ech fans know the popular Armored Core franchise well—it's been around for six years. Silent Line, the latest Armored Core release, takes its name from a yet-unexplored area of the highly industrialized future world. With each mission assignment, players learn more about their bosses, the shadowy, ruling corporations. AC units—cool, giant robots, piloted by players—battle to control crucial supply lines.
Each player is granted a basic mech unit with required body parts, including a generator (for energy), a radiator (for cooling) and optional areas (for hanging weapons from every square inch of the unit's giant body). Guns and missiles are plentiful and specialized—everything from defensive decoys to laser guns to slow-reload but wildly damaging howitzers.
In the garage, while assembling their AC units, players must keep track of an endless list of tech minutia. Can the AC support the additional weight of an extra missile pack? Does the mission require close-range weapons, and how long a load time does this gun take between rounds? If the back unit (part #CWI-BO-20) sells for a certain amount, will there be enough credits left to upgrade the unit's legs to #MLF-RE/005 to gain speed?
Missions are varied once players get beyond the initial "open the door, shoot some robots" levels. ACs can jump, hover and fly for brief periods. Some missions require the AC unit to be outfitted for speed and quick energy bursts, while others have players scanning the skies for incoming destroyers. Beyond missions, players can also challenge other units (and receive in-game e-mail with rewards when successful) or fight in "versus" mode, which splits the screen for multiple machines.
Death awaits if data cannot be tamed
Silent Line has a steep—some would say mind-numbing—learning curve, as tough as any game of this type. Even mech die-hards will likely be annoyed occasionally at the difficult controls, holdovers from earlier versions of Armored Core (the awkward R2 and L2 buttons, for example, are a crucial part of steering). Turning around completely, too, takes an absurdly long time.
Death waits around every corner, and the mech's field of view is dominated by many, many pieces of all-important data. There's a gauge for how much energy the AC has, for radar errors and for locking on to the enemy. Everything has an on-screen gauge. All this can be a little much, especially for the casual gamer who just want to play with a big robot. But people don't play mechs for simplicity, do they?
No, they do not. And it's because of these details that Silent Line soars. Add on the right booster pack, and the AC's gun suddenly fills the room with blasts of light, sending enemies ricocheting off the nearest concrete wall. The unit's right hand, when armed with a sword, slices through the opposition in a blaze of burning motherboards. Players who love to puzzle over just the right composition for the mech unit—how close-range will this mission be?—will be pleased as much by Silent Line's stats and figures as its fighting.
The details of the game allow players to customize, customize, customize, down to paint colors and special logos for each machine. Complex missions offer the chance to buy a consort (weighing its offensive, defensive and maneuverability ratings before choosing, of course). For players who get giddy at the thought of calculating and calibrating, Silent Line is a solid match for their mech dreams.
One of my favorite parts of this game is the soundtrack. Where so many games are blindly jumping on the heavy metal/hip-hop bandwagon, Silent Line sticks to something more mood-appropriate, atmospheric and futuristic. It may be a little New Age-y, but (for once) I like it.
— Jennifer
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