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While fans of this strategy RPG “classic” are likely to be excited to see it again, the uninitiated may find it slow
While I never played the original games back in the day, I did note the fair level of enthusiasm and excitement generate by the announcement that the original FRONT MISSION and its sequel would be coming to Switch. After playing this self-named remake I have a variety of thoughts. First, I think it was nice of the developers to try to accommodate classic and modern gamers equally, first allowing you to sort of choose which look and feel you’d prefer, the classic or one that’s a bit more modern, but I do question just how different they may be in the end and whether the distraction of accommodating both paths lead to shortcomings elsewhere in the game. For the most part this all plays out like a pretty standard strategy RPG, with a focus on positioning trying to take the higher ground, but I did find its limited implementation of cover to be a bit disappointing. The combat, generally playing out decidedly slowly, may actually be the game’s biggest weakness, though apparently completely consistent with the original. Having been spoiled even by the oldest MechWarrior games, when I’m fighting another mech I sort of expect to be able to choose where I focus my attacks, working to either cripple a key weapon or opt to just try to take out your enemy as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, no matter how advanced your rig may be you don’t have the control to even try to hit a specific body part, you’re simply spraying and praying, first hoping your shots will connect at all, but then also hoping they’re being efficient. When you’re able to get an enemy mech to low health on their torso but then spend the next few rounds randomly hitting its arms or legs, failing to go for the kill, it can be super-aggravating, especially since in general everything plays out quite slowly. If you can deal with the pacing this does deliver a decent experience, and certainly has a reasonably-good story to tell (though perhaps a bit boilerplate on a general level), just be sure to have your expectations in check before taking the plunge.
Justin Nation, Score:Good [7.1]