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Why would you not use the analog sticks?:
What to say about Armored Core 2… Hmm… Well,
to its credit, it was one of the games that truly got me fired
up about the PS2 way back in the beginning. You play the part
of a mercenary mecha pilot who starts off with a POS mecha
and slowly builds fame, fortune, and a better mech. It’s
the standard fare… take missions, win them, get money,
buy better mecha parts, repeat. Sounds great doesn’t
it? Nice, yummy game play in the vein of BattleTech, Virtual
On, and so many others, right? Well, not quite.
Of all the flaws in this title, the one that stands out most
egregiously is the lack of analog support. No, I’m not
talking about the buttons either. I’m talking about
the analog sticks. That’s right, Sparky… You have
to control your Armored Core with the damned digital pad.
This, of course, amounts to you having exactly two speeds
of movement to choose from. Those would be full speed ahead
and standing stock-still. It’s also exceedingly difficult
to make proper use of the controls since they have you with
one thumb on the D-Pad, one over the buttons, and four fingers
on the Dual Shock 2’s shoulders attempting to manage
all four shoulder buttons to pitch up and down and strafe
left or right. It would have been so much nicer to use the
two analog sticks to move and look around like most first
person shooters do.
Speaking of which, this brings up another issue. You’re
confined to a third person perspective, and while this would
normally be just fine, the level of accuracy that is sometimes
required in the game demands a more realistic first-person
view. For gods’ sake! At least give us a choice between
the two!
The graphics really aren’t that great either. At the
time it was released, the PC was sporting games that chewed
this one up and spit it out in every way. The game play feels
derivative and bland especially when you factor in the horrid
control scheme. In short, there’s nothing here to keep
you coming back. There’s hardly anything here to get
you to come in the first place… My but that sounded
nasty, didn’t it?
-K'Tok
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