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> Front Mission 4: Written by: Chris
"CBN" Nimmo
 Publisher: Square Enix Price: 39.99 Genre: Strategy T for Teen
Believe it or not, this GameWire editor had never touched
a Front Mission game until now. I’m very surprised I could have missed such a cool series, but at the same time, I’m
happy that I steered away from FM. The reactions I have with this game are very, very mixed…
Whenever one
sees mechs they’re filled with an energy that could only be described in several high-pitched inhuman sounds and crazy
bodily twitches. So how could a game that combines that very aspect and the ever-so-fun RPG’s we all know and love go
wrong? I still don’t know how it could possibly do so either, but it does. Oh, how it does…
During
a battle, all the positive places of the game shine. I mean, nothing ever really amazes you, but the combat is addictive,
and the mechs look super cool. Perhaps some better mission objectives could have helped, but it’s still quite grand.
Then, when you exit the battle the game becomes so terrible. The RPG drama unfolds between talking
heads placed on a terribly rendered backdrop. No “field screen” or character models. That makes its RPG elements
very weak… When you don’t walk from place-to-place, but highlight options from a menu, it’s a really big
turn-off.
Then when you get out to a battle and see how intense it can be, you start to disregard those lackluster
RPG roots. The strategic combat is so interesting, and the mechs part… I mean, how cool is it when you jump inside a
giant robot and launch grenades at a foe?
Well, even that can’t hold up. That combat soon becomes so linear and ridiculous that you tire
of it. The speed of when it starts to bore you is extremely quick, all the more scary! So what do I get? A messy, cheap RPG
game with some linear mech battles is all they can muster? This just doesn’t cut it.
To its defense, the story is pretty interesting. It’s a war-drama sort of tale, with two intertwining
plots. With a twisty, dramatic, and cool story like that I can’t help but think what might have been.
Either way, it’s nothing more than a yo-yo game that leads to very high amounts of disappointment.
I can’t pity the developers for the life of me. I think they were quite simply lazy on this one. I mean they have such
a good idea, but ruin it with things that just need some tweaking. For my mech RPG fix, I’ll just stick with Xenogears…
During the game’s cinemas you might think it was a Xbox game. The resolution is a killer and the effects are amazing.
For example, the particle effects, explosions (and there are many) look so real. The opening cinema alone had me on the edge
of my seat, but then when it got to the gameplay I was pretty letdown. The battle graphics weren’t too bad, but they
could have been better. The mechs are well designed, but the actual graphics are miniscule at best. Then you get to the out-of-battle
screens (which I will not acknowledge as a “field screen“); they’re absolutely terrible! The SNES could
have done better!
Another dreary department for “good old” FM4, eh? Yes, indeed. With the main sounds in the so-called “field
screen” (still WILL NOT acknowledge it as an official field screen) is nothing more than ambience, and at times it’s
silent. Hard to believe a mech harbor could be dead-of-the-night-quiet during wartime… As for when there actually is music, it’s nothing all that great. The same tired
suspense music you’ve been hearing in action movies since Star Wars.
I guess this will be the best of these departments, although that’s not saying much. The only reason I say that is
because there’s nothing technically wrong with it. I know that seems rough, but you’ll just have to deal with
it.
Well, I found myself wondering why I was playing through a first time… so why would I want to play through it again?
Other than the story mode there’s not much else to do. If you even finish this one, you won’t be coming back for
seconds. I know I didn’t…
What do you get when you combine bad graphics, lackluster sound effects, somewhat unresponsive controls, no
replay value, dumb A.I, and a ton of glitches? You get a total waste of money called Red Dead Revolver.
Graphics: 4.0 | Sound: 4.5 | Control: 5.8 | Replay: 4.0 | Overall Game Score:
4.8/10
               
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