By: Alexander Holmes

Assault Gunner is a 2018 game affectionately described by media outlets as an Armored Core Clone.

Five years before the release of AC6, Assault Gunner is a mecha game for those with a hunger for the genre in a time when Mecha games seemed to have gone the way of the dodo. AG is a slow-paced, mission based, action game where you customize your personal mech with four distinct weapons, a torso, and a chassis. My completing missions players are able to unlock different mecha parts to research, and then upgrade those parts using points earned by completing missions. 

More than that, You can also upgrade 3 other giant robots that will roll out with you. Allowing you to choose specific weapons, color details, and even naming the different mech units. This squad-oriented upgrade path is really what allows Assault Gunner to stand out from other games in the genre. Empowering those of us with active imaginations to love out that fantasy of a team of Gundam pilots on a mission.

The four mechs in my hangar are affectionately named Brunhylda-XLR, Siegfried-Plasma, Schwartzvald-Laser, and Spiel-Vulcan. Brownie points go to whoever can catch all the mecha anime references there.

Unfortunately, this bare bones description of the squad-building systems of the game are where most of my praises end.

Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is fun in its own right. But if I were to compare the movement and shooting of AG to a similarly structured game, like Earth Defense Force, it falls below that bar.

I think this is due to three specific design choices: 1) Rotation Speed, 2) RPG Leveling, and 3)Shield Boosting. 

The single statistic that impacts gameplay more than any other is rotation speed. Because your aiming reticle is tied directly to your ability to rotate your mech, and thereby your camera. This makes aiming feel sluggish until you've chosen the mech parts that prioritize rotation speed and upgrade them to a decent level. 

The result is that for the majority of your time, aiming the gun in this third person shooter is terribly slow, and becomes a problem when a certain boss design has as much mobility as the player, on top of the automatic aiming of an enemy npc. Meaning without first farming and upgrading earlier missions accordingly, the controls will inevitably lag behind the challenge. 

It should be noted here that I played Assault Gunner on Playstation 5. With a twin stick set-up, the mechanical input of aiming is tied to a percentage of the rotational speed. and rather than the one-to-one movement of mouse controls, holding the stick as far as possible will only result in a set movement speed regardless.

I would almost prefer that the game put camera rotation on the r1 and L1 buttons, the way early shooters would before the C-Stick and Right analogue stick were invented. This way the aiming reticle could be free to move more quickly around the screen in a manner similar to StarFox or Metroid Prime. Yes, this would be less intuitive, but it would restore some necessary functionality against faster enemies.

The solution, to avoid spending a lot of time farming experience points, was to simply reserve and spam my homing missiles when fighting tough bosses. Not really an ideal way to engage with all of the interwoven systems the game offers.

Which brings us to point two.

The RPG elements are more of a hindrance than a motivator. As an action game, the expectation going in is that I am progressing primarily through execution and skill expression. Assault Gunner will, alternatively, really make you notice when you haven't upgraded your mecha parts. The difficulty between different missions tends to spike entirely without warning. Thus the Development Points which players earn through missions must be spent primarily on upgrades than on widening your arsenal.

As you progress through both the mainline and secret missions, the pure numerical difficulty in situations where perfect play is impossible will mandate that you move through the Easy difficulty first, unless you want to farm the highest unlocked gear to max before progressing. Which, for the record, I have no problems with. The gameplay on easy mode is functionally the same as other difficulties, and will provide the same experience without unnecessary frustration.

Which brings us to the final issue with the design: Shield Boosting.

In your basic controls and resources, the dash, dodge, jump, and over all share the same resource with your Shield. Like in many shooters, the shield is your primary defense that can recharge after a certain time, whereas the term Stamina is used for your permanent health that results in death if reduced to zero. 

The problem with this design is that it creates a feast or famine scenario. Either you have perfect control over your shield and movement in situations where you don't really need shields, or you are in constant danger of taking damage to your main health in situations where you are unable to dodge or retreat. Either retreating slowly and taking damage, or continuing the offensive hoping for the RNG to drop healing items as you go.

I'm not sure what the developers intended or imagined gameplay should be, but the readability of enemy attacks are fairly low, coupled with the clunky rotation speed system, meant relying more and more on the rpg elements than on developing my skill at the game.

With all of that said however, I did appreciate that the game was developed with a distinct priority to the gameplay. Leaving narrative for short, interstitial text-scrawls before and after each mission. My closest point of comparison would honestly be to imagine an old, hand-held version of dynasty warriors that wouldn't handle fully animated cutscenes.

Whereas I always appreciate more love given to the story, I respect the awareness to keep it lean in the original release year of 2012. Even with the minimalist storytelling, I am impressed with the impact of the story they managed to tell, and how that story was informed by the gameplay they created.

-

You are the commander of a unit of the DAT, the Destroid Arms Taskforce, policing arm of the World Federation, sent to oversee the terraforming project on Mars. 

This corporation has pioneered a fleet of swarm-probotics construction drones, called ANTS, to complete the task. Only one day, the ANTS begin attacking federation facilities. Repurposed by a terrorist called Ghost to become their own personal army. 

With this premise, Assault Gunner recontextualizes the masses of largely identical robots you'll be fighting as the mass-produced technology that would be necessary for making Mars habitable to human life. Telling a story of corporate overreach, and how technologies like drone warfare can be abused to wrest political power in the hands of a few individuals.

As the mainline run through the game reaches the end, you learn that Ghost wasn't in command of the ANTS so much as she was obeying the conclusion reached by the machine algorithm controlling the swarm. That human involvement on the part of the world government allied forces and the corporation which developed the ANTS was disrupting the progress of actually making the planet habitable. Perhaps informed by the fact that the Deimos moon base was outfitted with a giant particle cannon, a weapon of mass destruction, pointed at the planet before anyone was actually living there.

Though the presentation wasn't there, it was clear to me that a good deal of thought and care went into the story for what was originally a PSP title designed more for short, mindless gaming sessions on the daily commute. 

So tell me kiddo, now that you've seen the Destroid Arms, you ready to get in the robot?