting a turn to move and direct their units. On your turn, a unit will be set to move by default as allowed by the surrounding blue game space squares in its area. Pressing X will bring up the menu where you can attack another unit within the unit’s current range, check the unit’s status, repair parts (if unit has the ability), or end the units turn. The player’s turn is over once all the units have been directed.
Each wanzer unit is made up of several parts: Body, Right and Left arms, and Legs. If the legs are lost, then it limit’s the units mobility. Loosing the right or left arms will disable the use of the weapon that was in the destroyed arm. If the body is lost, then the unit is destroyed.
Gameplay takes place on a zoomed out map, with units moving on a virtual square based grid. When a unit attacks another, the view point shifts to a close up of the map with the two units shown in detail facing off against each other. A unit taking fire will often be hit in several of its parts, although I haven’t played enough to determine if there’s there’s strategy involved so you can specifically damage a certain part of a unit’s Wanzer.
Checking out the first mission on the disc, I probably could have skipped the two tutorials I viewed, as the game starts you off easy. The first mission involves an ex-military Frenchwoman (with accent!) joining a research group for Wanzer technology in the U.K. This mission has you facing off against two practice units to get the feel of moving on the map and attacking.
The second mission involves this group investigating the aftermath of an attack on a base in Germany when they are ambushed by the enemy. The objective this time is to destroy all enemies while protecting the transport plane from being destroyed. 3 units are deployed this time, the woman from the first mission, Elsa, a unit that can repair other units within his range, and a unit with projectile attacks. The unit with projectile attacks when using his missiles can only hit units in a circle range several squares away from where he’s placed, so taking down the helicopters requires moving the unit around for his weapon to be in range.
The third mission on the disc isn’t actually a mission, but a cutscene using the game’s engine to set up the plot of the next mission. 3 soldiers in their wanzers have deserted from their rear post of protecting a government authority to relax. After some banter, a plane crashes nearby, and the 3 investigate to find a crate full of gold worth about 20 million dollars. Realizing the crate belongs to the government official and because of the situation this person is in, they realize he can’t do anything about them stealing it, so they decide to desert the army and take the gold. The game so far seems to have a strong story to go along with the tacticle gameplay to draw me into the game and world. Dialogue between characters is told by a text box with a profile picture of the character that might change depending on what the character is saying. Spoken dialogue is used to accompany the text, although it mainly seems to be reserved for cutscenes and scenes before and after missions, at least in the demo anyways. There were a few areas where there was dialogue, but no audio to accompany it. The voice acting seems great so far, the voice work seems to be from Animaze. Since the game apparently takes place in different parts of the world, the characters have appropriate accents.
The 4th mission after the plot interlude involves the three deserters stealing a truck to transport the gold. The objective of this mission is to just destroy all enemy units. This time there are two missile turrents, and terrain height becomes a factor in attacking. I’m not down on all of the technicalities of what gives a good shot, but when targeting an enemy, I notice a percentage displayed in blue for you, and one in red for the enemy. Probably has something to do with effectiveness during attack at the current range. With the height of the terrain, like that of the missile turrent squares, it will block or prevent you from attacking an enemy unit if they are covered by it. The enemy units in this mission appear to be more aggressive. If you have a unit right next to an enemy, they do an effective melee attack where they tackle your wanzer. I had to repair my units frequently this time and keep them back to stay out of the enemy’s range for a while.
So far from what I’ve played of Front Mission 4, its got me interested and I was kinda impressed by its presentation and gameplay interface. I hope it doesn’t get too overwhelming and complicated, the next mission gives you the ability to customize your wanzer units with parts and upgrades, and even change the color. I’ll have to go through the game’s tutorial, there’s a lot to learn. I’m kinda interested in this game now so I might consider getting it when it comes out, but for now I’ll play through the rest of this nice demo.
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